Surely the second Test between Australia and South Africa would have lured some of the T20 fans back to the purest and best form of the game.
Spectators, fans and the newly introduced watchers were treated to five completely different and entirely absorbing days of cricket. What followers saw for five days in Test cricket, I scarcely remember seeing in any T20 game.
The momentum swung back and forth for five days until only the fairest result emerged; a draw.
Day one saw a savage onslaught by the Australians after being on the backfoot in the first hour.
Day two saw a strong South African fightback.
Day three saw the game settle to be anyone’s for the taking with Australia languishing at 5/100 by stumps.
Day four saw the Australians once more claw out of the mud and set what would need to be a world record target, and have South Africa skittled to 4/55 before the evening session rearguard gave South Africa the faintest glimmer of a draw for the fifth day.
And what a fifth day. The scoreboard only tells half the story.
Yes, the scoreboard will show that South Africa grimly held on all day.
Yes, the scoreboard will show that Australia were incapable of bowling out a team in nearly 150 overs and Faf Du Plessis played a truly patient knock to reach a maiden Test century on debut.
Yes, the scoreboard showed after five days, the game was a draw.
But what the scoreboard doesn’t show, and what makes Test cricket such a glorious game, is the heroic efforts of certain players in each team.
The scorecard doesn’t show that Jacques Kallis played off one good leg and still scored his average in the first innings and survived two and a half hours in the second.
The scoreboard doesn’t show the physical anguish Faf Du Plessis felt in the final half hour of this gripping match.
The scoreboard doesn’t show that Peter Siddle was at near collapse in the evening session, yet willed himself to bowl ball after ball at full pace, and take two vital wickets to boot.
Finally, the scoreboard does not show the pressure felt by both teams for 100 overs yesterday, the pressure of Australia needing to bowl South Africa out, and South Africa needing to withstand a day of having six people within two metres of the bat for six hours.
Some people often criticise a draw asking how could you not have a result after five days?
Well, I put the second Test as my answer; how could you have a winner and loser in this match? Both teams did not want to lose and therefore neither team can win. People forget that sometimes a draw is a result.
The objective behind Test cricket is simple; take 20 wickets and have more runs than the opposing team when you do so.
What we saw for five grueling days is that this is far easier said than done. Despite their best intentions, neither team could do so. And that’s why Test cricket is the greatest game ever invented.
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