A revamped Manuka Oval will be ready for its World Cup audition and Canberra will shine on the national stage when the Australian cricket team comes to town this month.
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Manuka Oval curator Brad Van Dam is predicting a run feast and boundaries galore for the day-night clash between Michael Clarke's men and South Africa on November 19.
The ACT government is confident the game will attract close to a capacity crowd of 13,000 for the mid-week encounter and third game of the best of five one-day series against the Proteas.
It is the start of a massive summer of cricket in the national capital, featuring the Prime Minister's XI game against England on January 14, the final of the Twenty20 Big Bash League on January 28 and three World Cup games in February and March.
One of those involves South Africa, which will use its coming visit to see the conditions firsthand before its pool match with Ireland.
Manuka Oval has traditionally been a batsman's paradise, with big scores a regular occurrence during the annual PM's XI fixture and last year's one-dayer between Australia and the West Indies.
The ground was dug up last year and replaced for the first time.
Cricket ACT chief executive Mark Vergano praised the work of Van Dam to have the ground in great condition, with games involving Ireland and Afghanistan having been held in September, much earlier than usual.
"Brad's track record has been fantastic," Vergano said. "We go back to the PM's matches, we go back to the centenary [year] ODI.
"His aim is to have a collective 600-run match for the day-night; he's hit that target plenty of times.
"It should certainly showcase the ground very well and it should play to the standard that's been set and maintained."
It will be South Africa's first game in Canberra since it played the PM's XI in 1996.
Australian selectors have named a strong squad for the first two ODIs against South Africa at the WACA Ground in Perth on November 14 and 16.
The squad for the Canberra game will be announced after game two.
"It's the Australian team coming to town; the selectors will do what the selectors need to do," Vergano said.
"Injuries play a role, rotations play a role.
"We'll just prepare the ground and have that ready to showcase Manuka as best we can."
Territory Venues and Events general manager Liz Clarke said ticket sales had been very strong and were similar to last year's game against the West Indies when it was sold out.
"They're equivalent to how things were going last year," Clarke said.
"Based on how things are selling, two weeks out, I think it's going to be fairly full.
"We've done some improvements getting ready for the Cricket World Cup.
"We've widened both the entrances and put in pedestrian access as well, and we've done some improvements around the circle of the oval as well for food concessions."
Clarke said increased bus services would be running for the game and would be complimentary with the purchase of a match ticket.
One-day international: Australia v South Africa at Manuka Oval on Wednesday, November 19, 2.20pm. Adult tickets from $35.68 to $101.95. Tickets on sale from Ticketek.
