28-01-2007, 09:13 PM
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Selector-World XI (1980 onwards) (ENG-captain) Passed Mike Atherton's 7728 Test runs | | Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Norfolk My main national team: None - I support cricket in general
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| Test cricket signs off on a high note: "Fab four hit right notes for entertainment"
With pyjama cricket rearing its populist head at every turn, two succesive Test series in SA have provided an enthralling reminder that Test cricket remains a game beyond compare: Quote:
As we won't be seeing another red ball, or men in whites, until May 17 now, it was only right that the last day of Test cricket for five months was, well, Test cricket through and through. In the morning session, particularly, the game was at its peak, cricket as it was meant, with two sides more evenly matched than any of the three results really indicate trying to disprove that very assertion.
Early wickets fell to up the pressure, whereby followed a four-way battle as compelling to follow as when the Beatles were breaking up over matters artistic. Mohammad Asif and Danish Kaneria flung just about everything they had at Jacques Kallis and Ashwell Prince. All types of deliveries, ideas, plans were hurled at the batsmen and verbals too. Lucky there were no kitchen sinks, for they would have been tried as well.
Kallis and Prince were perturbed but unmoved. Run-scoring and self-preservation wage a daily battle for a batsman's top priorities but only the latter mattered here. It's a horrible, over-used statement, but South Africa wouldn't have wanted anyone else batting for their 'life' here. Kallis was immense, cocooned fully from any rashness, any temptations. Prince partnered him well, trying to up the rate but when realising he couldn't, just biding his time. Both faced hairy moments aplenty but both knew it was only ever a question of time.
| This article's celebration of the key players in this game and series (and of the merits of a VERY un-ODI-ish form of entertainment in which big hitting never even threatened to feature) deserve commendation. The celebration of four herculean efforts also deserves repetition: Quote:
Kallis and Prince have been present at all key moments; they haven't scored big runs, certainly not the kind associated with Kallis, but each of their 512 runs has been critical. Possibly as important is the nearly 1200 balls they faced between them, mostly from Asif and Kaneria, and each one survived, a small victory in itself. When those two haven't been at the crease, South Africa's batting has looked as watertight as a sieve.
Similarly, when Asif and Kaneria haven't been bowling, either in tandem or at one end, Pakistan's attack has been irrelevant, barring 11 overs from Shoaib Akhtar. The pair took 34 of the 48 South African wickets to fall and bowled 305 overs between them. The rare occasions they weren't on, South Africa prospered, and in those moments slipped away Pakistan's best chance to win a Test series in South Africa.
It is unlikely that Test cricket will dominate the thinking of either side from now till late this year but they might want to jot down a few, hasty notes on a laptop or two as a reminder of what needs sorting when they do wear whites again.
| See Fab four hit right notes for entertainment  |