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Yuvraj Singh compared his return to cricket after being picked for the two Twenty20 Internationals against New Zealand and the World Twenty20 “like being selected for India for the first time.”The selection is expected to mark Yuvraj’s return to the Indian team for the first time in just under 12 months during which he was diagnosed with a rare germ-cell cancer called mediastinal seminoma. After undergoing chemotherapy in the USA for close to two months, Yuvraj has been training in the NCA for the last six weeks with the aim of getting back into the Indian team.On being told that he had cancer Yuvraj said he had told himself, “that one day I would come back and play for India again. I was determined to do that. However much I had to go through with the cancer, I kept the faith because I wanted to step on the field again one day. Today I’ve got the news that I am going to be stepping on the field again. I am ecstatic. I can’t wait to step on the field and wave the Indian flag!”He said that while the fitness and recovery reports from the NCA had been encouraging enough for him to expect being selected again, “Everyone was talking about whether I should be picked or not, so I wasn’t sure. I heard the [selection] news on the TV. It is as if I was being picked for India again – that same feeling that I can’t explain.”While he said he had not been in touch with the selectors while training at the NCA for the last six weeks, he said the fitness reports would have indicated to the selectors that he had made enough progress. The BCCI had been, “very supportive,” he said, of his recovery programme and that the selectors had showed, “immense confidence in me. I want to thank a lot of people, friends, colleagues, doctors, physios and trainers for this day.”His return to training over the last two months was preceded by a light two-week training programme, “to get into that training mode.” It was the first three weeks of actual training at the NCA, Yuvraj said, which “were the toughest because the body was not used to the pain you get from training.” But he said that he began to get more used to the regimen, “and after six weeks of training, I think I am now in good shape.” He said, “I have another month or so to go for the World T20 so this month is going to be very crucial for me getting ready.” It was expected that Yuvraj would play a few games in the Buchi Babu invitational tournament before the two T20 games against New Zealand. However, it is now learnt that an attempt is being made to ensure that Yuvraj gets some match practice with the white ball which may take place at NCA.Yuvraj’s target for his return to international cricket were the two T20s versus New Zealand to be played in Visakhapatnam on September 8 and Chennai on September 11. About his plans on making a comeback to the ODI and the Test teams, he said, “ODIs and Tests are tougher on the body, but T20 is the place to start. I hope to get stronger for longer formats with time.”

There is a reason why South Africa did not arrive in Johannesburg with disappointment painted on their faces after their defeats in the Zimbabwean tri-series. Cynics will say it is because they are not used to performing well in multi-team tournaments and getting as far as the final was good enough. However, the real explanation is something far more straightforward because, according to the the coach Gary Kirsten, South Africa’s main priority was not to win.It sounded like a half-baked excuse for losing by 29 runs, three wickets and nine wickets to Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in a tournament that most expected South Africa to dominate. However, it was clear as Kirsten and the squad arrived back home that they would not linger long on the results over the last few days.”It wasn’t a failure, it was a very important tour,” he said. “The purpose was to try out different combinations under match intensity. The results were disappointing but that wasn’t our main goal. If our goal was to win a tournament in Zimbabwe we may have picked out strongest team.”Experimentation was the buzzword of the week for South Africa. They tried two different opening batting combinations, three new-ball bowling pairs and four middle-order match-ups, meaning that even when the same players featured in more than one match, the line-up was never a carbon copy of itself. “It helped us in terms of understanding what combinations we want use. The purpose was to find out,” Kirsten said.He admitted that the series may also have “confused” them in certain respects, rather than clarify who the best players for the job are. It is still a tight tussle between Richard Levi and Faf du Plessis to decide who will open with Hashim Amla, after both showed promise in that department. The middle-order also remains unpredictable. Colin Ingram had one start and one innings of substance at No.3, Justin Ontong put in a good showing at No.4 once, Farhaan Behardien struggled against spin in the conditions and Albie Morkel was given some opportunity, which he took.Kirsten was cryptic about who had made their case for selection to the final World Twenty20 squad. “Some guys enhanced their opportunity to be selected for that squad and we were able to see what types of players do well in conditions that will be similar to Sri Lanka,” he said. On the evidence available and with the return of AB de Villiers, who was rested for this tournament, it would seem Ingram and Behardien are most likely to miss out.On the bowling front, Wayne Parnell raised eyebrows when he conceded 61 runs in four overs and 33 runs in three in the first two matches. He recovered well though, as the most economical bowler of the last two matches with returns of 2 for 18 and 3 for 16 respectively and was the only bowler to trouble Zimbabwe’s batsmen in the final. “He got better and better,” Kirsten said.Concern still surrounds Lonwabo Tsotsosbe, who appeared disinterested and lethargic. In the four matches he played, he took just one wicket and was hit for 133 runs. “He has been a little bit slow this tour but I’d rather it happen now than leading into the major part of the season,” Kirsten said. “He knows he’s got a bit of work to do. He is a proud cricketer and takes his performances very seriously.”Marchant de Lange and Chris Morris were the other two seamers on tour. With both taking their first steps in the international game, Morris more so than De Lange, Kirsten said it was important that they were exposed to the rigours of top level cricket”As much as this was a tour in preparation for that T20 event in September, the one thing we realised is that when you are representing your country, it doesn’t matter who you are against, there’s pressure,” he said. “It’s not like an A team where you are fighting for your place. Now you’re in the team and you need to perform. There’s a pressure that exists nowhere else.”Although pressure was something South Africa felt in most of their matches, Kirsten maintained casualness in his assessment of the tour. He emphasised that “it will be quickly forgotten from a performance perspective because that’s what it was, to experiment with what we can do in T20 cricket,” and confirmed that South Africa will field a full strength side in the three T20s against England in August. That XI will closely resemble their World T20 line-up.Kirsten also saved some special words of praise for Zimbabwe though, to whom the tournament was anything but a practice outing. “Those guys are firing. They’ve got some explosive match winning players and good variety in their bowling attack,” Kirsten said. “Our reason for this tour was slightly different to theirs. They played a fearless type of cricket because of the settled nature of their team. I suppose we went with an unsettled team because we wanted to test combinations.”

