Proteas To Pick Up Their Pace

Even though legendary paceman Shaun Pollock might have retired from international cricket he is still getting his bite of the cherry, even if it is from his commentator's chair.

Pollock spotted a technical problem in Makhaya Ntini's bowling during the first Test at Lord's and informed bowling coach Vinnie Barnes about his observation.

"I had an interesting discussion with Shaun," Barnes said on Tuesday.

"He and Makhaya played in the same teams for years and he knows Makhaya's bowling almost better than I do."

Pollock said the seam of the ball was pointing too straight when Ntini bowled.

"This resulted in him getting hardly any swing. The ball just went straight on," Barnes explained.

Barnes expects his formidable pace-quartet consisting of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Jacques Kallis and Ntini to improve even more before the third Test at Edgbaston.

"I was not completely satisfied. They were much better than in the first test but they can do even better." Barnes said.

Barnes spent a great deal of time before the second Test observing Ntini's techniques which clearly bared it's fruits as the Proteas managed to dismiss England twice at Headingley, claiming a ten-wicket victory and heading up the series 1-0.

"I looked (on video footage) at the seam when Makhaya bowled against the West Indies. He bowled brilliantly; he was too good for Darren Ganga." Barnes said.

"I then used a split screen and showed Makhaya the difference in the angle of his wrist between that Test and now.

"He almost had an away-swing action (at Lord's) instead of an in-swing action, making it easy to play him, especially for right-handers."

Barnes added that he was however satisfied with the way Ntini bowled at Headingley.

"It was good to see Makhaya running in quite hard again. That's what I want to see from him."

There is no doubt that much work and fine-tuning will be done during the nets as well as during the tour match against Bangladesh A at Worcester on Friday.

Pacers Morkel and Steyn and openers Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith are likely to be rested in order for Andre Nel and Monde Zondeki as well as Robin Peterson and JP Duminy to get some practice ahead of the ODI series, which gets going on August 7.