Kiwis take on South Africa live on Ten Sports

MUMBAI: As part of Ten Sports’ recent high-profile acquisition telecast rights of all international cricket from South Africa, the most watched sports channel of the sub-continent will broadcast ball-by-ball coverage of New Zealand’s attempt to record a historic triumph against the hosts.

New Zealand will be up against history as they have never beaten South Africa in a Test series ever since the two countries started playing against each other in 1931. Their best result against the Proteas is a 1-1 draw, which came at home in the 2003-04 series.

The visitors are also short of Test match practice, having played their last five-day game almost 11 months ago in December 2006 against Sri Lanka.

While Daniel Vettori, the affable new Kiwi captain, will try his best to make history for his team, they will have to contend against a confident South African side, which is on a high after winning both Test and ODI series during their recent tough trip to Pakistan.

Almost all South African players have shown good form in the tour of Pakistan, and captain Graeme Smith will be especially delighted with the performance of Jacques Kallis with the bat and Makhaya Ntini with the ball.

The series starts with the two Test matches – at Johannesburg (November 8-12) and Centurion (November 16-20). The teams will then move to Johannesburg for the only Twenty20 match of the series, followed by the three one-dayers – Durban (November 25), day-night at Port Elizabeth (November 30) and Cape Town (December 2).Live telecast of the Johannesburg Test match starts 2:00 pm IST every day from Thursday, November 8.

Ten Sports has recently acquired telecast rights of all international cricket matches from South Africa and Zimbabwe, thus becoming the home for all the action from half the Test-playing cricketing world. Apart from South Africa and Zimbabwe, Ten Sports already has rights for Asia and Middle East of all international matches from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

Apart from the two high-profile series in October, Ten Sports will feature as many as seven other tours in the next nine months, including India's visit to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, which will include both Tests and ODIs.

Schedule: South Africa v New Zealand ( 2 Test , T20 & 3 ODI ).