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If the evidence of the last two days of one day international cricket are anything to go by, the oft-foretold decline of the 50 over format won’t be occurring in Perth, when Australia are playing South Africa.
That was proper stuff.
Mitchell Johnson, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Josh Hazlewood were terrifying enough in Game 1, but as the pitch quickened up for Sunday’s fixture, some of the balls being delivered were downright dangerous.
I thought Mark Nicholas made a couple of extremely good points in Sunday’s telecast of the match on Channel Nine. Yes, I did just write that.
His best comment of the evening was around the nature of one day cricket, and why it is a very satisfying format of the great game to watch. It’s a subject I’ve romanticised in the past, as have other Roarers. The man with the best pipes in all of cricket commentary pointed to 50-over cricket being a proper cricketing contest, while its Twenty20 cousin is more a cricketing exhibition.
It gives players the opportunity to build innings, instigate comebacks, and in may cases, absolutely demolish their opponents. That’s what happened on Sunday.
I think that’s what has me all hot under the collar after these opening two fixtures. Twenty20 is a great appetiser, but it is the dolma in the buffet of cricketing delights – something you pop into your mouth before you get back to the table for the main meal.
Two new white cricket balls, swinging around, leaping off the bouncy turf at batsmen’s throats. A true contest between bat and ball in both games. Being a student of fast bowling, nothing is more exciting. Then seeing AB De Villiers have next to no trouble dealing with the pace and bounce was an astonishing testament to his skill.
Watching Josh Hazlewood, of little international fame, known in Australia as another one of the exceptionally talented young quick bowlers hammered by injury in the early stages of development, bowl a ball that threatened to decapitate Vernon Philander was as close to baying for blood in the MMA octagon as I’ll get.
Mitchell Johnson, the moustachioed hero of Australian cricket at the moment, has also been momentous. He’s in Hashim Amla’s head, and incidentally at Hashim Amla’s head with some vicious bouncers. If there’s one thing more satisfying to an Aussie fan than watching a bowler work over a batsman and finally, almost charitably, dismiss him, it’s watching a bowler who’s in that batsman’s head to the very same thing.
Shane Warne, Daryll Cullinan.
Unfortunately, we won’t see Mitch in action for the rest of the series, but we shouldn’t let that dampen my excitement for an Australia-Proteas cricketing contest. It’s a contest I believe to be the best in world cricket.
It was all South Africa on Sunday, despite flashes of brilliance from Mitchell Marsh and Hazlewood. Dale Steyn’s majestic charge to the wicket. Morne Morkel’s steepling bounce off a length, which was the stuff of nightmares, even for the hook-happy Aussie lads.
We are in the middle of a rather random one day series against South Africa, leading into a Test and one day series against India. Aside from for the purposes of entertainment and world ranking points, it is meaningless. The World Cup pools are set, and key players are getting injured.
Yet it is the most entertaining cricket you’re likely to see. It makes me think right back to February this year, to the extraordinary Test series between these two great rivals. Australia got away with it on the back of some brilliance from, you guessed it, Mitchell Johnson, and David Warner and Ryan Harris.
For there are so many similarities in the way the two teams play. James Pattinson, Australia’s upcoming fast bowler, shares many of the same ‘scary eye’ attributes that Dale Steyn has. Both teams have strapping, fast quicks, and compact batsman who can play confidently off the back foot on bouncy wickets.
They’re probably the two most similar international cricket teams on the world, playing on similar pitches whenever at home.
They are so evenly matched. 2-1 Australia in the recent Twenty20 series. 2-1 Australia in the Test series earlier this year. 1-1 coming into the third ODI, with teams having their on and off days in all three series.
And the desire to be at home is precisely the problem, because we probably won’t get South Africa over here for a Boxing Day Test any time soon. Nor would anyone in their right mind give up the Aussie cricketing summer to travel to South Africa to play Test cricket.
It’s a standoff.
What is patently clear to me, though, is that Australia vs South Africa at the WACA is possibly the best cricket you can watch.
So expedite those talks about four-Test series, please. A three-Test series and five-match return ODI tour between these two great nations isn’t enough.
Oh, and thanks the WACA, I’m a bit of a fan. Desperate shame there’s no Test there this year.
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