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'We enjoy confrontation as a group' – Elgar's South Africa brace for 'feisty' tour of Australia

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The ‘bold and brash’ players in the opposition camp will ‘bring out the best’ in his side, South Africa captain says

Firdose Moonda01-Dec-2022″Bring it,” is South Africa’s message to Australia as they head Down Under in search of a fourth, successive away series win against the opponents.It’s been more than four years since they last played each other, in the series that became known for the sandpaper-gate scandal but also ranks as one of South Africa’s biggest successes in the last decade. It was the first time they claimed a series win against Australia at home since readmission. The residue from that series litters the entrance hall to this one and there’s every expectation that the action will take place as much off the field as on it.Related

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“Because we are playing in their home conditions, it’s going to be pretty feisty,” Dean Elgar, South Africa’s Test captain, said ahead of their departure on Thursday. “The individuals they have within their squad are pretty brash and bold – in your face kind of characters and that can work in our favour. I think that plays into our hands. We enjoy that confrontation as a group and we manage it pretty well. We’ve got calm heads around that. If they want to be in your face, it’s fine. I definitely don’t shy away from that and I will be encouraging the players not to shy away from that, because I think that’s when South Africans bring out their best.”Elgar’s team, however, is not in the same state as Faf du Plessis’ was in 2018. Although they presently sit second on the World Test Championship (WTC) table, they are closer to the 2019 outfit that toured India with an interim team director at the helm, who was being sent on his first international assignment to one of the most difficult places to play Tests, and an impending administrative crisis looming. This 2022 side also has a temporary coach, who will make his debut. He too is taking South Africa to a tough place and there’s no indication of when permanent appointments will be made. But there is one difference. Elgar revealed that he requested Malibongwe Maketa to take over from Mark Boucher and that he and Enoch Nkwe (the team director from 2019 who is now director of cricket) are on the same page.”Mali is one of the coaches I asked our director (Nkwe) to try and get in to be interim. I’m glad I got that one right,” Elgar said. “It’s nice to have a DOC that has got cricket at heart and is backing his leadership that needs to be backed. Mali understands his role, which is going to be a supportive role, and he understands me as a cricketer, as a person and as a leader. Mali comes with quite a lot of experience. He has been around the block as long as I can remember.”Maketa worked as head coach for the Warriors franchise in South Africa’s domestic circuit from 2015 to 2017, as Ottis Gibson’s assistant for the national side between 2017 and 2019, and most recently as the South African A coach. He was also on the tour in England earlier this year and has worked with most of the squad members in some capacity over the last decade. He is one of the few consistent presences on the South African scene, which Elgar thinks they need more than anything as the Test team evolves.”The environment has changed drastically (since 2019) but in a good way. We’ve tried to keep our core players so the consistency has always been pretty stable. We have evolved immensely and really played good cricket in the Test arena but we are still trying to push for the consistency factor which is going to be key going into a big series,” he said.Arguably, this is the biggest test for South Africa for at least the next three years. It’s their last three-Test series until they host Australia in 2026, a must-win if they are to reach the WTC final and their first in Australia over the festive period since 2008. That means no-one in the current squad has played a Test at the MCG or the SCG or soaked in the atmosphere of such an occasion.”Growing up as a kid, you’d always wake up for these Boxing Day Test matches Down Under and you don’t mind losing a few hours’ sleep,” Elgar said. “Now we’ve got 16 players who are going to experience it first-hand. It’s a childhood dream of mine to experience this. Playing a Boxing Day and a New Year’s Test in Australia – I don’t think you get bigger than that.”

Nottinghamshire make short work of Durham's cunning plan thanks to Joey Evison five-for

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Nottinghamshire stride into top flight as young swing bowler stars

