Australia vs South Africa : The battle of the two best pace attacks in the world !

When Jacque Kallis retired from test cricket last month, many of his teammates requested him to play one more test series. Now it’s not often that teammates ask an outgoing player who is calling it a day for such a favour. Even then, this might not be a huge surprise for many given that the Proteas play the next series against the Aussies. This shows the significance of an Australian series and what it means to the South African public as well as the cricketers. The fact that they share a similar rivalry in a host of other sports, rubs on the game of cricket as well. The rivalry between these two nations might not be as hostile as an India-Pak encounter nor as historic as the Ashes but this is a battle of who plays the superior brand of cricket, who possesses the better skills and who displays more fighting spirit when the chips are down rather than just beating each other by employing sledging or any other similar tactic.
The time has come again for this titanic series and this time it’s being held in the rainbow nation. Last time these two sides met in a test series was down under, where Australia fought well but the Proteas came out of the series with a 1-0 result in their favour. A point to note here is that during that period Australians were undergoing a transition period where as now they seem to have settled down as a team, especially in fast and bouncy pitches. They have developed a settled pace attack spear headed by Mitchell Johnson, who has taken a step further to become one of the most devastating bowlers around and supported ably by Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris. To add to that, they have young quickies like Pattinson, Cummins and Starc waiting in the wings. This is a situation that any side in the world would like to have with some many back-up options, that too of pretty high quality. Talking about their opposition, if you have to pick one pace attack in the world as the best, it would have to be South Africa’s with the quick and difficult to handle Morne Morkel, the deceptive and accurate Vernon Philander and the most complete fast bowler of the era, Dale Steyn. This attack could well be the best pace attack since Australia had the combo of Mcgrath-Gillespie-Lee in the mid-2000s. Now, South Africa might not have a huge bench strength in the pace department like Australia but they sure have a 3-man pace attack which is potent and have gobbled up many a opposition in the past few years, including Australia when they visited the rainbow nation last time around. However, Mitchell Johnson with the kind of form he is in would beg to differ with the argument that Steyn is the best in the world. Moving on, both sides lack in the spin department but that might be irrelevant given the conditions whereas South African batting is much more experienced that their Aussie counterparts. So, it’s a matter of Australian top-order being able to handle the South African pace battery. All said, its action time now and it can be said that it would be a collision of two fast moving trains, given the heavy reliance of both the sides on sheer pace.