Cricket

Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins says his side will need to match whatever tempo the South Africans throw at them as the First Test gets underway on Friday in Durban — and it may not always be glamorous.

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Speaking to the media ahead of day one, a relaxed Cummins acknowledged the significance of the occasion, but hinted that the key to victory in the three-Test series would likely come from concentrating on the grind, more than whirlwind cricket.

“It’s Number One versus Number 2 in the world, these are the big series you play for,” he said.

“We just want to roll up the sleeves and get to work.”

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Cummins said the Australians will need to compete for long periods against their South African hosts, something they haven’t necessarily had to do in recent Tests.

“We haven’t played too many of those (grinding) types of Test matches in the past few years, especially in Australia, they’ve been quite fast-paced,” he explained, throwing down a particular challenge to his batsmen.

“A lot of our recent success has come off big moments, a Travis Head hundred or ‘Starcky’ running through the top order.

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“I think we have to get better at that, and we can get better, at getting into the grind… it might not be the glamorous stuff, but grinding out a session, going at two runs an over when required.”

While the Australians will delay naming their XI until just before the toss, Cummins said there was still a chance Australia would follow the lead of South Africa and play two spinners for a Kingsmead expected to take turn later in the match.

“Obvious two spinners (picked by South Africa) tells you they think it might turn a bit out there, we just want to have one more look at the ground, we’re pretty confident we have our XI,” Cummins said.

“There haven’t been too many matches at this time of year, and not for a while.

“Like any Test match you have to be ready for anything, there might be a different tempo from session to session so we have to make sure we match that.”

The First Test between South Africa and Australia begins on Friday at 9:30 am local time, or 6:30 pm (AEDT).

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