David Hopps13-Jul-2021Nottinghamshire 328 (Patterson-White 73, Slater 60, Clarke 48, Rushworth 4-75, Raine 3-63) and 125 for 5 (Hameed 58) lead Durham 165 (Evison 5-21, Broad 3-36) by 288 runsNottinghamshire brushed aside Durham’s attempt to manufacture a place in Division One of the Championship with artificially short boundaries as they took a stranglehold on the match at Emirates Riverside and, in the process, assured themselves of their own qualification for the September culmination to the season.It is quite a transformation for a county that had to wait until early May before ending a 1,043-day run without a victory.Those short boundaries were intended to propel Durham to maximum batting points, only for them to be dismissed for 165, not manage a single batting point, and concede a first-innings lead of 163. Notts extended that to a lead of 288 with five wickets remaining by the close as every ball resisted by Haseeb Hameed , before Scott Borthwick spun one past his defence, for 58, shortly before the close, communicated that he was in no mood to relax even though promotion was assured.Nottinghamshire now join Yorkshire, Lancashire and Somerset as claimants to Division One places in the end-of-season climax. Warwickshire are now strong favourites to join them, with Durham having to hope for an extraordinary victory plus a Warwickshire defeat on Wednesday to pull off a miracle.That leaves Gloucestershire desperately trying to stave off defeat against Hampshire at Cheltenham. A forecast of unbroken sunshine suggests only an overnight Covid alert, and immediate cancellation, can save them. Not that deliberately getting your phone to ‘ping’ would be a particularly moral way to pass the evening.Joey Evison, a 19-year-old medium pacer, England U-19 via Stamford School, destroyed Durham’s first innings with a post-lunch spell of 5 for 21 in eight overs. If Durham could fiddle the boundaries, they could do nothing about the weather and leaden skies hung over Emirates Riverside, as if in meteorological denunciation, until minutes before their innings was complete.Evison, who swings the ball, predominantly away from the right-hander, accepted his opportunity with growing excitement. It was a decent spell of swing bowling, a career-best that he can take pride in, but he will not find many batting line-ups as accommodating in the future.At close of play, he excitedly announced Notts’ qualification before the country’s cricket websites had worked out what was happening. And people fear that we are about to surrender to an automated society.”We’re going into that top conference of the County Championship,” he said. “That’s where we wanted to be looking at our targets for the season. We’re looking to push for that win tomorrow. Getting the five-wicket haul is one of those things I can tick off early in my career. I didn’t know what was going on. Getting four wickets in four overs has not happened to me before. It’s one of those moments that you have to embrace.”Two of his wickets, David Bedingham and Borthwick, required decent deliveries to remove batsmen of proven ability; Bedingham remains on course to be first to 1,000 runs, even if we did once imagine he might pull it off by the end of May, and it’s now July 13. Borthwick’s batting form has been much patchier but he carried a captain’s desire for success in his first season in the role. The other three wickets were gifts, inadequate responses to a high-pressure day.Durham’s openers fell to Stuart Broad – the presence of an England player, limbering up for the India Test series, being quite a bonus in mid-July. Both Cameron Bancroft and Rob Jones fell to big breakbacks. Notts’ loyalists would have watched the replays and judged them stone dead. Durham supporters would have been aghast. Both were probably umpire’s call.Related

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Even so, at 77 for 2 with the afternoon session an over old, Durham might have imagined that 400 – and maximum batting points – was still possible. Bedingham, who now plays as an overseas player since his ancestry visa became an irrelevance, once again looking a player of understated class, and Borthwick was purposefully scrapping away.Then Evison, the fifth seamer to be used, was thrown the ball for the first over of the afternoon. His fifth ball was one of the best of the day, swinging back from around leg stump and tempting Bedingham to hunt out the legside. That was the first of four wickets to fall for nine runs in 37 balls; the management plotting about the boundaries had taken longer than the time it took to make it a pointless exercise.Evison, whose opportunities last season were limited because of a foot injury, removed Sean Dickson for a 13-ball duck, a horrible sliced pull shot which flew skywards and into the hands of the stand-in wicketkeeper Joe Clarke.The left-handed Borthwick was beaten by outswing twice in the next over. The first fell on the half-volley to the diving Brett Hutton at second slip, but it proved to be a useful warm-up exercise as he held another low catch, this time between his legs, later in the same over. Ned Eckersley fell for a second-ball duck, Evison this time appealing while sat on his bottom after falling over in his delivery stride. It was another marginal leg before decision, but if you stand in front of your stumps, as is the in-vogue method, and you find an umpire in ‘out’ mood then you have brought it upon yourself.By now, the short boundaries had been forgotten []. When Ben Raine tried to clear them, he fell at deep* square (*the word deep is used advisably). Lyndon James, who even then was in from the rope, took a routine catch.Hameed took advantage of clear skies after tea, as did some of the crowd who went into somnolent mode, enjoying the sun on their face and presuming Division Two was now a certainty. The next time they watch Championship cricket, autumn will be creeping nearer.Hameed clipped Rushworth to the boundary to reach his fifth half-century of the season from his 100th delivery. Durham did not give up the ghost, with Matt Salisbury and Matty Potts taking two wickets each, and who knows, if they wrap up Notts’ innings in the first hour tomorrow and then slog for all they are worth, those short boundaries might yet turn out to be a masterstroke. The clever money, though, is elsewhere.

