Johannesburg – Proteas seamer Rory Kleinveldt hopes his childhood dream of playing at the Waca in Perth comes true as South Africa prepare to square up against Australia in the series-deciding final Test starting on Friday.
Vernon Philander is on track to be fit for the final Test and should retake his place in the playing XI after missing out on the drawn second Test in Adelaide due to a back strain.
Expected quick conditions, however, will give the selectors an interesting selection conundrum, with specialist spinner Imran Tahir in danger of missing out.
“I would definitely love to play at the Waca,” Kleinveldt said on Tuesday.
“It has been a dream of mine, to be honest, and from what I have heard from past players, they have said that it is one of the quickest wickets in the world.
“It would be nice for me to get on there and have a go.”
Kleinveldt took three wickets in Australia's second innings in Adelaide, which will count in his favour.
“Going into the game, not thinking that I was going to play helped a lot,” he said.
“Finding out half-an-hour before the game that I was playing because of Vernon's injury, which is obviously not a nice thing to come into the side for, made me a lot more relaxed than what I was (on debut in the first Test) in Brisbane.
“I had nothing to lose, so I went out there and did my best.”
South Africa's bowlers delivered 23 no-balls in the first Test and 20 in the second, with Kleinveldt stepping over the line 23 times in the two matches, and he said they had been working hard on the no-ball problem.
“It has been a problem for both teams in the last two Test matches, but I can't really put a finger on it,” he said.
“It is definitely something that we have to work harder on before the next Test match.”
Proteas bowling coach Allan Donald had been trying to solve the problem in training.
“We did some work with Allan between Test matches,” Kleinveldt said.
“It was a lot better in the second Test but still not great. We still bowled six or seven no-balls in each innings and we would obviously like to get that down to nothing.” – Sapa