Let battle commence

The main event of the English cricket season gets underway on Thursday when the host faces South Africa in a series that will determine the world's best Test-playing nation. England, already rated No 1, only needs to draw the series to maintain its position, while South Africa must win to take the crown.

South Africa will present a formidable challenge. Its fearsome bowling attack is allied to a strong batting line-up and, usually, superb fielding. Also, the Saffers are good travelers, having not lost an away series since Sri Lanka in 2006. England, by contrast, was whitewashed 3-0 by Pakistan during the winter and narrowly scraped a drawn series against Sri Lanka. Moreover, the last team to beat England at home was, you guessed it, South Africa.

On the face of it, the teams are pretty evenly matched. For South Africa, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and the evergreen Jacques Kallis will prove tough competitors with the bat. However, England's pace attack - James Anderson, Stuart Broad and, probably, Tim Bresnan - has proved itself world class at home and will be champing at the bit to underline that fact.