Sickness concerns mean no handshakes for England in Sri Lanka

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Medical staff advise precautions after squad was laid low by illness in South Africa

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Mar-2020England’s players will not be shaking hands with one another on their tour to Sri Lanka, captain Joe Root has revealed, using “the well-established fist bump” as a greeting instead.Amid the coronavirus outbreak and following a tour to South Africa that saw more than half of the Test squad suffer from gastroenteritis or flu, players have been given immunity packs and advice by their medical team to prevent the spread of illness within the camp.ALSO READ: If South Africa are wounded buffaloes, England are sickly lions“After the illnesses that swept through the squad in South Africa, we are well aware of the importance of keeping contact to a minimum,” Root said before the team’s departure on Monday night.”We’ve been given some really sound and sensible advice from our medical team to help prevent spreading germs and bacteria.””We are not shaking hands with each other – using instead the well-established fist bump – and we are washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces using the antibacterial wipes and gels we’ve been given in our immunity packs.”There has only been one confirmed case of coronavirus in Sri Lanka to date, and England are not expecting the outbreak to affect their tour significantly.”There is no suggestion that the tour will be affected,” Root said, “but of course it is an evolving situation so we are in regular contact with the authorities and will proceed as advised, but at this stage we fully expect the tour to continue as planned.”The series in Sri Lanka could prove vital to England’s World Test Championship chances, with 60 points for a win on offer in each of the two Tests, and Root said that India’s 2-0 defeat in New Zealand had “thrown things wide open”.”With it being a two-match tour there are a lot of Test Championship points to play for and with New Zealand turning India over twice, it has thrown things wide open,” Root said.”With these matches and then six games at home in the summer coming up, it feels like it is a great opportunity to get ahead of things and give ourselves a real chance of pushing for one of those top two spots.”We respect how good a side [Sri Lanka] are in their own conditions and we’ll find ourselves up against a stiff challenge.”Jack Leach, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali share a joke at training•Getty Images

England’s last series in Sri Lanka saw a three-pronged spin attack comprising Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Jack Leach take 48 wickets between them, underpinning a 3-0 win. Their spin options are depleted this time, with Moeen opting to continue his self-enforced break from Test cricket and Rashid’s shoulder preventing him playing red-ball cricket.And while Leach is the senior spinner in the squad, he has endured a difficult winter, flying home early from the South Africa tour following a bout of sepsis, while he had to spend last week bowling at Loughborough following a calf niggle.But Root backed Leach to play “an important part” in the series, and confirmed he had recovered from his injury.”It has been a really frustrating winter for Jack, not being able to get on the park through illness and then picking up a little bit of a niggle,” he said. “He has recovered well from it and is back strong. He’s been up at Loughborough doing some work up there to make sure the physios are happy with his condition.”He’s been looking after his physical state as well and he’s very much looking forward to getting out there and getting some game time in the middle.”He’ll be very excited at playing out there again with such fond memories from the last time we were there and the wickets he took. I can see him being full of energy and playing an important part in the two games for us.”

Tim Paine rues lost chances in Adelaide

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The Australia captain says if his team had done better in the key moments in the series opener, the 2-1 scoreline might have been reversed

