Exclusive: Lord’s History and Swing Conditions Favour Proteas, Warns Jacques Kallis

Lord's has become something of an oasis for South African Test teams since the return from isolation and one of their greatest players, Jacques Kallis, believes the Proteas will be the more comfortable side in the conditions for the World Test Championship final against Australia starting next Wednesday.

South Africa have won five of their seven Tests at Lord's, all against England, since 1992 and have lost just once. That 72% winning record stands in stark contrast to their overall mark in England of just 21%.

Kallis told SportsBoom.co.za in an exclusive interview that South African cricketers grow up in conditions that are more like Lord's than Australian pitches and weather.

"Australia would probably be favourites if it was a series, but in a one-off Test, anything can happen. It's more of a 50/50 game for me and a lot depends on the day, the overhead conditions and who wins the toss. Conditions can vary so much at Lord's."

"Sometimes the pitch can be really flat, but generally it does do a bit. And there's more movement in South Africa than there is in Australia, so our batters are better at dealing with the moving ball than the Australians are, because they spend half their lives playing against it."

"But Australia's batsmen are skilful too and both teams have good attacks. To maximise revenue and make sure the match goes the distance, the pitch will probably be good for batting, but I think the Proteas maybe have a slight edge in that department," Kallis told SportsBoom.co.za.

Little experience

Although the exciting Tristan Stubbs has only a little experience of playing in England - 13 T20 matches - Kallis said he hoped the 24-year-old was in the starting XI at Lord's.

"I would like to see Stubbs come through, he has really got game. He's good enough to stick around but he can also play aggressively. I would certainly have him in my batting line-up, but then it becomes a tough call who to leave out. I would hate not to have a spinner, you have to have that option because you don't know what conditions you're going to get later in the game."

"South Africa's batting line-up is young, but they are pretty fearless. They just need to go out and play, while sticking to their game-plans. They need to keep playing the way they did going into the final because that's what has been successful. They just need to execute as a batting line-up," Kallis said.

Tradition & women

Lord's is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club and is a place of great tradition, having hosted matches since 1787. Not all of its traditions are good though - the MCC only admitted women as members as recently as 1998. But the ground exudes an undeniable magic and Proteas batting coach Ashwell Prince, who scored a gutsy century there against England in 2008, said not much has changed at the London venue.

"I've been following the county matches at Lord's and the ground looks good, immaculate and polished. Not much has changed and I anticipate a fantastic surface for both batting and bowling," Prince told SportsBoom.co.za.

"We'll have to get there and look at the surface, and it's most important to consider the overhead conditions and the forecast. We try not to pay too much attention to external things, but you have to take that into consideration at Lord's."

"My approach as batting coach is to support the batsmen in terms of their mental state, preparation and plans. They need to get to a place where they are calm and focused, you need to find the right balance between being calm and having the right amount of aggression. Like Hashim Amla epitomised, and Temba Bavuma has a lot of that too."

Very good options

In terms of whether South Africa would play an extra specialist batsman at Lord's, Prince pointed out that they had very good all-round options to balance their side.

"It's nice to have five bowlers as a general rule and we have different options for that with Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder and Senuran Muthusamy. We have a strong, really talented squad and we believe we can beat anyone. We're very excited to go over to Lord's," Prince said.