South Africa

The New Zealand side left for South Africa yesterday and arrived to meet a South African team licking its wounds after a 3-0 mauling by Australia. The best the South Africans can say about the series is that they left their best for last, with Australia only managing to just scrape home in the final test.

The South African team clearly has some problems. Cricinfo's player ratings reveal an attack that is overly reliant on one man (Makhaya Ntini) while Shaun Pollock is now very clearly in the twilight of his once great career. Jacques Kallis may still be one of the best batsmen in the world, but gremlins seem to have crept into the techniques belonging to Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs.

Does New Zealand have a good enough attack to exploit those gremlins and penetrate their techniques? Perhaps. Tall right-arm pace man Stuart Clark did the damage for Australia and some of the flaws he made use of have already been successfully mined by tall right-arm pace man Chris Martin. Martin could be our secret weapon. He can go from magnificent to mush from one series to the next, but freshness seems a key to his form and after an empty New Zealand summer he only just began to hit his straps as the West Indies prepared to go home. Martin has forged a superb record against the Proteas so far, with 29 South African wickets at 20.20 - including 11 at 26.00 on the continent.

If Martin does strike form and can combine with Shane Bond, Jacob Oram and Dan Vettori then we have a very tasty looking bowling attack. Against Australia the South Africans prepared seaming wickets to nullify Shane Warne's spin and to suit their pace men. Only Ntini was capable of taking advantage and any wicket that suits his bounce will suit Martin and Oram just as well. Given the current state of the South African bowling attack, Bond and Vettori should have a monopoly on any other type of wicket.

Despite the theoretical advantage we have in the bowling, South Africa are not going to be push-overs. Since they resumed playing test cricket we have played in the country six times and have a record of four losses and only one victory. Smith, Gibbs and Pollock might be in form slumps, but they have all demonstrated their class in the past and none of them is ever going to just lie down and give up. We also have problems with our own batting order, with an inexperienced top order and a middle order lacking two of the country's best players.

And don't forget Ntini. Michael Papps in particular will have watched his bouncers with a shiver running down his spine.

Oh and, ummmm, it looks like I can say yay me at last!