Andrew McGlashan at the SCG07-Jan-2019After a drizzly end to a Test series where the result had been known four days ago when India walked off with 622, Tim Paine looked back with regret at the series’ opening two days in Adelaide and said he believed if chances had been taken then the 2-1 scoreline could have been reversed.Even though this series has been crammed into a month, as India celebrated in front of a small gathering of fans, it felt a long time ago that India were 5 for 86 on the opening day of the campaign. Cheteshwar Pujara’s masterful hundred – his first of three for the series – lifted India to 250, but that still offered Australia the chance to take a lead. However, to set a trend for the series, they slipped with the bat and ended up conceding a small lead which India converted into a 31-run victory.Although Australia levelled in Perth, the slower pitches in Melbourne and Sydney stymied their ambitions and India were comfortably the better team. One more dry day in the final Test and it would probably have been 3-1.”We honestly feel that we let that [Adelaide] Test slip,” Paine said. “We thought we had a number of opportunities to go well ahead of the game and when those key moments came up India outplayed us to be honest. Looking back now, if we’d won that Test, we win Perth, outplayed in Melbourne then a washout it could have been 2-1 the other way. It’s funny, in a big series of four Tests you go back to a couple of key moments in the very first Test where we let ourselves down and you get to the end of the series and it’s really hard to take.”Paine lauded, and was no doubt envious of, India for having key players take charge of vital moments in the series: Pujara in Adelaide, Bumrah in Melbourne and Pujara again in Sydney.”We are really disappointed. We know we had some guys missing but we honestly felt coming into the series that, in Australia in particular, that we could beat India but, throughout the series, more often than not, when those big moments came up, Virat has scored runs, Pujara has scored runs, Bumrah has bowled a great spell and we couldn’t quite get through those moments.”That’s why India won this series, their best players stood up in the big moments – when they were falling behind in a game one of their good players dragged them back into the contest, or when they were in front of the game they put their foot on us and put us out of the game like they did in Sydney and Melbourne.”Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon emerged from the series in credit, but there were slim pickings elsewhere. It was a series that was always going to challenge the depth of Australia’s batting without David Warner and Steven Smith, but the numbers have been chastening with just eight half-centuries and a top score of 79 by Marcus Harris.It was Harris and Travis Head who Paine picked out as being the gains – while also praising Marnus Labuschagne’s return to the team – and suggested that their chance for exposure at Test level could benefit the team in the future. While it is certainly true that Harris has taken his chance, Head’s series faded after half-centuries in Adelaide and Perth.ALSO READ: How do Australia fix their batting before the Ashes?“From a batting point of view, you look at what Marcus Harris and Travis Head have been able to do they are two examples of guys who might not have played any Test cricket at this stage. They’ve got an opportunity through an unusual situation and I thought both those guys acquitted themselves really well. This India attack was seriously good, I don’t think in Australia we’ve given them enough credit for how relentless they were, it was hard work batting against their attack for seasoned Test players. For Marcus and Travis to show they have got the game to make runs against the best attack in the world is a real positive.””For some of the guys in their third-fourth Test maybe it’s hard to look and say ‘I haven’t scored any hundreds’ but Marcus and Travis showed, and Marnus in the first innings [in Sydney], that they can score runs in Test cricket. Sometimes it’s difficult when it seems so far away, but we have three players there who are one innings away from really breaking through.”Australia’s two most experienced batsmen, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh, scored one half-century apiece. The squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka will be named on Wednesday and Khawaja’s place is not under threat, but the debate around Marsh will be intense. Paine, who is not a selector, endorsed the pair and also the under-fire bowling unit.”I think everyone in our top seven didn’t play as well as we would have liked. Both of those players we know are absolute class, we know they can score a lot of runs. We have faith in them going forward. The group of bowlers we have in this team have been fantastic for quite a while now. They didn’t have their absolute best series but it’s not easy at this level and that can happen.”

Stokes to offer 'full explanation' when legal process allows

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Through his agent, the allrounder has acknowledged the impact the publicity has had on the game and his team-mates

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-20171:20

Stokes promises to give his story

Ben Stokes has promised a “full explanation” of what went on in Bristol on the night of his arrest for alleged Actual Bodily Harm last month, after acknowledging – via his agent – that his actions have had a negative impact on his team-mates ahead of this winter’s Ashes, as well as the ECB and the wider sport of cricket.Stokes, who was last week withdrawn from England’s Ashes squad pending further investigation into the events outside Mbargo nightclub on the morning of September 25, yesterday parted company with his bat sponsor, New Balance, a contract that is believed to be worth £200,000 a year.He also issued an apology to the British celebrity Katie Price, after being filmed appearing to mock her disabled son Harvey, an incident that generated further negative headlines on the back of the Bristol incident, in which he was shown allegedly throwing punches at two men in a street brawl.However, Stokes’s agent, the former England batsman Neil Fairbrother, has insisted that the player retains the full support of his management company, ISM, and added that the full details of what went on that night would be made public at an appropriate time, after the investigation by Avon and Somerset Police has been concluded.”Ben explained to me the full circumstances of what happened in Bristol and I told him that he has my total support and backing,” said Fairbrother in a statement. “I am aware that he has fully cooperated with the police inquiry and voluntarily provided a detailed statement on the same day as the incident. He will continue to assist the police in any way he can.”Ben will also make public his full explanation and evidence when the time is right. On legal advice, that is not possible whilst the investigation continues and no charges have been brought forward. Ben does not wish to prejudice the process.”He is also concerned about the impact the widespread publicity has on everyone involved including the ECB, his team mates and the game of cricket itself which he loves.”We will not be making any further comment relating to this at this time.”

