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The only thing standing between South Africa and victory in the second Test at Headingley, which would seal the series and take them to No. 1, is their state of mind, according to middle-order batsman Jacques Rudolph.After their innings-and-12-run win at The Oval and a batting performance Allan Donald said “can’t get any better,” there would appear very few areas of improvement for the squad. But, having seen first-hand how the only place to go from the top is down, with England losing five out of nine Tests since becoming the world’s best, Rudolph said South Africa have to be careful with how they respond to a big win.”Our challenge will be to get off the wave of the first Test match, from a mental point of view,” Rudolph said. “Obviously it was a convincing win for us but we are not too results orientated. We expect a strong fight back and we are prepared for what we are going to face.”South Africa have a good record at Headingley, having only lost one of the four Tests they have played here since readmission. In 1994, Peter Kirsten’s century forced a draw, in 2003, Jacques Kallis’ six wickets won the match and in 2008, AB de Villiers and Ashwell Prince put on 212 runs for the fifth-wicket to give South Africa what proved a series-winning lead.Rudolph believes it is the ideal place for them to hold on to their series lead. “From a team point of view, we can take quite a lot of confidence from how we played here in the past,” he said.With that much experience at the ground, including Rudolph’s knowledge from five years of playing at Yorkshire, he believes the team will be properly prepared. While Rudolph said the information he is sharing with his team-mates is “not new,” he hopes it can provide some important insight.”There is a strong perception that Headingley is more a bowler’s kind of wicket but in my experience here, especially when the sun is out, it’s a really nice place to bat,” he said. The average runs per wicket has increased from 27.91 in the 1980s to 34.18 in the 2000s, an indication that the green mamba is not as venomous as before, something Rudolph could confirm. “Once you get yourself in and get used to the swing and a little bit of seam movement you can get yourself in.”South Africa have squashed any speculation that will consider an all-pace attack with every member of the squad saying the XI is likely to be unchanged but Rudolph hinted that Imran Tahir, the legspinner, may have to change his approach.”It won’t be as dry as The Oval and it won’t be as bouncy or turn as much. From a spinner’s point of view, you’ve got to adapt your game plan and maybe be a little bit more containing as opposed to attacking.”JP Duminy’s offspin may have a role to play, in addition to his batting at No.7, although he has not had much time in the middle doing. Duminy has scored a total of 94 runs in four innings on the tour and has bowled 27 overs across the four matches he has played.Rudolph said too much should not be read into warm-ups because the rest of the preparation has gone well. “We are quite used to playing back to back matches and getting into a rhythm but here we have had a lot of time off and you have to find ways to keep yourself fresh.”Personally, I find that in the warm up games the intensity is not really there because it is not as competitive as a Test match. But Gary Kirsten is quite strong on the fact that you’ve got to be aware of your own space and preparation. “

