The first Test pitch in Durban is not the graveyard for visiting teams that is sometimes imagined and there are grounds for English optimism against a South Africa side apparently on the way downThere seems to be a insight that Kingsmead is Durban’s equivalent of Brisbane’s Gabba or how Kensington Oval in Bridgetown,Barbados once was: a place where visiting teams came, saw but failed to conquer. In the case of Kingsmead there is a mental image of South African pacemen terrorising the opposition on the mystical ‘green mamba’, or the pet name for the pitch that greens up,jags around and bounces. When the humidity rises to sapping levels and the clouds hover, it can indeed be tricky. But the reality is that certainly in contemporary times it is a reputation for some sort of impregnability built on smoke and mirrors. Related: Stuart Broad confident England can win ‘epic’ series in South Africa Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com