Bowling dilemma for Windies

CAPE TOWN: Lance Klusener could make an international comeback at Newlands today when the one-day cricket series between South Africa and West Indies begins.

Klusener has not featured for almost a year but was named in a 14-man squad with Andrew Hall injured. South Africa captain Graeme Smith said his relationship with Klusener had improved after last year’s public spat. “To say everything is rosy though is wrong, but we are talking and I really do think things are getting better.” Klusener hit a crashing half-century at Newlands a year ago in the last match between these two sides. But it was not enough to avert an upset three-run win for West Indies.

South Africa have won 18 of their 27 one-day meetings with the Caribbean side but were on the wrong end of a 6-1 verdict during the last series at home in 1998/99. Cape Town is a happy hunting ground for the home side, who have won 15 of the 18 one-day matches there. However conditions could play a major part — 15 out of 20 previous day/night matches at the venue have been won by the team batting first. The tourists warmed up for the series with a comfortable win against South Africa “A” in Paarl on Friday. They will probably use only three specialist seam bowlers as they have generally been more effective when using a variety of slow bowlers instead. Ryan Hurley, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ricardo Powell can all turn their hand to spin. With the out-of-form Wavell Hinds absent from the batting, Shiv Chanderpaul may be asked to open the innings with Gayle.

In terms of selecting the three seamers, chairman of selectors Sir Viv Richards and captain Brian Lara must weigh up the experience of Merv Dillon, Corey Collymore and Vasbert Drakes against the youthful zeal of Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul. South Africa, assuming they do use Klusener, will probably resist handing a debut to the other all-rounder, Albie Morkel. Fast bowlers Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel, so successful in the Test series, will again hope for plenty of wickets. And there should be plenty of runs from the top of the order where Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis all feature heavily.