Samaranayake cleared of fixing allegations

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Andrew Fidel Fernando24-Aug-2016Anusha Samaranayake, a Sri Lanka Cricket fast-bowling coach, has been cleared of the fixing allegations over which he had been suspended in February. SLC had launched an inquiry about Samaranayake’s role in the fixing-related approach of more than one Sri Lanka cricketer last year. However, the ICC has since informed SLC that there is no evidence Samaranayake has breached its Anti-Corruption Code.Despite this, Samaranayake’s role with SLC remains in hiatus, as he has more recently been found guilty of a separate disciplinary misdemeanour, SLC secretary Mohan de Silva said. This inquiry had related to Samaranayake’s entertaining of guests at SLC’s academy at Khettarama. Samaranayake’s contract with SLC runs until the end of December; although his position has not been terminated, SLC appears reluctant to having him resume his duties.Samaranayake has contributed to the development of several Sri Lanka fast bowlers, with bowlers including Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara citing his influence on their careers. SLC said a concrete decision on Samaranayake’s future will be made in the coming weeks.

Mirpur rekindles Dale Steyn's fire

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On the day he collected his 400th Test wicket, Dale Steyn admitted that he had needed some time and space to sort himself out following South Africa’s heartbreaking loss in the World Cup semi-final

Firdose Moonda30-Jul-20152:20

Never thought I’d get to 400 wickets – Steyn

Dale Steyn would like everybody to just “shut up,” about his new hairdo, to stop pre-empting how much longer he will play, because “if I am fit and I am strong I will bowl all day.” He wants to cut his team-mates a bit of a break because they are playing in “really difficult conditions to bat and bowl” in Bangladesh, but those frustrated phrases are all just a facade. Steyn is actually having the time of his life.”I love what I am doing right now, even if it’s in 40 degree heat and the ball is staying ankle high and it’s not bouncing and there’s no seam and it’s very slow. Shit, I love it. I would rather be here than anywhere else right now,” Steyn said.Just a week ago, Steyn looked like he would rather be anywhere else. He struggled for success in Chittagong and looked a shadow of the seamer who could charm even subcontinent surfaces. It all seemed to be getting too much. Steyn was shattered after South Africa’s World Cup semi-final defeat and sullen through an IPL in which he warmed the bench more than he played. He sneered that he did not want to “waste” the deliveries he had left on an ODI series in Bangladesh and has now admitted he needed some space to sort himself out.”There was a period after the IPL when I actually didn’t want to have a ball in my hand. I just needed maybe two or three weeks – maybe four weeks – just to get that love back again. I said before coming here that sometimes if you don’t have that love or passion for the game, things kind of don’t go your way,” he explained. “And then when you have got it you just don’t want to let it go. I just love being on the field right now.”Was the romance rekindled by his new record – fastest to 400 wickets in terms of balls and joint second in terms of matches? “No, it’s was not really different to any of the other wickets I’ve taken, to be honest,” Steyn said of Tami Iqbal’s nicking off. “It’s nice to have the numbers but I’ve had a lot better moments in my cricketing career. But it’s cool – it’s nice to have 400.”It was nicer to be able to let his hair down. “It’s pretty cool to take a wicket and get the headband off and the hair out. I think I’ve taken some abuse about my hair. Funnily enough, it doesn’t influence the bowling at all. So, I guess, shut up.”Floppy fringes have not been known to have much of an impact on fast bowlers and on Thursday, that was more evident than ever before. A few hours after Steyn celebrated his milestone, Mitchell Johnson picked up his 300th and Steyn had words of praise for his Australian counterpart’s approach.”Mitch is a scary bowler,” Steyn said. “I think he is one of those guys who are never going to be a line and length bowler. His captain is never going to ask him to run in and just hit a line and length. He’s going to bowl fast, he’s going to scare you and he’s going to get you out like that. He’s going to make you make a mistake because of his pace.”I think that’s why he bowls well against England – because they don’t like him. Even when he is bowling badly, they still don’t like facing him, and he still going to get wickets. That’s his strength; that he is quite a scary guy to face regardless of his pace. He is quite an intimidating bloke with his long moustache.”Sounds a little like Steyn himself, but if you think that means the South Africa would want Johnson in his strike force, think again. When asked who he thought was better than Johnson, it took Steyn a split-second to reply. “Vernon Philander.” He didn’t add a “shut up,” afterwards, but it was probably implied.Steyn’s dominance has partly come down to his the men at his side, who he is happy to share his success with. “Overall as a bowling unit, we are looking to get 20 wickets and so far we are doing quite well. I would have been very happy if I had taken just one wicket in my international career. And I managed to get 400. I never thought that that would happen. Ever in my life.”No wonder he is having such a good time.

