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(At the time of writing) there were no official crowd figures from Optus Stadium yesterday where South Africa romped home over Australia by six wickets with 124 deliveries up their sleeve in the first of three ODIs.
It was estimated there were 9,000 in the 60,000 state-of-the-art venue at the start of the match, but even that lowly figure seemed generous.
UPDATE: The final official crowd figure was 24,342.
ODI: South Africa d Australia: Crowd: 24,342 @ Optus Stadium #AUSvRSA https://t.co/K99pNthLA5
— Austadiums Sport (@au_sport) November 4, 2018
It looked more like two men, and a dog.
Cricket fans are unforgiving when their pride and joy play crap cricket, and Cricket Australia meanders on as an arrogant, controlling, and bullying governing body as described by the independent review.
Yesterdays debacle is best summed up by comparing the first power plays of 10 overs – Australia was 3-19, South Africa in reply 0-57.
Skipper Aaron Finch added to the confusion by making two extraordinary decisions.
He failed to review when struck above the pad roll, and given leg before. Chris Lynn nodded at the non-strikers end. Was he saying yes to a review, or skipper you’re gone? It was a lack of communication from the batsmen.
Finch walked, yet the review proved the ball would have easily cleared the stumps – a wasted opportunity.
Aaron Finch and his disappointed teammates (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
Defending a meagre 152, Finch ignored Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with the new ball, and gave it to Nathan Coulter-Nile who was promptly carted for 16 runs, and dismissed.
Earlier it was Coulter-Nile top scoring with 34 off 31 with five fours and a maximum, batting nine.
Man-of-the-match belonged to veteran South African quick Dale Steyn, the oldest in the game at 35 years and 130 days, with 2-18 off seven, with 32 dot balls, on a receptive wicket.
He’s been around for a long time, having debuted in 2005, but yesterday was only his 119th ODI, thanks a spate of injuries.
As he said at yesterdays presentation – “It’s nice to finish a game in Australia without breaking down”.
It’s Australian cricket that’s breaking down big time, with no positive end in sight.
That’s the 17th ODI Australia has lost in 19 starts, that began long before the lengthy suspensions to Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft.
Yet the Australians have won four of the last five Cricket World Cups.
In 1999, Australian beat Pakistan by eight wickets at Lords, beat India in 2003 at Wanderers by 125 runs, beat Sri Lanka in 2007 by 53 in Barbados, and will be the defending champions next year after beating New Zealand at the MCG by seven wickets in 2015.
It’s almost impossible to see Australia improving enough to be in contention between May and July in England and Wales.
If those stats are not disturbing enough, the Australians haven’t won the Ashes in England since 2001 – 17 years ago.
They were beaten 2-1 with two drawn in 2005, and 2009 – and lost 3-0 with two drawn in 2013.
In short, Australia has only won two Tests in England in the last 15, so the rot has been coming.
Despite the gloom, there were two bright spots yesterday – not having to listen to Mark Nicholas nor Michael Clarke prattling on in the commentary box.
We must be grateful for small mercies.