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has said losing the toss worked to his team’s advantage during its win over Sri Lanka in the first ODI in Pallekele. Mahela Jayawardene chose to bat but Pakistan’s bowlers put in a fine performance to restrict the hosts to 135 for 8 in a rain-affected game.”It was a difficult decision for any captain about what to do,” Misbah said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “It was a good toss to lose. There was a lot of moisture in the wicket and covers were on.”Pakistan’s seamers led the way, with Umar Gul nipping out the first three wickets – he ultimately won the Man-of-the-Match award – and Mohammad Sami providing excellent support in an economical spell during which he picked up three for 19 in six overs. Mohammad Hafeez was also miserly with his off-spin, taking 2 for 20 in 10 overs. “We have got world-class spinners and whenever the fast bowlers get the conditions [they need], they come good.”Pakistan reached their target with almost eight overs to spare, but lost two wickets early. Hafeez and Misbah steadied the innings with a 51-run stand before Umar Akmal made an unbeaten 36, steering his team home. “The conditions were really difficult for batting,” Misbah said, “but the way Hafeez and Umar batted, it was really handy.”We have to improve in these conditions – it’s a windy and open ground. It’s difficult to judge, so we have to work hard.”Jayawardene said a score of around 190 to 200 would have proved competitive. “It was important we put up a decent score,” he said. “But credit to Pakistan, they came strongly at us. We faced two new balls in Australia as well, but they have got a quality attack and we need to make sure we are careful.”The second ODI, on Saturday, will also take place in Pallekele.

Match facts

Monday, April 30, Chennai
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Gautam Gambhir: Leading the way•AFP

Big Picture

Gautam Gambhir often says that if Kolkata Knight Riders play to their potential, they will be very hard to beat. It sounds like a cliché, but on yesterday’s evidence, you realise where Gambhir is coming from. Restricting a batting line-up with a top four of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers 47 runs short of the target requires some effort. As he has done before this season, Gambhir backed his words with his bat, cracking 93 off 51 deliveries on an Eden Gardens pitch which has not exactly been easy to score on.Chennai Super Kings will be smarting after the unexpected reversal against Kings XI Punjab. Before they lost yesterday by seven runs in Chennai, Super Kings had reeled off three consecutive wins at home. Their slow bowlers love choking the opposition batsmen on a helpful Chennai surface, but that is what Knight Riders also do at Eden Gardens. Conditions will be more or less familiar for both sides.

