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Showing posts with label England vs South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label England vs South Africa. Show all posts
The Oval Test via the IPL
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“Now you know why batsmen like Cook and Trott have no place in the IPL.”“KP’s cameo showed he’s a team player not too bothered by landmarks.”
My patience is running thin with this Test. It didn’t start well. First my cable guy, Hathway, regaled me with his version of motion capture – frozen images for no less than 3 minutes. Steyn took that long to take his jersey off. It looked as if his head was stuck in it and he was struggling to get out of it. He was out of it.
He came on in the 11th over. And when he did, he
bowled as if he could have waited for that one over booked for Tahir before
lunch.
Morkel got a friendly warning first ball. What is a friendly
warning? – “You’re getting it off with my sister, mind it” To start a Test,
this Test, the first Test, which was almost as waited-for as that first
India-England Test last year with a friendly warning is demeaning.
That Bumble broke the ‘friendly warning’ to us lessened the
blow somewhat.
From then on I watched most of the first session with the
back of my head. Bad telecast tossed with no telecast and vinegar.
There was rain before that. The covers came on before the
toss. Only in England. And Sri Lanka. Why don’t they play on the damn covers if
they’re worried about the pitch?
And Cook dug in deep. It was under Cook’s tutelage that the
phrase, ‘if you don’t get him early fear for the worst’ was coined. When Cook is in
you can step out, buy your beer, power nap, fornicate, defecate. It’s the
opposite of Sachin really – he knows nobody’s eyes are on him. Not yours, mine,
the umpire’s or even Steyn’s.
Imagine if Sachin had that. He would have scored 100
thousand 100s by now.
Then you see what Alastair Cook can do in the highlights and you realize he can bat,
hit boundaries, a straight drive, through the covers.
I did watch that 6 Live though. That would have made a
proper IPL batsman proud. The boundaries were in. The bat was beefy. It was an
edge, off Steyn, over fine leg.
Steyn smiled – this is just like the IPL where I get smashed
shitless. And who knows, Cook could become a proper IPL player one day. But for
that we’ll have to watch him first.
If Lalit Modi was in charge of England's home series, he'd find sponsors for the rains.
— BCC! (@BoredCricket) July 19, 2012
This Test sucks, by now the Indians would've been bowled out, and ready to follow on. #EngvsSaf
— Gaurav Sethi (@nakedcricket) July 19, 2012
Poor Tihar, worked so fucking hard on those celebrations forgot all about his bowling.
— BCC! (@BoredCricket) July 19, 2012
Watching South Africa bowl over the last few hours, Vinay Kumar's chest must have started to swell.
— BCC! (@BoredCricket) July 19, 2012
“I'm all for the last session of the fifth day being played first”
That was me on twitter during the last session of the fifth day, only it was being played last. Prior to this, funny how every time I say Prior, thought gets sidetracked.
But not this time. All I saw of this game prior to this last session was Ashwell Prince; and while there are many compelling reasons to watch cricket, he isn’t one of them. The IPL know this, and he wasn’t eaten up.
But the South Africa-England and New Zealand-Pakistan test series have been truly superb. There are no ad breaks. You see the players change ends, run errands, walk the dog. It’s sublime, so every day; I’ve really started to enjoy mid overs. The pace is a tad off mind you.
That was how it was and then I arrived on the last session. In fact the last leg of the last session – from 9 pm – 9.55 pm (IST). That’s when the wickets fell, the South African lived in hope (no Cape jokes) and became generally unbearable.
Of course, once Trott and KP were consumed, there were no more durable batsmen left, except Collingwood, not very perishable, is he?
Collingwood was made to save games, in a way, he’s like the poor man's Dravid. His place will always be in peril. Right now the ECB are questioning his innings, why didn’t he convert the first innings’ fifty? Before you know it, Trott will completely overshadow Collingwood as the shadow Prime Minister.
But today is his, again. He was the last batsman standing; his position in middle order at 5 seems just about right after Trott and KP, and England have something going for the series.
Don’t be surprised if they go on to bigger things from here. May not be the Ashes all over again, but this could be one tight series. Don’t waste too much time over it, but keep the post tea session on the fifth day open. Next time, who knows, it could be Boucher playing a Collingwood at Durban. For his sake, I hope Ntini isn’t non-striker. He’s no Onions, and doesn’t he know that.
PS: Talking about Ntini, why waste the last over on him - his bowling idiom has always been, "how to miss the stumps".
You can also read this one on poor Onions and his lot.
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