Ireland set for $1.5m boost

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Ireland are set to benefit from a new ICC support programme, receiving a funding boost of $1.5 million through to 2015.

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Dec-2012Ireland are set to benefit from a new ICC support programme, receiving a funding boost of $1.5 million through to 2015.The new Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme (TAPP) includes five ICC members and is designed to develop more competitive teams at international level.Ireland are the first cricket board to agree a TAPP deal will use the financial support to launch an elite domestic competition, create an academy and facilitate more fixtures against full member teams.”We are extremely grateful to the ICC for instituting such a forward-thinking programme of support,” Warren Deutrom, chief executive of Cricket Ireland, said. “We’re delighted to be the first member to get to this stage. We have no doubt the support will help us to be even more competitive on the world stage.”ICC President Alan Isaac added: “Ireland provided an excellent submission to the ICC Board and I am sure they will do their very best to deliver those plans now that the organisation has the funding in place.”Netherlands, Scotland, West Indies and Zimbabwe will also receive support.

Injured Harbhajan likely to miss rest of Ranji season

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Harbhajan Singh, the India offspinner, is likely to miss the rest of the Ranji Trophy group stages with an injury to his left shin

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Dec-2011Harbhajan Singh, the India offspinner, is likely to miss the rest of the Ranji Trophy group stages with an injury to his left shin. Harbhajan had been ruled out of Punjab’s game against Railways, from which they took three points, and is now likely to be out for the rest of the year. The injury is suspected to be a recurrence of an old problem with his leg; he felt pain during Punjab’s game against Saurashtra and is undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.The injury is another in a series of blows for Harbhajan: after a disappointing tour of England during which he took two wickets in the first two Tests before returning due to a strain in his abdomen, he was left out of India’s squads for the home ODI series against England, the Tests and one-dayers against West Indies and the Tests on the tour of Australia.His performance in the Ranji Trophy was also disappointing – he took two wickets in three matches – and he will now face a wait before he can return to action and try to regain his spot in the India side.Punjab named Uday Kaul as captain for the Railways game in the absence of Harbhajan. They are currently fourth in Group A of the Elite division with three games to play. Their next match is against Rajasthan from December 6.

Doherty ready for high-stakes debut

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Xavier Doherty’s level head will be tested over the next week as Australia’s latest spin bowling answer makes his debut

Peter English in Brisbane24-Nov-2010Xavier Doherty’s level head will be tested over the next week as Australia’s latest spin bowling answer makes his debut. Doherty, the left-arm orthodox, has only been a fixture in Tasmania’s team this summer, but has been handed the role of tying down an end and tripping up Kevin Pietersen.While the Gabba is expected to suit the seamers and limit Doherty’s role, he still has to show enough to prove he will be a threat on the more spin friendly surface of Adelaide next week. Ricky Ponting plays with Doherty on his occasional state appearances and said he was “absolutely” ready.”He’s bowled a lot the last few days,” Ponting said. “He’s very excited and looking forward to the challenge over the next five days. He’s a pretty level-headed bloke and knows his strengths and weaknesses. He’ll stick to those through the five days and I’m sure he’ll do well.”Doherty, an architecture student in Hobart, grew up idolising Ponting and supports his charity. Before the toss Ponting will present him with his baggy green and then it will be his job to follow his captain’s commands.One strange aspect of Doherty’s promotion is that he has played only four first-class matches at the Gabba and taken just two wickets. Unless it’s Shane Warne, spinners are usually an after-thought in Brisbane.”I don’t really have much of a first-class record, I guess,” Doherty said this week. “The game we played here this year was pretty much a washout and I didn’t play for a few years before that. It’s probably not an ideal record before then so it’ll be a challenge. But I’m bowling better than I ever have.”Doherty has appeared in 35 first-class games and while he has improved considerably over the past two years, he carries a career average of 48. His goals for this match are suitably modest, given most of the work will be done by the fast men.”At the end of the day it’s just another game for me,” he said. “I am not going to go out and try to take six or eight wickets every game because that is not what I’ve done to get here.”