Kevin Pietersen could have played his last game for England after conceding that there were deep, perhaps irrepairable, divisions with the ECB and some other members of the England dressing room.Pietersen, who has been unsettled for some time by the demands of the England schedule, refused to confirm that the final Test of the series against South Africa at Lord’s would not be his last and expressed his anger that private conversations between him and officials at the ECB had been leaked to the media.His comments are sure to be poorly received by those at Lord’s and by his England colleagues. With a vital Test looming it is far from impossible that Pietersen could be disciplined or even dropped in an attempt to retain a semblance of team spirit within the England camp.”I can’t give any assurances that the next Test won’t be my last,” Pietersen said. “I’d like to carry on but there are obstacles that need to be worked out. There are other points I’m trying to sort out in the dressing room.”It would be a huge shame. I love playing Test cricket for England, but we’ll see. For me, the saddest part about all this is that the spectators just love watching me play and I love playing for England.”Pietersen confirmed that some of his issues concerned a desire to play more IPL cricket, a wish to spend more time with his family and his enthusiasm to be included in England’s World T20 squad. But he also insisted that there were “a lot of other issues that are more important that are being sorted”.”It’s absolutely 100% not about money,” he said. “This is not a money issue. The politics is what I have to deal with personally. It’s tough being me playing for England.”There’s always speculation. There’s speculation every single day. You guys speculate about my life all day every day. I’m going to make some decisions that will make me very happy.”Pietersen’s current cause for concern is the leaking of information he regarded as private. Admitting that it revived memories of his sacking as England captain at the end of 2008, when Pietersen believes that his private concerns about the then England coach, Peter Moores, were also leaked to the media, he seemed to suggest that public opinion was being manipulated against him.”It was blamed on me that before this Test series I was grabbing the headlines,” he said. “Did I leak anything to the media about the meetings I was having with the ECB? I never spoke to the media for one single second and it was me grabbing the headlines and journalists talking about me grabbing the headlines. I never spoke a single word to a single journalist about anything that happened behind closed doors that I thought were closed doors. So you guys are always going to speculate and make me out to be the bad guy. No problem.”The catalyst for the latest controversy in a career that has seen more than most – including his dismissal as England captain and his departures from Nottinghamshire and Hampshire – is the prospect of a new round of annual central contracts in September. Pietersen, who effectively retired from international limited-overs cricket in May after expressing a reluctance to make himself available for all ODIs, has also requested that he is allowed to miss the Test series in New Zealand in March in order to play a whole season of IPL.While he insisted that, in a perfect world, he would like to continue to play for England in all forms of game, his desire to pick and choose his series is most unlikely to be tolerated by the ECB. The ECB, citing the importance of treating all players equally and the dangers of setting a precedent, demands that players are available for all matches if they are to be considered for any.Andrew Strauss, the England captain, was reluctant to be drawn on Pietersen’s words. He did, however, underline the fact that the needs of the team would remain more important than the needs of the individual and that it was vital England were not distracted ahead of a Test that will confirm which is the No. 1 ranked Test side.”One thing I will say, and it is important to stress this, is that the Team unity that we have had over the last three years has been outstanding,” Strauss said. “It is something we all pride ourselves on, always have done and will continue to do so going forward.”I hope the Kevin issue isn’t going to be a distraction. The truth is we want as few distractions as possible in making sure we win this third Test match. I’m not here to talk about Kevin Pietersen. It is not something I want to talk about at this stage.”

India and Pakistan will resume bilateral ties with a “short series”, comprising three ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals, in December and January. The matches will be held between the Test and one-day legs of England’s tour of India and will form the first bilateral series between the two sides since Pakistan toured India in end-2007.The decision was taken by the BCCI at its working committee meeting on Monday. Rajiv Shukla, a senior BCCI official, said the plan was to hold the three ODIs in Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata, and the Twenty20 matches in Ahmedabad and Bangalore.”The BCCI was firm that no India-Pakistan series will be held at a neutral venue so it was decided to invite them [Pakistan] after December 22 when the England team leaves after playing the Twenty20 Internationals,” Shukla said.”This was the slot where the tour could have been accommodated and we did that accordingly. I have spoken to the home minister and he has said his ministry has no objection. The Ministry of External Affairs [India’s foreign ministry] has also agreed to this tour.”Bilateral cricketing ties were snapped following the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008, though the two countries have played each other in the World Cup, Champions Trophy and Asia Cup.The decision comes after prolonged, high-level consultations between officials of the two boards and, latterly, of the two governments. BCCI president N Srinivasan and PCB chief Zaka Ashraf have held several discussions this year regarding resumption of ties, with Pakistan hoping to fit in a series at the end of the year, during the Christmas break in England’s tour of India.”It’s a positive move by the BCCI,” Ashraf told reporters at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. “It’s been six months since I have been discussing with the BCCI about the possible revival of ties and the final breakthrough came during the IPL final. Ultimately, we have received the invite from the BCCI and now we will sit to discuss the modalities of the series.”It is Pakistan’s turn to host a bilateral series between the two. But there has been no international cricket in the country between Full Members since the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus and it is understood that India are not keen to play at a neutral venue, as has been the case with all Pakistan’s ‘home’ series since the attack. Subsequently, Ashraf said India had the prerogative to decide on the dates and host the series, but the PCB would want the BCCI to share revenue because the PCB has apparently not yet recovered from the financial loss suffered when India pulled out of their planned tour in 2009.The news is another step forward in both boards’ efforts to improve cricketing relations after the Champions League T20 governing council’s approval of the inclusion of the Sialkot Stallions in this year’s tournament, to be held in October. Sialkot will be the first domestic team from Pakistan to take part in the event. “The CLT20 is owned by the BCCI, Cricket Australia, and Cricket South Africa, so we will recommend to the governing council that the BCCI has no objection and is prepared to invite a Pakistan team,” Srinivasan said at the time.

