It was the last ball of the 51st over. In Australia’s last match, their first innings didn’t even reach the 51st over.
Here, they were only two down. That was why JP Duminy was bowling his off-spin. And that’s why, off the last ball of the 51st over, Hashim Amla dropped Steven Smith at first slip.
Amla is a slip fielder. He doesn’t just have the hands or the reflexes, he also has the experience. To be a good slip fielder, you need to have experience of various days.
Days where you receive multiple chances, days where you receive a solitary chance, and days where you receive no chance at all. Full days in the field, and partial days in the field.
In Perth and Hobart, Australia’s batting wasn’t good enough to bat whole days. It never tested South Africa’s bowling as thoroughly as much as what Australia’s batsmen would have wanted, and it also never tested South Africa’s fielding as thoroughly as what they would have wanted.
Amla is a professional. On the rare occasion when his concentration causes error, he figures out what the problem is, and fixes it.
With the Smith drop, the ball went up, but he couldn’t correct his mistake immediately by clinging onto the rebound. He had to wait until the next ball of the match to correct his concentration, with the drop fresh in his mind.
Test cricket requires concentration over more time than other formats of cricket. That obviously applies to more than slips fielding, but what makes slips fielding an obvious example is that you can’t afford a conga line of slips fielders in Test cricket. An unsettled cordon is always more likely to drop catches than a settled cordon.
A great fielder is not a necessarily a great slips fielder in Test cricket.
You don’t need a slip fielder for long, or at all, in T20 cricket. It isn’t nearly so much as a real thing in T20 cricket.
The value of a fielder as a slips fielder must be balanced against his ability in the infield or the outfield, with a heavy bias towards the latter qualities. With ODI cricket, the balance might go slightly to the value of slips fielding, but not by much.
The second day of the Test at Adelaide was enjoyable because Amla’s drop was an example of the challenges unique to Test cricket, that can be too much even for the most professional of professionals.
A dropped catch in 51st over? You’d already be back in the pavilion in even the longer of the two shorter formats.
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