The moon was visible in Bellerive during the first minutes of Tuesday, in among the cloud.
Not the first minutes of the day’s play, but the first minutes of the day.
The moon had not been so close to Earth since 1948. A ‘Supermoon’, they said.
Cricket’s biggest Supermoon was also last seen in 1948. Ever since then, Don Bradman has been the yardstick by which all others are measured, especially Australians.
Whenever an Australian batsman has a season that establishes them as one of the batsmen of their generation, the comparison with Bradman inevitably comes out.
The best since Bradman. Or the most runs in an x-length series since Bradman.
It was in the first series Steve Smith captained that there was a comparison with Bradman. There were other stars in Australia’s team against India in 2014-15, but Smith was the moon.
In this match, Smith was Australia’s moon. There was nothing else except cloud and jubilant South Africans. Then even the moon was no longer visible. South Africa still had to take two more wickets when Kagiso Rabada dismissed Smith, but the crowd’s groan on Smith’s dismissal said even more than the scoreboard.
He was the only reason for any Australian fan to look up.
The crowd cheered the few runs Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon could score, but it was gallows humor. Like cheering for a prisoner trying to escape his cell by headbutting the ceiling.
This was an uncomfortably close replica of the 2015 Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.
But as Smith and Usman Khawaja survived the opening overs, scoring at a run rate of one, their struggle was reminiscent of another Ashes Test at Trent Bridge ten years earlier. On the fourth morning, Simon Katich and Michael Clarke looked to edge Australia past the follow-on at a similar rate.
The difference was that it took Matthew Hoggard until the 28th over of that morning session in 2005 to lure Clarke into a fatal flirt outside off-stump.
Yesterday, it took five overs for Kyle Abbott to suck Khawaja into a fatal slash outside off-stump.
Khawaja’s dismissal wasn’t the worst of the day, but it was the dismissal that set the ball rolling, and the occasional loose dismissal is more forgivable from an attacking opener such as David Warner.
Take nothing away from Abbott. When Dale Steyn is Elvis, being Ringo isn’t an easy job, especially with Morne Morkel waiting for his opportunity.
But the simple fact is that in 2005 an Australian batsman would have made him bowl a much longer spell for the vital wicket. Even when the team was underperforming.
In the 2005 Boxing Day Test, Ricky Ponting chose to bat first, even though damp spots forced the start of play to be delayed. Later, he, Matthew Hayden, and Michael Hussey ensured a first-innings total of 355 and a big win.
If Steve Smith was faced with a similar predicament in Australia’s next Test, he wouldn’t have any choice but to bowl first.
Adam Voges is on the edge of the precipice, at best. Australia’s batsmen had looked to get forward of the crease to combat the seam movement the three South African quicks had been using so effectively. But the South Africans thought on their feet well, judiciously using the short ball.
The result was, in the case of the Voges dismissal, a batsman who looked in about four minds.
Callum Ferguson was also out trying to leave a short ball but considering he was on debut, his double failure is nowhere near as problematic Voges’. Dropping him after one match would ensure other batsmen coming into the team would be left thinking if they don’t make runs from the word go, they won’t be in the team.
Rabada secured his third dismissal with the short ball when he forced Peter Nevill to fend a catch to JP Duminy at gully. It’s hard to see the selectors dropping Nevill, and in fairness, it was the best of those three short balls.
Yet if the selectors want to strengthen the batting, Matthew Wade may not be too far away from a return.
In terms of who to pick, uncertainty is cruelling the performance of Australia’s Test team. Yet while the symptom is uncertainty, it is the depressing certainty of batting ineptitude over the five most recent Tests that hurts the most. If Smith is rightfully tired of what his team is serving up, then who knows what he’ll be like if Australia do not improve in Adelaide.
Smith sometimes gets criticised for acting like Captain Grumpy.
If anyone criticises him for acting like Captain Grumpy in the aftermath of this match because there must be a winner and a loser, it’ll be like criticising a homeowner for being cranky that rain is pouring into his house through his roof because rain must fall somewhere.
What do you think a roof is supposed to do?
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.
Check out some of the short-arm pull shots from Rocky Flintoff!
Harshal Patel was not a happy man!
David Lord has been remembered as an icon of Australian sports journalism following his death, aged 84. The renowned writer and broadcaster was an…
Sign the man up for a contract next season!
RCB have suffered a massive HEAD-ACHE after Travis Head smashed the fastest century by an SRH player in just 39 balls, as they amassed…
A brutal century by Travis Head has blasted Sunrisers Hyderabad back into the Indian Premier League play-off places in another match for bowlers to…
