Skip to main content

The battle for No. 3

Since the decline in Australian domination post 2007, teams appear to have become obsessed with being ranked #1 in Test cricket as though a numerical calculation mattered more than actual results and winning Test matches. The fact that the ranking has changed hands four times in the last five years is almost testament to the fact that teams are driven more by wanting to reach the top spot than on staying there once they make it. Graeme Smith's team will claim that they are the most deserving holders of the mace given their consistency in the last five years plus the fact that they have beaten both Eng and Aus away, and not lost to India in India ie they have outperformed their closest contenders in their home conditions. The truth though is that there is no clear-cut champion at the moment.

What is very clear though is that the upcoming Pataudi Trophy series is a contest to decide third and fourth place. In current form and team circumstances, the teams battling each other down under currently are clearly ahead of England and India. South Africa are still the best all-round unit (ie with the fewest weaknesses) and Australia have a captain who's proving to be inspirational and in the form of his life. Dhoni's men and Cook and co on the other hand are having to rebuild and as Osman Samiuddin puts it, the biggest learning from the series will be how much more rebuilding the losing team will need to do.

Still, a contest between equally flawed teams is often as thrilling as that between equally good ones so I'm eagerly waiting for play to begin in less than six hours time!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy New Year .....

....well almost......its only 2 months in to 2009 so I guess its not terribly late for the first post of the year :-) The end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 has been quite engrossing primarily because of the tussle for supremacy between Australia and South Africa. And its interesting how once again, the Aussies are showing that the biggest mistake 'pundits' can make is to write them off. But I am jumping way ahead. The series in Australia was a real cracker and it was great to see the Springboks actually delivering so well on their abilities for once and not choking at the big moments. And in Steyn, Amla, de Villiers, Duminy and Morkel they have some real stars in the making and should be a strong team for some time to come. Australia's struggles on the other hand were not surprising after their performance in India. The same guys, i.e. Hayden and Lee continued to underwhelm and with the inexplicable selection of Symonds made things worse for Ricky Ponting. They were a l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Season ending review

Well, officially the season hasn't quite ended since the last one-dayer between Australia and South Africa still remains to be played but given that its a dead rubber, the season is as good as over. And what a season its been. Probably as much action off-field as on it, but its been riveting throughout and the quality of Test cricket overall (apart from the WI-Eng series) has been top-notch and a welcome reminder of why I like the 5 day format the most. The two Aus-SA series have in particular been fascinating to watch though a lot of it has been driven by Australia waiting too long to make much needed changes. South Africa though has truly come on in leaps and bounds and though they will be losing Kallis and Ntini sooner rather than later, their decreasing reliance on them over the last year or so has meant that they won't be missed much. Their one-day game has come along strongly too and they should have a genuine shot at the World Cup this time. Australia on the other hand h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Of backward selections and England's future

A couple of interesting selectorial decisions recently by England and India (and actually as its turning out Australia as well!). For once I think the England selectors didn't panic and showed the right thinking by not picking either Key or Ramprakash for the Oval Test. And luckily for them, both Bell and Trott have performed well enough to vindicate the decision. India on the other hand have actually gone the other way bringing Dravid back to the one-day squad. I'm a bit ambivalent on that one. While the decision to leave out Rohit Sharma and retain Raina was certainly the right one, bringing back Dravid is questionable. It would have been a bolder decision to pick someone like Kohli or Rahane who both played really well in the Emerging Players Trophy recently, mainly because Dravid is quite unlikely to feature in the 2011 World Cup so why bring him back now? As for the Aussies, they will certainly be regretting not picking Nathan Hauritz for the Oval. A defensive decision if...
Post a Comment
Read more