David Terbrugge Photo CricInfo

David Terbrugge will play his first Test match since 1999 when he takes the new ball against Australia in the third and final Castle Lager/MTN Test match starting at Kingsmead on Friday.

Terbrugge has been included in the South African starting 11 with Lance Klusener being released to play for KwaZulu-Natal in a vital SuperSport Series match against Western Province at Newlands over the weekend. A little surprisingly, perhaps, Andrew Hall has been retained as a bowling all-rounder although he barely turned his arm over in the Australian second innings at Newlands earlier in the week.

Although Terbrugge will share the new ball with Makhaya Ntini, his primary function, it seems, will be containment, a role to which he is well-suited. By no means lightning fast, he is capable of bowling line and length with South Africa desperate to stop leaking runs against the Australians.

Hall scored a brave 70 in the South African first innings at Newlands, but he has yet to show that he can bowl out good batsmen at the highest level. South African selection convener Rushdi Magiet did not help clarify matters when he first said that it had been the captain's decision to barely use Hall in the second innings in Cape Town and then mentioned a stiff back that had supposedly troubled Hall.

Whether Mark Boucher makes more use of Hall as a bowler at Kingsmead remains to be seen, but the biggest argument for retaining him would surely be the fight he brought to the South African cause with his batting in the first innings. This, though, will not help balance the South African attack.

Terbrugge, meanwhile, only learned that he would be given the new ball when told so by journalists after his selection. "Well, there you go then," he said.

He cites Glenn McGrath as a role model, pointing out that both are built like "angry matchsticks" and he has recovered from the leg pains that cast some doubt over his fitness earlier in the week.

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