Mickey Arthur and Andy Flower, the two coaches, made an appearance at the ground, but both teams stayed in their hotels which gave a clear indication as to the prospects. The signs hadn't been good leading into the match when England were forced to train indoors yesterday including making use of a covered car park for fielding practice.
The washout means that Paul Collingwood will have to wait until Sunday, at Centurion, to become England's most capped ODI player. He remains level with Alec Stewart on 170 appearances, but the rain in Johannesburg at least means he has a couple of extra days to rest his troublesome back.
The same applies for James Anderson who can give his sore knee some extra treatment and England will be the happier of the two sides about a delayed start to the series with a number of injuries in the squad. Stuart Broad (shoulder) and Graeme Swann (side) are already ruled out of the second match with Liam Plunkett and James Tredwell having been called up as cover.
The forecast is better for Sunday when the series moves the short distance north to Centurion Park, where South Africa gave England a thumping in the Twenty20 last week, before further matches at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
Comments
Post a Comment