New Zealand are headed towards fielding a second-string side in their first Test against England next year after their board couldn’t convince the ECB to schedule the series at a time not coinciding with the IPL. It’s a predicament not one of the parties could have helped. The New Zealand players earn more in one week of IPL than they do from their annual NZC contracts, which is why they are entitled to five weeks of IPL, which pays NZC 10% of the players’ salary, effectively to make them available. However, NZC is also bound by the ICC Future Tours Programme (FTP), and ECB by its own commercial understanding with its partners.Rough calculations, says NZC Players’ Association chief Heath Mills, suggest New Zealand’s IPL players will make it to England only on the eve of the first Test if they play their five weeks’ allocation of IPL. Of the eight New Zealanders in the IPL, four are Test starters, and Nathan McCullum and James Franklin are not too far. Jesse Ryder has avoided a contract this year, and Scott Styris has retired. New Zealand fans are not quite holding their breath over the choice the players will make: the last time the players chose country over club, back in 2009, they made no guarantees of a similar decision in the future. Mills says he will be surprised if “most of the players didn’t play the IPL”.That standoff back then led to the introduction of the five-weeks clause in future contracts, but NZC didn’t guarantee them a clear window for the IPL every year, especially during years the team was due to tour England. “Our understanding was that the guys can take five weeks leave, and that NZC will endeavour to make sure there was no international cricket during that period,” Mills said. “However, they did note that it may not be as easy to ensure our players could play the whole IPL when we toured England.”They made a commitment to us that they will work with the ECB to try and get the dates of our English tour after the IPL if possible. Clearly those discussions haven’t reached an outcome that New Zealand players or the players here were hoping. England don’t want to move any cricket around the IPL. That’s their right, and their choice. So we need to live with that.””Living with that” will mean further devaluation of international cricket: New Zealand will be weak, England will not be tested properly, and the biggest losers perhaps will be the English public going to the Tests.”As I do my maths at the moment, if the IPL starts on the 7th of April, as it typically does, then our guys will obviously have five weeks of the IPL, and they will then arrive on the eve of the first Test, which is scheduled for the 16th of May. Which means we will need to work this through with the NZC and the players concerned,” Mills said. “If NZC feel that’s not enough preparation, they may look to take other players to play that first Test match and have the IPL guys play the second Test. It’s certainly unfortunate and far from ideal.”The biggest concern with the way things stand right now is that they affect smaller teams – the likes of New Zealand and West Indies – the most. The big four – India, Australia, England and South Africa – who actually dominate the decision making feel no tangible pinch from the clash between IPL and international cricket. Not least because they can afford to pay their cricketers enough to keep them away from outside lure.”Our senior players are earning over a million dollars playing in the IPL,” Mills said. “Effectively it comes to 200,000 dollars a week. So each week they are not at the IPL, they lose more than the initial contracts here in New Zealand, which I think other people don’t realise. New Zealand players earn a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year whereas players from England, Australia and the bigger countries earn a couple of million dollars a year with the initial contract.”Mills said the cricket administrators needed to do more than just saying that Test cricket is the prime format. “I think from a holistic point of view this is not the answer for international cricket,” he said. “Clearly