I’m adding an entry because of all the great Test cricket that’s been going on lately. And of course, whenever Test cricket is played, there are the inevitable navel-gazing articles that come out asking “Is Test cricket dead?” More on that later.
Australia is mostly clobbering Pakistan in their Test series, but Pakistan has so much talent that you are always hoping it will come together and they’ll win a match. A subcontinent team in Australia will always struggle, and this series has been no different. Pakistan has squandered several chances to limit the Aussies’ scoring by dropping multiple slip catches, and you never feel like they have enough batting. But if! If they can make those catches, and if Babar Azam goes lights out, and if Shaheen Shah Afridi gets it back up to 150 km/h, maybe… The current match, at Sydney Cricket Ground, might be the one Pakistan gets. They scored 313 runs after winning the toss and batting first, and have limited Australia to 116/2 as Day 2 drew to a close after some afternoon showers. There are still a lot of runs left in the Australian bats, though.
Meanwhile, India and South Africa managed to have the shortest ever Test match that ended in a result. India won by 7 wickets on Day 2, with Indian fans complaining that everybody whines about Indian pitches being terrible when lots of wickets fall (23 on Day 1), but when it happens in South Africa, nobody says a word. I don’t think that’s fair, because plenty of people complained about the Newlands pitch, but the point is well taken.
To that end, the Indian women blasted the Australian women right before Christmas in their only Test on a friendly Wankhede pitch, and there was the usual moaning about the conditions. India scored 406 in their first innings, so they didn’t struggle to bat on it. Australia went on to sweep three ODIs in the same stadium. Maybe it wasn’t the pitch after all.
South Africa is starting a two-Test series in New Zealand in February, and because their T20 league, the SA20, is starting about the same time, SA chose an almost completely new Test squad, including Dane Piedt, who had moved to the USA and was trying to get qualified for Team USA.
In non-Test news, the BBL is moving toward the midpoint. Brisbane and Perth are undefeated and will face each other for the first time in Brisbane on January 10th.
Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu made her debut in the Women’s Super Smash in New Zealand for Northern Districts and immediately took four wickets to lead to a win over the almost impossible-to-beat Wellington Blaze. It felt like a seismic shift was happening in Mount Maunganui. Athapaththu has been playing brilliantly of late and might be the best all-rounder in the world, at least outside of Australia.
Not much news yet on the Long Island pop-up cricket stadium where India will play Pakistan on June 9th. It’s still an empty lot at the moment. Good times.
Finally, what do you think, is Test cricket dead, and did South Africa kill it by selecting the squad they did for New Zealand? Answer in the comments.