Form guide

(completed games, most recent first)
Chennai Super Kings: LWWLW
Kolkata Knight Riders: WWWLW

Players to watch

MS Dhoni has not had done much with the bat this season, with 132 runs from eight innings at a strike-rate of 116.81. He has played a couple of useful cameos, but just nine boundaries so far don’t do him any justice.Gautam Gambhir has been in excellent touch and is easily Knight Riders’ best batsman so far, with 302 runs at 149.50. The Chennai pitch and attack will be difficult to score off; will Gambhir show his side the way again?

Stats and trivia

• Super Kings have a 5-2 win-loss record against Knight Riders.
• Runs have been scored faster in Chennai in the IPL, at 8.12 runs per over, than they have been in Kolkata, at 7.54.
  

  Quotes

  “While we had a reasonable team early on, we were struggling to get things going. But moving on five years, the balance of the side we have got is outstanding. We have strengthened both our bowling and batting and you look at the Indian players, they are really standing out. It’s definitely a better balanced team..”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details L Balaji took 4 for 18 to give leave Royal Challengers reeling•Associated Press

L Balaji bowled Kolkata Knight Riders to their first victory in IPL 2012 against a strong Royal Challengers Bangalore batting line-up. He formed part of a destructive, three-pronged Knight Riders’ pace attack that saw Brett Lee create pressure and Jacques Kallis get the early breakthroughs.Their consistent line outside the off stump and slightly shorter length had the Royal Challengers’ batsmen tied down. The required run-rate eventually soared out of control, leaving the home side playing catch-up throughout.One of Kallis’ two early strikes removed the biggest threat in the Royal Challengers line-up, Chris Gayle, before he could do any damage. After having Cheteshwar Pujara caught at slip with a ball that angled into him and bounced a little more than usual, Kallis simply presented Gayle with a short ball. With only a single added to the total after Pujara was dismissed, Gayle’s shot was a response to pressure and he top-edged a pull to midwicket.Responsibility then fell on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers’ shoulders and neither was able to get the job done as Balaji brought a second wave of attack. Kohli was beaten twice by Balaji before getting a leading edge to point. De Villiers followed in the next over, bowled by a beautiful delivery which angled in from a good length and straightened to hit the off stump.Balaji continued to trouble the batsmen with his line. He had further reward when Mayank Agarwal spooned a catch to extra cover and then bowled Daniel Vettori with a slower ball to complete his quadruple haul. He should have had a fifth when Saurabh Tiwary swung violently and presented Shakib Al Hasan with a simple catch at deep square-leg that was fluffed.By the time Balaji had finished his quota, Royal Challengers were 61 for 6 after 12 overs. Tiwary was the only recognised batsmen at the crease and the required run rate was over 13. It ballooned to over 30 as the innings neared an end, ensuring the Knight Riders were able to comfortably defend a total that, at the halfway mark, appeared a few short.Despite 165 being the highest total Knight Riders have posted this season, they would have wanted more after establishing a platform from which a score in excess of 200 seemed possible. Captain Gautam Gambhir opened the batting and combined with Kallis and Manvinder Bisla in two aggressive partnerships to take his team to 125 for 1 in the 14th over.Bisla was preferred over big-hitters like Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate despite Knight Riders’ start and he repaid the faith shown in him. He hit the ball with immense power, complementing Gambhir, who showed the deftest of touches with his dab to third man off Muttiah Muralitharan.The Knight Riders’ captain brought up the fastest half-century of the tournament so far, off 28 balls, with a lofted shot over cover but could not press on as much as he should have. Bisla was stumped three balls later, in the first boundary-free over of the innings and the Knight Riders slid steadily from there.Royal Challengers effected a collapse which saw Knight Riders lose seven wickets for 26 runs. R Vinay Kumar was the chief strangler and used wily changes of pace to dry up the runs. His economical effort was headlined with persistent use of the short ball and he was well backed up by Muralitharan and committed fielding.The Royal Challengers’ bowlers conceded only 50 runs in the last eight overs but their batsmen did not do justice to their efforts in the field.

