South Africa Vs England,3rd Test, Final Days Play.

[Goatman]

Originally Posted by Rachael

Bottom line: whilst it may be the case that strenuous activity would be that much of an ordeal at a mere 5,000'... I'd not expect a bunch of fit cricketers to really notice!

During the rugby WC in SA there was a lot of grumbling that SA's games all seemed to be inland - the pundits all reckoned it would make a difference - and in a couple of games you'd see high quality players just seem to flag early in the second half. And they're all pretty fit. Real pain in the **** for the half backs too - apparently that altitude is actually enough to materially alter the weighting of place kicks. You'd see fly-halves who were machines in thier own back yards hoofing the ball way, way into the stands and being left just standing there looking ********** off......... Who was the Aussie lad? I'm sure its him I'm remembering.......

I spent a month on a caving expedition in the Moroccan High Atlas (a mere 3000m) and at the start my God was that hard.... Lugging gear over the mountain sides....... we'd walk for ten minutes and then just stand there puffing! And I've never felt the heat so fast in my life - you couldn't walk when the sun was high, you'd just go all dizzy and fall over! Then, when we finally went down the hill at the end having acclimatised we all thought we were going to die! The humidity! ******, I'd forgotten that...... We lay in the middle of the road in this little town just groaning. We were in such a state atfer a months caving one woman thought we were beggers or something and threw us some stale bread! Ah, happy days!

Anyway, it's something that does seem to be personal and, counter intuitively, I have heard that it is more likely to strike down the super-fit than the lardo's. Apparently fatties are used to struggling for breath, and so don't notice!

[Zainub]

Ok, everyone, this week's Spin is out early. Mr Booth gives the Post-mortem to England's first loss in a while, and puts forwarD some worthwhile (as in discuss-able) points, enjoy reading, and let me know what you think.

Originally Posted by Lawrence Booth

WELL, THAT MAKES A CHANGE...

As the Spin enters its fourth calendar year, it seems strange to
reflect that the whole of 2004 passed without a single column about
an England Test defeat. There have been mutterings from on high that
this was not part of the deal when the Spin first tucked that
tattered brown envelope into its top pocket in the back streets of
Clerkenwell, so defeat at Cape Town might just have come at a timely
moment. Here, then - and with a due doff of the cap to the 13 Tests
England didn't lose - is where it went wrong at Newlands.

1. Michael Vaughan reckoned England's batsmen failed to concentrate
properly. This is like accusing an international footballer of
failing to run, or a formula one driver of failing to start the
ignition. The result of this collective loss of a vital commodity was
that no England batsman reached a half-century on a pitch on which
Jacques Kallis made 215 runs by himself. Oh, and Steve Harmison was
the second-innings top scorer.

2. The Spin has a lot of time for Simon Jones, but what exactly is his
role in the side? Jones bowled 27.3 overs at Cape Town, which was
nearly 15 fewer than Matthew Hoggard, the second-least-used bowler,
and seems to have been unimaginatively pigeonholed: he appears for a
short spell as second change, then gets a chance to show off his
reverse-swing when the ball is 50 overs old. But he is better than
that. Four wickets and the catch to dismiss Graeme Smith at Port
Elizabeth, plus the run-out of Shaun Pollock at Durban - these
suggest that he officially Makes Things Happen. Let's give him the
chance.

3. South Africans have come to regard Andrew Strauss in the same way
as England fans viewed Graeme Smith after two Tests of the 2003
series and are now viewing Kallis: he is the alpha and omega, the
be-all and end-all. When he fell shortly before the close on the
second evening, a heavily accented voice in the press box proclaimed:
"That's huge." The voice was right. Had Strauss resumed on the third
morning with Graham Thorpe - currently the only two players in the
line-up you would trust in a rearguard - England might still be going
to Johannesburg with a series lead.

4. It seems like a cop-out to blame a 50-50 call at the start of the
game, but the Spin is going to do it anyway. Had Vaughan won the toss
(record as captain: 22 tosses, 16 defeats) and England had batted
first, the outcome might have been different. It might not have been,
of course, given point 1, but after spending the last day and a bit
of the Durban Test in the field, followed by five more sessions here
in Cape Town, tiredness must have been a factor.

5. Nicky Boje is a decent cricketer, but England made him look like
Garry Sobers. The bowlers - Steve Harmison in particular - fed his
strengths on the second day by dropping short and allowing him to use
his lack of height to steer the ball high over point. His stand of
104 for the eighth wicket with Kallis changed the face of the game.
And the batsmen played him poorly in the second innings, none more so
than Robert Key, whose charge down the track might delay his progress
as an England cricketer unless Mark Butcher fails to recover for the
fourth Test. "Lovely boy," said Geoff Boycott of Boje. "But lovely
bowler to face too".

[Rachael]

LOL to the tale from the Moroccan High Atlas. I know what you mean about the huimidity as well: routinely 95 degrees and 95% humidity in a few places I've worked... and that's before it get's hot / sticky!

With regard to the Rugby: interesting. Not sure it should affect the cricketers so much though: they have plenty of time in the field to catch their breath!

[Goatman]

Might make a difference to throws in from the boundary, though a cricket ball is a lot more aerodynamic than a rugby ball, being a lot smaller. And it should certainly mean that the ball gets to the bat quicker, and bounces a little more - though again this may be marginal.

If its hot the fast bowlers will tire quicker, and the bats may find they are short of breath. Always harder work than it looks batting......