Champions League: Katich says Australians will revel in S. Africa’s pacy conditions

SYDNEY - Australian opener and New South Wales captain Simon Katich believes that playing conditions in South Africa will help his first class team to lift the Twenty20 Champions League trophy for a second consecutive time.

Katich reckons both Victoria and South Australia will also get equal help from the South African veld.

Both sides will be keen to use their pace attacks to make early incisions against opponents from India, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

South Australia have Shaun Tait and Australian squad member Peter George to call on, while the Bushrangers’ have Dirk Nannes, Peter Siddle, Clint McKay, Shane Harwood and James Pattinson.

“I’d say Australian guys will adapt well to (South African) conditions, because we’ve got guys who are used to playing on wickets that have a bit of life in them or batsmen having to play hook shots at the short ball because the wickets probably have a little more pace and bounce,” The Age quoted Katich, as saying.

“It will be a good advantage for our guys and also the South African teams, playing on their home turf. We saw in the second Indian Premier League in South Africa that certain Indian teams probably battled a bit in that second year because their players didn’t adjust that well to the conditions,” he added.

“You can’t afford too many slip-ups in that competition, you can’t afford to lose one of the first two games otherwise you’re pretty much gone,” said Katich.

“Everything was cut-throat and just trying to win every game. It was pretty difficult playing teams from different countries where we hadn’t played them before, but we had a bit of vision of opposition teams, which helped, so a lot of guys sat down and saw that. But a lot of our preparation was about getting our skills right,” he said. (ANI)