< 1 minute readThat is… stellar. Particularly when you consider that he made three off 58 balls in the first innings. He wasn’t alone either. You can see the full deadbattery in scorecard format here. South Africa were playing for a draw to secure the series and succeeded in fine complete-absence-of-style. Rangana Herath
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South Africa chose to bat
< 1 minute readThat was where everything went wrong. They hauled it back a bit by batting okay, but really the match was decided when Faf du Plessis scorned the coin’s generosity. Why would you ask Virat Kohli to chase? It’s like asking Mike Gatting to guard your cupcakes from scavengers. This leaves
Continue readingWhen is a lottery not a lottery?
< 1 minute readMinnows, upsets, India v Pakistan and the semi-finals already – this World T20 is getting the job done. And while some people claim that Twenty20 can be a lottery, you can make a strong case for the four remaining teams also being the four strongest. Sri Lanka v West Indies
Continue readingDeath by seam bowling
2 minute readWe’re not in favour of demonising individuals. But three runs, Jade. Three runs. That’s all that was in it. Couldn’t someone have saved three runs somewhere along the way? Maybe Jos Buttler’s missed stumping proved costly. Would a specialist wicketkeeper have made the difference, or would that merely have meant
Continue readingMore Test cricket for South Africa
< 1 minute readThat’s not a chant. There are too many syllables. You’d have to rush through the ‘Test cricket’ bit to make it work and Test cricket ain’t for rushing through. No, ‘more Test cricket for South Africa’ actually comes about because it looks like there is going to be more Test
Continue readingSouth Africa aren’t exactly easy to beat
< 1 minute readIt was nearly a fitting send-off for Graeme Smith from a team hewn in his image (and ‘hewn’ is the only appropriate word to use). This South Africa side are dogged, resilient, they bat for ages and they’re prone to fourth innings performances that defy received wisdom. Fortunately for Australia,
Continue readingGraeme Smith’s not had the best series
< 1 minute readWe wrote this title in the hope that we’d have some really funny thoughts to share once we started staring at the great expanse of whiteness where the body of the article’s supposed to go. Nothing happened, so we checked Twitter and apparently Graeme Smith’s going to retire. Let this
Continue readingDissecting ‘momentum’ for the millionth time
< 1 minute readAhead of the third Test between South Africa and Australia, Hashim Amla has said: “There’s a lot riding on the last Test and fortunately we’ve got a bit of momentum.” Let’s very quickly examine how ‘momentum‘ has influenced the series thus far. Australia won the first Test and thus gained
Continue readingTake the next exit and turn around
2 minute readIt was like they were running late, had got onto the motorway heading in the wrong direction and had to race to the next exit so that they could turn round and race back again. Batsman One made 107, Batsman Two made 66 and then the next highest score was
Continue readingShaun Marsh holds up South Africa
< 1 minute readNo, he did. One of the three deliveries he faced in this Test match didn’t see the fall of his wicket. He really hung around. When Shaun Marsh was brought back into the Test side, we wrote: “Whether you think he’s good or not largely depends on whether you consider
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