Posted by England just couldn’t quite get the 85 runs they needed off the final ball. However, while we give Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith enormous credit for the faultlessness of their hitting, South Africa’s monumental Twenty20 total of 241 was perhaps one step too close to slogging.
We defend Twenty20 cricket from allegations that it’s a mindless slogfest, because generally it’s still the most talented batsmen who fare best. That said, watching Bosman and Smith repeatedly clear the ropes, three things struck us.
- All their big shots went to cow corner – the match revolved around that corner of the pitch
- The fielders were largely bystanders
- The South Africans are ‘built’
Clearly we’re bitter and smarting because England got royally annihilated, but we do think there was a slightly one-dimensional quality to this particular match. The physically stronger side pitched the ball over cow corner more frequently than their opponents.
Quite right… like you said, it was like a cricket video game in which you can repeatedly slog to the same area. And Alistair Cook and Joe Denly are definitely not in the same body mould as Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman.
Well, the bowlers would bowl length right in the pulling zone.
Notice how when Wright started bowling very full, he didn’t get slogged over cow corner anything like the others?
Bresnan shouldn’t be bowling in that form of the game, now should he?
And you wouldn’t be moaning if it had been an English player peppering the spectators.
What about “your” South Africans? Suddenly English in build?
Who’s making fun of Smith’s weight now?
You got beat up by the bigger boys? This is just getting sad now.
Clearly giving Bosman and Smith ‘enormous credit’ and admitting we were ‘bitter and smarting because England got royally annihilated’ wasn’t enough.
Yes, the English bowlers bowled too many length balls. Yes, ‘our’ South Africans are the most powerful batsmen in the side.
We’re not moaning about the sixes. We’re happy with sixes – that’s the game. We’re not blaming Bosman or Smith either – they couldn’t have done any more.
It just struck us that neither batsman hit a single six to any other part of the ground. Did no-one find this a slightly one-dimensional form of cricket?
We enjoy Twenty20, but we like it when the field settings play a part.
Is there some call for a further improvements to Twenty20 in light of this match? Maybe the pitch could be located on some kind of giant revolving dancefloor nicked from a Newcastle nightclub, and it could have boundaries of an irregular length. In my mind it looks a bit like a cartoon fried egg. At any given minute, cow corner could be quite a reasonable distance, but another quarter revolution and suddenly it’s ridiculously far away and long off has become mid off. Another quarter turn and cow corner is only just off the square. Obviously the fielders would have to constantly run against the revolution of the pitch in order to hold their positions, but anything that makes cricket more like It’s A Knockout is a winner in my book.
The more I think about it the better it gets! Imagine trying to run in and bowl straight while the outfield revolves and the pitch is static. What a frankly wonderful concept.
Never felt the need to post before. but I’m getting a bit worried about the next few months of comments on the best cricket blog I’ve ever read. In case the South Africans haven’t noticed, they’re supposed to be surreal, insightful, or only barely connected to the cricket – but most of all, they’re supposed to be funny. Even the majority of the kangaroo fondlers seemed to work that out.
This isn’t a bbc/guardian/times/durban cattle advertiser comments section. If you want to post comments about your team being superior, go and do it in one of the thousand other places on the web where you’ll fit right in.
On a related point, I was hoping my first post might be a link to a video of my cat wielding a tiny cricket bat. He quite likes walking on his hind legs, if he knows there are treats in the offing, but has had difficulties so far in grasping the signed souvenir bat from a 1970s Essex team my granddad gave me. He is however exceptionally greedy, so I have high hopes.
Hear hear Nick. Funny to read though – don’t think they quite understand the (rather surreal) humour of KC!
It’s KC’s fault for writing (almost) serious posts and then giving (almost( serious answers.
I don’t’ know what’s come over him recently.
What about cat post as therapy?
Steve’s right. We declare a moratorium on (almost) serious posts until at least the end of the week.
I have an idea for those field placings, and making them work. Row 6 / seat 231, Row 9 / seat 391, ……
If they are going to put it into the crowd then that is where the fielders should stand.