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has defended his steady batting approach, saying he plays according to his role in the batting line-up. “You have to understand that every player has a role in the team and he should play according to his role,” he said upon his arrival in Lahore from Dhaka after winning the Asia Cup. “You should not become a liability for the team by leaving your role. My role is very simple and I play that role accordingly.”Most of the critics are those who have not played cricket in their lives and one should not listen to them. My focus is on cricket and I will try to play my best cricket for Pakistan. When I feel I am not enjoying cricket, there’s no point playing it.”Pakistan have had a good run over the last year and a half, the limited-overs series loss against England being the only blip in that period. In Test cricket, they won series against New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and England*. Their only Test defeat came against West Indies in a drawn series.Pakistan have already made an impact this year, whitewashing England, the No.1-ranked team in Tests, 3-0 in the Test series before losing the Twenty20 and ODI series to them in the UAE. They then won the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, beating Bangladesh by two runs in the final.Misbah said Pakistan were no longer unpredictable as they had achieved consistency in winning. “To say Pakistan is an unpredictable team, people should think and look at the stats,” he said. “We have the best ratio of victories [to defeats] in the world in recent years and an unpredictable team does not have such a ratio.”Misbah also praised Bangladesh for the fight they showed in the Asia Cup; the hosts’ two-run defeat deprived them of their first major multi-team tournament title since becoming part of cricket’s elite. “Bangladesh played quite differently in the tournament,” he said. “They defeated the world champions (India) and the runners-up (Sri Lanka). It was a very big achievement and the way they played against us in both matches, they exploited their home conditions and looked like an emerging team.”The Asia Cup win sparked off celebrations on the streets in several cities in Pakistan but Misbah also called on his country’s fans to support the team in trying times, not just when they were winning. “Whenever Pakistan team wins people are always very happy and support the team. The real test comes when the team is in difficult times.”It’s a game, there’s victory and defeat. It doesn’t mean that you start saying bad things about the team after one series. Obviously, when the team plays it will win and it will lose too. You should back it always and if we do it, the performance will improve.”Shahid Afridi said he was impressed with the spirit of Bangladesh team. “It seemed as if we were playing against Australia in the final. Bangladesh have matured a lot as a team and it felt good to win such a hard final,” he said. “I think by holding the BPL they did well and their players fought hard. I think we also need to make our domestic cricket as competitive as possible. We can look at the examples of the IPL and BPL while counting the benefits of such events.”*March 24, 2012, 21:50 GMT: The article originally mentioned Ireland in place of England, as pointed out by reader Siddhanth Dhodhi. This has now been corrected

South Zone

Hyderabad, propped up by an incisive spell from Pragyan Ojha, eased to a six wicket win against Andhra at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. After Andhra chose to bat, only three of their batsmen could manage to get into double figures. Ojha picked up 5 for 19 in 7.3 overs and the medium-pacers Anwar Ahmed, Ashish Reddy and Pagadala Naidu shared the other wickets among them, as Andhra were shot out for 107 in the 27th over. Hyderabad required only 22.4 overs to knock off the target, with captain Ravi Teja top scoring with 42. This was Hyderabad’s second win in as many games.Goa recovered from their capitulation to Karnataka, to beat the more fancied Tamil Nadu by seven wickets at the Jain International Residential School Ground in Bangalore. Goa chose to bowl and struck with regularity to restrict Tamil Nadu to 200. Shadab Jakati and Robin D’Souza were the most effective for Goa, claiming three wickets apiece, while Dinesh Karthik and K Vasudevadas were the joint-top scorers’ for Tamil Nadu with 43. Goa then made light work of the chase, driven by a boundary-studded century from opener Swapnil Asnodkar. Asnodkar hit an unbeaten 102 off 104 balls, with 16 boundaries, and was well supported by wicketkeeper Rahul Keni – he finished unbeaten on 70. The pair put on an unbroken stand of 153 at better than a run-a-ball, carrying Goa from a shaky 48 for 3 to victory in 37 overs.Karnataka secured their spot at the top of the South Zone points table after the second round of matches, by beating Kerala by 38 runs at the Rajinder Singh Institute Ground in Bangalore. Karnataka elected to bat, and contributions from most of their top order meant they got up to 315 before being bowled out in the final over of the innings. No one could push on to a century though, despite their top eight getting into double digits, and Ganesh Satish and Amit Verma finished as the two top scorers with 90 and 85 respectively. Kerala launched a spirited chase, built around a quick century from No. 3 Rohan Prem. Prem made 114 off 117 with a dozen fours and two sixes, before he became one of Karnataka’s three run-out victims. None of the other batsmen could build on starts – three were out for 34 – as Kerala fell short with time to spare: they were bowled out for 277 with 25 balls remaining in the innings.

