Cricket: Praise but not batting promotion for Franklin

New Zealand will resist the temptation to promote James Franklin up the batting order for the third test against South Africa, starting at the Wanderers tomorrow night (NZ time).

The Wellington left-armer has been the big mover within the test squad this season and will be one of the first picked for the series finale, particularly as the Wanderers' pitch is an unknown quantity at this time of year and is expected to favour the bowlers.

Once the greenhorn of the New Zealand team, Franklin has now become an integral part of the side, providing the main cutting edge for the bowling attack and offering a steadily increasing influence at the batting crease.

He underlined his all-round potential at Newlands this week when he scored a courageous unbeaten 122 after being felled by a Makhaya Ntini bouncer, and then - on a pitch built for spin rather than speed - proved the pick of the pace trio.

Coach John Bracewell has heaped praise on his bowling performance in particular, and skipper Stephen Fleming was still waxing lyrical about his potential yesterday, saying his all-round contribution proved what mighty deeds he was capable of.

But Fleming said he doubted there would be a batting promotion in store for Franklin at the Wanderers this week.

"There's always thoughts of that, but the guys ahead of him have played pretty well over a period of time," he said. "Daniel Vettori's probably the next rung in the ladder, and he's been one of our most successful test batsmen over the past 12 months.

"So at the moment James is down at No 9, but he's going to get his chances as time goes by and as he becomes more consistent.

"To be fair, he hasn't warranted a promotion until now, and that's why it was such a positive development for both him and the team. He's now in contention to become a genuine all-rounder and that's something that's probably been playing on his mind more than anyone else's."

In terms of the statistics, Franklin is starting to fashion a useful CV for an all-rounder: 64 wickets at 28.37 and 422 runs at 23.44, figures that will only improve as he gains more experience and confidence at test level.

Already, he has earned recognition for dismissing top batsmen with top deliveries, and his gorgeous yorker that did for Jacques Kallis at Centurion last week only added more weight to his giant-killing reputation with the ball.

If there has been one criticism, it's that - unlike most front-line pacemen - the 25-year-old doesn't appear to be able to retreat to a stock delivery when under fire, a problem that has led to two or three near embarrassing pastings.

However the issue hasn't cropped up in South Africa, where the batsmen appear to be more circumspect in their approach.

"When you've got a good left-arm seamer you have got some advantages," said Fleming. "He's bowling well; he's swinging the ball and he's also learning how to alter his length when it's not swinging, and that's probably been a concern for him in the past.

"Now he's starting to understand what he needs to be doing; he's growing up. He's maturing into a fine all-round cricketer."

The biggest question surrounding tomorrow night's showdown is the likely behaviour of the Wanderers' pitch, given test cricket in South Africa has never before been played this late in the year, when the overhead and ground temperatures are significantly lower.

Ground staff at Newlands took to using a hovercraft to dry the outfield before play in the morning and startled many onlookers by using an acetylene torch on the pitch surface to remove any pronounced pockets of moisture.

The issue has so concerned Wanderers curator Chris Scott that he's erected a tent over the test pitch, under which he's employed three gas burners and several fans to create a hothouse effect, all in the hope of hardening the surface.

"You can do as much rolling as you want but you still need sun and heat to bake down on the pitch and make it firm," said Scott. "The pitch is about 90 per cent."

New Zealand manager Lindsay Crocker said all squad members apart from batsman Hamish Marshall were available for selection. Marshall is still troubled by a hip injury from the first test at Centurion.


LINE-UPS

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (c), Peter Fulton, Michael Papps, Jamie How, Scott Styris, Nathan Astle, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, James Franklin, Kyle Mills, Chris Martin, Jeetan Patel, Michael Mason, Hamish Marshall.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (c), Boeta Dippenaar, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher, Shaun Pollock, Nicky Boje, Andre Nel, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Jacques Rudolph, Andrew Hall.