Men like Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Phillip Hughes aremore accustomed to the longer lay-offs but their stamina will beseriously examined when the second Test begins on Friday

Brydon Coverdale in Durban05-Mar-2009
Selector and captain: David Boon and Ricky Ponting chat on the eve of the Test © Getty Images
A three-day break between hard-fought Test matches is the ultimatetest of endurance for young cricketers and Australia have plenty ofthose. Men like Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Phillip Hughes aremore accustomed to the longer lay-offs separating four-day domesticgames and on a fast, bouncy Durban pitch their stamina will beseriously examined when the second Test begins on Friday.Adding to the difficulty is that Siddle and Hilfenhaus both leftJohannesburg with minor injuries – Siddle had a problem with his leftfoot and Hilfenhaus with his back. Both men bowled in the Kingsmeadnets on Thursday and neither appeared seriously troubled but thechallenge of surviving for five days of Test cricket will require notonly physical but also mental toughness.”It’s not (Sheffield) Shield where you’ve got a couple of weeks break betweengames,” the captain Ricky Ponting said. “It’s all back on you againand you can’t get carried away with what you did last week or thinkthe game’s going to be easy and think it’s going to flow on becauseit’s not like that. They’re the things we are going toaddress with those guys.”One thing we do know about the South Africans is they’ll be verywell-planned. We know that they’ll be ready for us so it’s about thoseguys now taking the next step as well and lifting their own games andmaking sure that last week wasn’t just a one-off performance for them.One Test match doesn’t mean a series, it doesn’t mean a career.”However, a win in Durban would mean the series for Australia and itwould mean a superb start to the careers of several of Australia’snewest players. South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur has spokenof how his men will attack Australia’s young opener Hughes and themore experienced first-class player Marcus North having learnt moreabout their styles in Johannesburg.North and Hughes both starred with the bat on debut at the Wandererswhile their fellow debutant Hilfenhaus and the inexperienced Testplayers Siddle and Andrew McDonald made important contributions withthe ball. South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith was disappointed withhow little pressure his men applied on Australia’s new faces and he ishoping his team can turn the young Australians’ tour into anup-and-down trip.”I think it’s something that we can exploit,” Smith said. “The onlyway we can exploit that is if we play to our potential. If we reallyare disciplined we can create a lot of pressure on them. That’s somethingwe never really did in Johannesburg, we maybe did it in short bursts but weweren’t able to sustain it for the period that we did in Australiaand last year.”That was a bit frustrating from our perspective because we know we’recapable of that. Sustaining that pressure on them from ball one righttill the end is the only way you’re going to really see ifthey can handle it or not. If we allow them to play the way they know,then they’re just going to go about it and probably not have thefear.”South Africa are hoping to have a more complete attack than inJohannesburg, where Jacques Kallis battled a back injury and wasrestricted to bowling 13 overs for the match. Smith said he wasexpecting a strong contribution from Kallis in Durban.”He’s progressed really nicely,” Smith said. “I’m pretty comfortable.Yesterday he came through his 20 or 30 balls in the nets very well andhe’s made it through a day of batting so I’m pretty comfortable withwhere he is and I think he’ll get through the Test match fine.”Australia would also like to call on one of their star batsmen forsome overs at Kingsmead, where they are unlikely to use a specialistspinner. Michael Clarke’s back problem meant he was unable to bowl inJohannesburg but Ponting said there was no way he would be able tokeep Clarke away from the bowling crease any longer.”Pup (Clarke) was keen to have a bowl during the last Test match actually,”Ponting said. “I had to tell him not to, just to cool his heels therefor a while. We’ve got some match-ups that we think Michael Clarkewill work well against. We’ll keep those to ourselves but you mightsee him have a bowl in this game at some stage. He’ll certainly be fitenough now.”The main question for Australia is whether that last statement appliesto every member of their side. A young and inexperienced team thatdeserved praise for Monday’s victory is about to be given its hardesttest yet.