First test won by lovers of cricket

What a great display of test cricket! After five days the game came down to the last over. As we’re all aware by now we couldn’t bowl England out twice and to be honest, if it weren’t for England throwing their wickets away after tea, they probably would have secured the draw comfortably.

Going into the test match I was concerned about our bowling attack, three pace bowlers, of which one was on debut, Paul Harris our no. 1 spin bowler and a part timer in Duminy. I suggested that Harris would need to bowl brilliantly for us to bowl England out twice, he did just that in the first innings taking 5, but couldn’t repeat it in the second innings.

A positive from a bowling perspective was the performance from Friedel de Wet on debut, he was expensive in his first spell, but brought his economy rate down as the game progressed. What a display it was after tea with this new bowler landing up with four wickets in the second innings. I’m sure that, had there been time, he would have gotten 5. A bright talent for the future.

This test was Makhaya Ntini’s 100^th, he didn’t play all that well and as previously noted probably won’t be around long enough to break Shaun Pollock’s record of 421 test wickets, but what a gesture from Graeme Smith to let Ntini bowl that last over. The man is most certainly a legend.

Let’s not forget the centuries scored by Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis, without those two brilliant stands we wouldn’t have even been in the game.

Having gone down to SuperSport Park on the first and fourth days myself, been part of a good crowd turn out after a poor ODI series, getting to watch The Ndingi Express in his 100^th test, and then witnessing a Battle Royale in the last session of the fifth day, I can honestly say cricket won this test. I bet there are a few more people who noticed this game called ‘test cricket’, and a few naysayers who are eating their words about the death of test cricket.

1. 

   Marc says:

   December 30, 2009 at 8:39 pm

   How we could play either of these first two matches without Wayne Parnell is beyond me… He is probably the top bowler in the country at the moment, he offers a great variation being a left arm seamer and you still elect to go with three stock right arm quicks backed up by Kallis, Harris and Duminy…

   Its beyond me..