Lehmann not worried about pace workloads

Australia coach Darren Lehmann says Shane Watson is likley to ease the burden on the side's pacemen in the third Test against South Africa.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann will wait until the end of the second Test before assessing how best to handle his overworked pace trio, but Shane Watson is likely to help.

Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle bowled a combined 86 overs in South Africa's marathon first innings, spending over 10 hours in the field at St George's Park.

"I am not worried about that, it's a Test match and that's just the way it is," Lehmann said.

"You can't worry about it or look too far ahead."

Michael Clarke was seemingly casting his mind forward to the third Test, which starts next Saturday in Cape Town, when he put the three quicks on ice for the final 18 overs of the innings on Friday.

All three will need to be managed carefully in the second dig, although there will be some relief in the final Test of the series with allrounder Shane Watson expected to return from a calf injury.

"We love five bowlers as we've always said," Lehmann said.

"He (Watson) bowled today, so hopefully he's fit and firing and ready to go.

"Hopefully we don't have to bowl 150 overs in Cape Town and I'm pretty sure the wicket won't have as little bounce as this one."

Lehmann paid tribute to Nathan Lyon, who sent down 46 overs and collected figures of 5-130.

"You can't expect all the quicks to bowl all the time, Nathan Lyon did a really good job," he said.

"Obviously the wicket started to turn a little and he threw himself into it and bowled extra overs."


2 min read

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Updated

Source: AAP


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