South Africa ready to throw the dice

South Africa could do with a 'result' pitch to square the series, but it "won't be a 'green mamba'", reassures Mickey Arthur

Mickey Arthur admits South Africa will have to “gamble a little” in the final Test against England to try to salvage a drawn series.

The Proteas coach has made no secret of the fact a result pitch will be prepared at the Wanderers, to give South Africa a chance of the win they need to square the score at 1-1.

“We’ve got to win it,” said Arthur. “We don’t have an option, so gamble a little is probably the right way to put it.”

The gambling seems sure to manifest itself first of all in the nature of the surface - grass and pace likely to be in evidence - with team selection to suit, too.

“We might gamble a little on the wicket - we’ll just see what the weather brings,” Arthur added. “I always say you can take grass off but you can’t put it back on.

“If you are looking for a result, it is a gamble you may have to take.”

Even so, Arthur is not anticipating a surface that makes batting a lottery and loads the dice too heavily in the bowlers’ favour.

“You look for a grassy wicket but it won’t be a major ‘green mamba’ out there,” he continued. “It will allow the batters to get stuck in.”

Arthur has a tough assignment, meanwhile, making sure his team recover from the “deflating” experience of having to settle for a stalemate in Cape Town last week when, for the second time in three matches, England finished the final day with nine wickets down.

Andrew Strauss’ team appear to have become masters of the survival technique, having pulled off the same trick in the first Test of last summer’s Ashes at Cardiff on the way to a series victory.

“I’d be lying if I said our dressing room wasn’t a very disappointed place after Cape Town,” Arthur conceded.

"Is Onions man of the series?" Arthur joked, before admitting the hosts had not paid much attention to his batting

“That’s justifiably so but the positives we took far outweigh the negatives. I know the boys are smarting and will want to get a result.”

That said, he accepts two near misses - separated by the landslide England victory in Durban that has put the tourists in an unbeatable position - is an awkward scenario, psychologically.

“It almost felt in our changing room – it certainly did at Newlands and Centurion – as if England had won.

“We were deflated. You carry that edge into the next Test. It was the same (for England) in Cardiff because they put in a great performance (in the next Ashes Test) at Lord’s.”

In England’s last two rearguards, number 11 Graham Onions has been the man South Africa could not shift.

The hosts were understandably frustrated as Onions kept out Makhaya Ntini’s final over at Centurion, then Morne Morkel’s at Newlands.

But their coach can only admire the Durham tail-ender.

“Hats off to Onions - is he man of the series?” Arthur asked, with a smile.

“He has thwarted us, and who would have thought England could have done it (held on with nine down) three times in eight Tests?

“It probably shows the resilience of this new England side under Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss.”

Onions’ batting may start to feature a little more prominently in South Africa’s homework.

“I think we’ll have to get the video footage out again,” said Arthur. “We went through them but didn’t spend a whole heap of time on Graham Onions. Maybe we need to before this Test.”

Friedel de Wet, whose late burst almost forced victory in the first Test, is out of the final encounter with a back injury

Meanwhile, Arthur confirmed that paceman Friedel de Wet will play no part in the fourth Test due to his back injury.

The 29-year-old had been retained in the squad despite the problem which kept him out of action for most of the final day at Newlands, however he has now been ruled out of contention.

It is anticipated that 20-year-old Wayne Parnell will be his replacement, and make his Test debut.

Arthur said: “Friedel won't be training with us this week.

“I really feel for him, it happened in the fifth over of the first innings in Cape Town, but he came in and gave it his all with injections and a serious back injury for another 20-odd overs. It speaks volumes for him.”