Central Zone

Madhya Pradesh put in an impressive all-round showing to thump Uttar Pradesh by nine wickets at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur. MP inserted UP and bowled them out 105 in the 40th over, with TP Sudhindra and Ankit Sharma claiming three wickets each – both bowlers were miserly as well, conceding only 35 runs 18.4 overs between them. MP’s openers, Naman Ojha and Jalaj Saxena, all but completed the job with a partnership of 71 at almost eight an over. Eventually MP breezed home in the 15th over.Railways sneaked a four-run win against Vidarbha, at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur, restricting the hosts to 218 for 7 in defence of 222. Railways were asked to bat, and several of their batsmen got off to starts but could not build substantial innings. Rajesh Bishnoi was the only one to get to a fifty. Vidarbha were then sitting pretty in the chase at 146 for 1, but a mini-collapse followed. They lost six wickets for 57 runs to allow Railways back into the game and eventually fell short despite having three wickets in hand, with opener Amol Ubarhande’s 84 going in vain. Shailender Gehlot and Sanjay Bangar were the most effective of the Railways bowlers, taking three apiece in very economic spells.

Brett Lee has been ruled out of the Commonwealth Bank Series after suffering a broken foot during Australia’s Twenty20 loss at the MCG on Friday. Lee is expected to be out of action for four to six weeks, meaning there could also be doubt over his availability for the limited-overs portion of the tour of the West Indies, which starts in mid-March.”Brett Lee sustained a fracture of his right foot when he was struck by a ball in the last over of his spell during the KFC T20 against India at the MCG on Friday night,” Cricket Australia team doctor Trefor James said. “He was able to complete the over however the foot became more painful and swollen the following day. An x-ray has confirmed a fracture of the small toe and we now expect Brett will return to cricket in four to six weeks.”Australia will not name a replacement player for the initial matches of the tri-series until after the opening match against India in Melbourne on Sunday. That means Australia’s likely attack for the opening game will be Ryan Harris, Mitchell Starc, Clint McKay, Xavier Doherty and the allrounder Daniel Christian, with Mitchell Marsh unavailable for the first two games so he can play in a Sheffield Shield match.Candidates to replace Lee will include Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus, although the selectors might wish to give them some extra rest time after their workload during the recent Test series. Other options could include Tasmania’s James Faulkner, who made his T20 international debut on Wednesday, Western Australia’s Nathan Coulter-Nile and Queensland’s Alister McDermott, who is on top of the Ryobi Cup wicket tally this season.Lee, 35, has taken 357 wickets for Australia in one-day internationals and last played in the format on the tour of Sri Lanka in August. He was keen to remain part of the 50-over squad as he aimed for 400 ODI wickets, and the national selector John Inverarity said last week when he announced the squad that the younger members of the attack would benefit from working alongside Lee.

Kris Srikkanth, India’s chief selector, has blamed the inability of the batsmen to make big scores for the team’s defeats in the first two Tests of the Australia tour.”Our batting didn’t click as a unit,” Srikkanth told . “It is a bit surprising as we were confident of a good show in Australia. But we must admit that Australia have played better cricket than us.”In South Africa, when we drew the Test series [in 2010-11], at least one of our batsmen went on to score a big hundred. Here our batsmen have got to half-centuries but didn’t get a big score. Test cricket provides you with few opportunities but one needs to grab them when they come your way.”The defeats in Australia mean India have lost six successive away Tests, starting with their 4-0 drubbing in England – an unexpected and swift fall from grace for a side that began the England tour six months ago as the No. 1 Test team. Unlike in England, where they suffered several injury setbacks, India have had the first-choice side at their disposal in Australia. Srikkanth, like the captain MS Dhoni, refused to offer excuses.”Look, when you lose you can cite any reason,” Srikkanth said. “There is no point trying to find excuses and we need to move on. But Dhoni has been honest enough in not giving any excuses. In fact he has rightly admitted that our batting has not clicked, it has clicked only in patches.”This is the best team we have at the moment. Also there are no injuries. I believe each and every member has accepted that Australia is playing better cricket.”India were completely outplayed in the second Test in Sydney, going down by an innings and 68 runs after winning the toss. But the previous match, in Melbourne, was much closer with India holding the upper hand before a middle- and lower-order collapse in the first innings gave Australia an opening. India eventually fell short by 122 runs while chasing 292 in the fourth innings. Srikkanth felt India should have won that match.”We were 211 for 2 [in the first innings] and we lost it from there,” Srikkanth said. “We had Sehwag, Dravid and Tendulkar playing well but then no one got a big score. When you lose the first Test, automatically, there is a lot of pressure on you. Now one should try and do well in the Perth Test. We have won in Perth last time and we should try and do well there.”

