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South Africa v West Indies, 1st Test, Port Elizabeth

Gayle remains optimistic of playing

Cricinfo staff

December 24, 2007

I don't want to wait in vain: Chris Gayle is hoping his hamstring injury heals in time © Getty Images

"It's improved a lot the last couple of days," Gayle said. "The physio has been doing a terrific job and hopefully it improve over the next couple of days. I've been feeling pretty good, batting in the nets, but there's still uncertainty. We'll assess it finally on match day. It's coming on pretty good."

Gayle, who was named captain in Ramnaresh Sarwan's absence, will be replaced by Dwayne Bravo if he misses out. Bravo, who, like Gayle, has never captained West Indies in a Test match, has an unbeaten record in ODIs - leading them to victory in his first three ODIs in charge against Zimbabwe.

West Indies' main area of concern is their batting, after they lost a warm-up game against South Africa A in East London inside three days. "We have to put that behind us and try and get into the right frame of mind ahead of a very important game," Gayle said.

"We know where went wrong and we know there's a lot of work to do. We know what we're capable of. We just have to play basic cricket and get the job done, and if we get a start, we have to capitalise on it. You can't allow the South Africans in, because once they get an opportunity then definitely we're going to be up against it."

John Dyson, the West Indies coach, also remained positive. "I've been very impressed with the professionalism and enthusiasm the players have shown in the nets," he said. "If we can take that forward to the middle we'll be very competitive."

Meanwhile, Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, said that he had fully recovered from a virus that ruled him out of the recent ODI series against New Zealand. "I started training about a week ago and I am feeling energised again."

South Africa go into the match at St George's Park as strong favourites on the back of consistent performances in their recent matches. They have won three out of their four Tests this season - one against Pakistan and a brace against New Zealand, and have the likes of Dale Steyn, the right-arm fast bowler who took 20 wickets in the series against New Zealand, as well as Jacques Kallis, one of only two batsmen to score 1000 runs this calendar year, in their ranks.

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