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South Africa have real chance of winning: Gary Kirsten

The Faf du Plessis-led team has the advantage and is in the best position to complete a hat-trick of Test series in Australia, felt former Proteas opener Gary Kirsten

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SA’s Temba Bavuma at nets in Perth
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Australia have been a dominant force in world cricket over the years, especially at home. In their backyard, they are the only team to have more than 50 per cent success rate. Out of the 404 Tests they have played at home since 1877, they have won 230 and lost only 95.

Not many countries have left Australia winning a Test series in recent times. Except for South Africa and England in the last 20 years. In fact, South Africa have won the Test series in Australia in their previous two visits – 1-0 in 2012-13 and 2-1 in 2008-09.

When Australia and South Africa meet for the three-Test series starting in Perth on Thursday, the Faf du Plessis-led team has the advantage and is in the best position to complete a hat-trick of Test series in Australia, felt former Proteas opener Gary Kirsten.

"It is going to be a fantastic Test series. South Africa have got a real chance of winning their third Test series in Australia, they won the last two there in 2008 and 2012. I was fortunate to be part of the 2012 team as a coach. They know how to win in Australia, probably one of the few teams that knows how to win there," the 48-year-old former India coach said here on Tuesday.
"You are going to have two great bowling attacks against each other and it will come down to who bats better. South Africa have go in with some confidence in their batting. They are both quite young batting line-ups. I am interested in seeing how Australia respond. They do not have momentum on their side. They have lost quite a few games of late, the thumping in ODI series in SA and lost a Test series badly in Sri Lanka. The momentum is not on their side. And, that is a big thing in sport."

The build up to the series has been full of war of words with players from both the sides firing salvos at each other, making it an exciting Test series on offer. And, on the other side, we have legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne saying Test cricket was boring.

Kirsten agreed that there have to be ways to keep Test cricket alive and that the traditional format was under threat.

He said: "We live in different times, don't we? There are a lot of distractions. When I grew up watching Test cricket, there was not much to do. So you could spend four hours watching a game cricket. But these days, there is a lot of different things to do. If someone asks me if I watch ball-by-ball Test match cricket, I say, 'No, I don't'.

"I did happen to watch England-Bangladesh Test the other day. It was a great Test series. I watched quite a lot of that only because it started at 5'O clock back home and I had nothing to do in the morning except to watch cricket.

"The ICC is trying everything they can to create innovation in Test cricket and to come up with ways to keep it entertaining and exciting. There is no doubt that Test match cricket in England and Australia is still a massive attraction. Hence, it is important to both of them. I do think it is under threat. The question is 'does night cricket work?'. I was perturbed to watch the Pakistan-West Indies pink ball Test. I did not see too many people watching that. Certainly, the other (day/night) games were well supported. I live in Cape Town and I know that night cricket there will be well supported. People would love to come and watch cricket. Kudos for ICC for bringing that in. We need to look at ways to keep it alive."

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