Match facts

January 17, Bloemfontein
Start time 1430 (1230 GMT)Where are the runs Mahela Jayawardene?•AFP

The Big Picture

It is tough to find positives when you are 0-2 down in a five-match series, but Sri Lanka have cause for relief following their show in the second ODI. They stretched South Africa for a fleeting passage of play in the last game, suggesting they had woken up from the 43 all out nightmare. It was a game the visitors conceded with eight balls to spare, leaving in its wake a series of ifs and buts. If Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal had produced 15 more runs in the end overs, if Tillakaratne Dilshan had shown more perceptiveness with his bowling changes, if Lasith Malinga had somehow clung on to a tough return catch off the first ball that Albie Morkel faced, the result could have been different. But South Africa outlasted the best Sri Lanka had to offer, and are a game away from taking the series.Bloemfontein will offer Sri Lanka their best chance of securing a win, if only because they won’t have to contend with Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla. Colin Ingram and Alviro Petersen come in with impressive domestic form – and Test runs in the latter’s case. Still South Africa will be vulnerable without Amla and Kallis, especially given how scratchy Graeme Smith, the other senior in the top order, has been in recent times.Sri Lanka have injury worries of their own, with Dilhara Fernando doubtful for the second game running, and Ajantha Mendis on the flight back home. The three men who matter are still in town, though, and time is running out for all of them. Dilshan is yet to make a run in the series, Mahela Jayawardene is yet to make more than 31 on the tour, and Kumar Sangakkara’s pitiable 3 off 28 balls in East London potentially cost Sri Lanka the extra 20 runs that may have won them the game. Will they turn the tide in Bloemfontein?

Form guide

South Africa WWLWL (Most recent first)
Sri Lanka LLLLL

Watch out for…

Rangana Herath is not the first-choice limited-overs spinner in Sri Lanka, but the injury to Ajantha Mendis gives him the opportunity to assume that mantle. Herath bowled a wicketless but impressive spell in East London, beating Kallis’ edge repeatedly both with spin and the lack of it. An afternoon start under sunny skies in Bloemfontein could offer him the assistance he needs to make a more telling contribution.South Africa’s renewed focus on rotation gives Colin Ingram a rare opportunity to break into a top order otherwise cast in stone. He’s cracked consecutive hundreds for the Warriors franchise in the SuperSport series, and 521 runs at 57.88 in the Franchise 1-day Cup. He’s already asked for the No. 3 spot, a position that’s likely to be his for the next couple of games at the very least. Runs from him will give South Africa a welcome selection headache in the future.

Team news

Fernando could sit out once again with the knee injury that prevented him from playing in East London. Allrounder Kosala Kulasekara hasn’t contributed in the first two games, and might make way for Thisara Perera. The pitch will be flat, hard and full of runs, and Sri Lanka were reportedly considering playing a second spinner. However, the uncapped Sachithra Senanayake, who was called up to replace Mendis, is yet to reach South Africa due to visa delays.Sri Lanka: (probable) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Thisara Perera/Kosala Kulasekara, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Rangana Herath, 11 Dhammika PrasadIngram and Petersen are almost certain to play. The more interesting selection could be Vernon Philander, who, on Test form, deserves to walk into the XI. However, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Morne Morkel have bowled well enough to retain their spots in the XI. If Philander has to play, Dale Steyn may have to be benched, which won’t be a bad idea given the workload he has endured in recent months. South Africa may wait till the series is won before doing that.South Africa: (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis, 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Dale Steyn/Vernon Philander, 10 Lonwabo Tsotsobe, 11 Morne Morkel

Stats and trivia

• Sri Lanka have played five completed games in Bloemfontein, with a 2-3 win-loss record. All three defeats came against the hosts
• With six wickets in two games, Johan Botha has taken more wickets at this venue than any of the other bowlers who might play on Tuesday. The games were against Kenya and Zimbabwe, though.

Quotes

“It’s a very big game for us. We’re not taking it lightly. Even with some of the new guys coming in, we have the foundations in place. We’re starting over again, our feet are firmly on the ground.”

“We know we can beat any team at any given opportunity. We just need to click, the batting and bowling. We are a very good team if we click at the right time.”