da spicy bet： One last mismatch presents itself tomorrow, when the high-flying South Africanstake on the undaunting Scots
The Preview Andrew Miller in St Kitts19-Mar-2007
Ryan Watson will renew old ties with his counterpart Graeme Smith © Ian Jacobs / Cricinfo Ltd
The phony war in St Kitts is ever so nearly at an end. One lastmismatch presents itself tomorrow, when the high-flying South Africanstake on the undaunting Scots, and then it will be time to focus on thereal business end of this group – next Saturday’s seismic clashbetween South Africa and Australia.For Graeme Smith, however, tomorrow’s fixture contains an unexpectedblast from the past. The leader of the world’s No.1-ranked side isabout to go head-to-head with his former club captain. Ryan Watson,Scotland’s stand-in skipper, was a contemporary of Smith’s during hisschool-days at King Edward’s in Johannesburg, and Smith admitted itwould be a surreal feeling when the pair walk out together for thetoss.”When we were at school together Ryan was a few years ahead of me,”said Smith. “It will be weird to walk out on the pitch and spin a coinwith a South African. We’ve been teasing him quite a bit since MontegoBay, because there are quite a few guys who do know him. He’s a reallygood man, so I guess part of you wants him to do well – but then thereis a big part that doesn’t.””Believe it or not, [Smith] used to fetch drinks for me and carry mybags,” said Watson. “I don’t know if he’ll do that tomorrow, but I’ll ask him. At school, hewas limited in terms of his strokeplay, he’s progressed a long waywith that. Mentally he was far better than anyone I saw as a youngkid.”He used to enjoy making big hundreds as a schoolboy, which is unusualwhen other guys are making 50 or 60. He got hundreds as a 15-year-oldagainst Premier League attacks, so everyone knew he was going to be aspecial player and he’s proved that.”Watson was under no illusions about the task his side facestomorrow – a task made all the more onerous by the shock victories ofthe past week. “They’re a quality side and they’re not going to becomplacent against the minor sides,” he said. “We were poor at thedeath against Australia, by our own standards, and that’s somethingwe’ve worked on. That’s a crucial part of the game and they’ve gotsome really clean strikers, so we’ll have to make sure we get it rightat the end.””The upsets earlier in the week in the other groups have kept everyoneon their toes,” added Smith. “It just shows that if you’re not up forit and don’t perform to your levels you can put yourself underpressure. We certainly will be on our toes – and the way we performedagainst Holland is the way we want to perform tomorrow.”Inevitably though, Smith had more than half an eye on next week’sbattle. “On everyone’s minds is the Australia game,” he admitted.”That is the big one everyone is looking forward to. I think bothteams have their fair share of strong hitters, but I think our lengthand power in our batting line-up is one of our strengths. We have agood variety in our bowling attack, which has been brilliant over thelast few years.”South Africa are expected to welcome Makhaya Ntini back into the foldfor tomorrow’s game, after he missed the opening fixture to attend thebirth of his first daughter. “He is huge variation for us,” saidSmith, “and Andrew Hall over the last two years has been the best’death’ bowler in world cricket. We have options; we’re very strong inthe bowling department. I’m pretty comfortable with our attack.”Scotland, for their part, are expected to introduce the SouthAfrican-born seamer Dewald Nel to replace their captain, Craig Wright,who has flown home to attend the funeral of his aunt. There may alsobe a recall for the middle-order batsman, Neil McCallum, who hasbecome something of a cult figure among the vocal Scottish fans inBasseterre.South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 AB deVilliers, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Herschelle Gibbs, 5 Mark Boucher (wk), 6Ashwell Prince, 7 Justin Kemp, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Andrew Hall, 10Makhaya Ntini, 11 Andre NelScotland (probable) 1 Fraser Watts, 2 Majid Haq, 3 Ryan Watson(capt), 4 Neil McCallum, 5 Gavin Hamilton, 6 Dougie Brown, 7 ColinSmith (wk), 8 Glenn Rogers, 9 Dewald Nel, 10 Paul Hoffman, 11 JohnBlain