if you haven’t got your best players playing for your country, we can no longer say international cricket is the best playing the best. Because it isn’t. The day the international cricket is not about best players against best players, we have a problem, and we need to discuss it. We need to find a better outcome.”An official window for IPL could be one solution, Mills said. But when suggested there might be no end to tournaments’ asking for a window if a precedent is set, Mills said the IPL had a much bigger impact than even the Champions League Twenty20, which is owned by just India, Australia and South Africa and doesn’t equate to the world game.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) is considering a request from the Bangladesh board president Mustafa Kamal for South Africa to play Bangladesh in May, CSA’s acting chief executive Jacques Faul has said. Kamal made a request to CSA president Willie Basson last week and offered to pay all the costs, whether the series takes place in Bangladesh or South Africa.”We have received the request and we are in the process of checking whether it would be possible,” Faul told ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve got nothing against it, it’s just about scheduling. At the moment, I can say it is a request we are looking at.”Faul will meet with the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) and national coach Gary Kirsten next week to discuss the possibility of playing the series. He said the decision will be based on South Africa’s schedule and whether this fixture can be included without causing fatigue. “We always want to play cricket and foster cricket but we’ve got to be careful with how much preparation and how much rest we give our team,” Faul said. “It is quite important how we pace the team.”Bangladesh have no international cricket scheduled before the World Twenty20 in September. Their trip to Pakistan, for an ODI and a T20 later this month, was put on hold after a court order placed a four-week embargo on the tour, and their visit to Zimbabwe in August was postponed because of work being done on the pitches in Harare and Bulawayo.By contrast, South Africa’s schedule is busy. Having already spent a month in New Zealand, they will go to England for more than two months in early July, head straight to Sri Lanka for the World T20, tour Australia in October and November and then host New Zealand during the home summer.Even if all parties agree the Bangladesh-South Africa series should go ahead, it will face a number of logistical problems. With the IPL only ending on May 27, South Africa could be without some of their key players. Twenty South African players, including limited-overs captain AB de Villiers and bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, are involved in the IPL. Bangladesh, though, only have two players in the competition – Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal.Another issue will be location. The matches are unlikely to be held in Bangladesh because of the heat in summer and Faul confirmed South Africa, where it will be winter in May, was the only possibility as a venue. “Winter will be a factor for sure,” Faul said. “Durban is a possible venue but the Highveld [Johannesburg and Centurion] will be out.” Cape Town, where in rains in winter, will also not be a possibility.Another option would be for the series to be held in Zimbabwe, who were approached by the BCB to participate in a tri-series with South Africa. While Zimbabwe Cricket officials could not be reached on Sunday for confirmation on whether they received the request and were considering it, cricket can be played there during their winter. They will host South Africa for five T20 matches, which have not been given international status, in June before maintenance work on their two main centres begins.Zimbabwe could also travel to South Africa for the proposed tri-series and Faul said CSA would welcome the idea. “We always try to help Zimbabwe, we have an obligation to them because we are closest to them and we try to look after them where we can.”

