|
| | GEO Sports | | We'll play to maintain No 1 position: Smith | Updated at: 1623 PST, Tuesday, February 17, 2009
 JOHANNESBURG: South Africa skipper Graeme Smith commenting on his counter-part Australia captain Ricky Ponting said that his team would play for maintaining his team’s number one position and not the hosts but the tourists would be under pressure during the series in south Africa.
Australia arrived here on Monday to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals on a two-month tour.
On arriving in Johannesburg, Ponting said that hi steam is still number one and the hosts would play under pressure in the series.
Replying to him, Smith said that South Africa would be favourites after winning both the Test and one-day series in Australia recently.
It is a position with which the host nation will be comfortable, Smith told a local daily, although warning that he expected an Australian backlash.
The side Ricky Ponting will lead is one of the most inexperienced Australian touring parties in recent history, and Smith said they would lack the confidence that previous sides had on the second leg of back-to-back tours that have been the norm for South Africa-Australia contests.
The first Test between the two countries will begin from February 26 at Johannesburg. |  |
|
|
| |