Match facts

March 30, 2012
Start time 1730 (1530 GMT)This game will mean a lot to Jacques Kallis•Associated Press

Big Picture

If you thought India’s away season had ended with the Asia Cup, then you are wrong. There’s one more game, a Twenty20 against South Africa at the Wanderers, shoehorned into the tiny gap between the Asia Cup and the start of the IPL, which starts five days later. It’s the sort of scheduling usually reserved for unofficial charity games. South Africa have just arrived from a full tour of New Zealand. When this game was announced officially earlier this month, the big question was not , but .Cricket South Africa has announced that this will be an annual affair, following last year’s Twenty20 game between the two sides at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban. That match was Makhaya Ntini’s farewell game. Tomorrow’s match is dedicated to Jacques Kallis, and the proceeds will go to his scholarship foundation. The game might be for a noble cause, but is anybody aware that it is even happening? National newspapers in India have dedicated vast amounts of column space to the lead-up to the IPL. There’s little mention that the national team has flown to the southern hemisphere again, to play a solitary match. The channel broadcasting the game in India have started a countdown to the game as a bid to aggressively market it in the middle of two ongoing international series.Fans can be forgiven if they say they are fatigued, but MS Dhoni, the India captain, insists his team is not. It is his style to put a positive spin on everything, even when the ship is sinking. His team and the support-staff have clocked so many air miles in the last few months that they probably feel sick at the sight of airport lounges and hotel rooms. A one-off match with little context is the last thing they would have wanted.South Africa have shown some compassion, resting their jet-lagged senior Test players (except Kallis and Lonwabo Tsotsobe). There’s no rest for India’s seniors, bar Sachin Tendulkar (though he doesn’t play T20 internationals). Perhaps this could be seen as a last-ditch attempt to end a horrific season with a win. The IPL franchises have already vented their displeasure about the odd scheduling of this game because the India players are missing from the pre-tournament camps. The hosts are winding down their domestic season so this game hardly disrupts their plans.A year down the line, if you forget this game took place, don’t beat yourself up. In this era of “cricket excess”, it’s hard enough to remember a game which finished yesterday.

Form Guide

(most recent first)
South Africa WWLWL
India WLLLW

In the spotlight

When Richard Levi‘s name was called out at the IPL auction this year, it did not create a ripple. A blazing century off 45 balls (a record for Twenty20 internationals) in Hamilton made those franchises sit up. He was promptly signed up by Mumbai Indians. This will be most Indian fans’ first chance to see him.India’s bowlers conceded 329 and 289 in their last two one-day internationals. Their generosity peaked in the match against Bangladesh, where they dished out full-tosses by the dozen. That malaise affected Australia recently. Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan have shown they can bowl swinging yorkers, though sporadically. Death bowling could be the difference for India.

Pitch and conditions

A batting track is expected. The altitude in Johannesburg, though, could test the India players.

Teams

The hosts seem to be approaching the game quite casually. The 13 players did not train, and the captain Johan Botha hadn’t even met the coach Gary Kirsten the day before the game. There were rumours that the uncapped batsman Farhaan Behardian will play.South Africa (probable) 1 Richard Levi, 2 Farhaan Behardian, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Faf du Plessis, 5 Colin Ingram, 6 Albie Morkel, 7 Dane Vilas/Morne van Wyk (wk), 8 Johan Botha (capt), 9 Wayne Parnell, 10 Rusty Theron, 11 Lonwabo TsotsobeIndia, for whatever logic, picked 15 players for a solitary match. There were no announcements from the India camp. Robin Uthappa, coming off good form for Karnataka in the domestic one-dayers, looks good for a recall. Manoj Tiwary has sat on the bench ever since he scored a one-day century in December. Will his wait end?India (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Robin Uthappa, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Praveen Kumar, 11 Ashok Dinda

Stats and Trivia

• India are returning to the venue where they played their first ever Twenty20. Albie Morkel is the only survivor for South Africa from that game.
• India lead the head-to-head in Twenty20s by an overwhelming 4-1.
• The Wanderers has the highest runs-per-over – 8.23 – among grounds which have hosted a minimum of eight games.

Quotes

“There are a lot of young players we are trying to groom, and hopefully it will pay dividends in the future. From our point of view there is a lot of talent around, we need to give them the exposure they require.”
.”With the World Twenty20 coming up in October, every T20 game is important and you can learn in every game.”
Johan Botha says preparation for the World Twenty20 will be the focus in the one-off game.Edited by Dustin Silgardo