Cricket: Test Cricket

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24885963-2722,00.html

Last-gasp Aussies break Graeme Smith's grasp

IN the end, Australia won a thrilling third Test against South Africa with 10 balls to go, warding off suggestions it is in terminal decline and facing a bleak future.

But it was the valiant attempt by the visitors' injured captain, Graeme Smith, to save the day that won the admiration of cricket fans of all persuasions.

With lightning flashing in the sky and his tail-enders holding on grimly during the last session of a gripping series, Smith, who had watched the match from the balcony since breaking his knuckle on the second day of the game, decided he would defy medical orders and bat if need be.

There was a Test to be saved and a rare opportunity to keep Australia winless on home soil.

The only problem was that Smith, who has a cast on his left hand and a severely injured elbow on the other side of his body, had left his clothes back in the hotel, not planning to bat in the second innings. While the game dragged on yesterday, strange scenes ensued inside the South African dressing room.

Smith found a pair of trousers among his bats. He borrowed a shirt from Jacques Kallis and now he needed a jumper to complete the outfit. The only one that would fit belonged to spinner Paul Harris, but it had a large hamburger stain on the left side from a recent feast.

No matter, but there was the problem of the plaster cast on his wrist and an arm so immobile he could not dress himself, even with his gear assembled.

Somehow he managed to get the cast off and pull over the aching hand a specially modified glove that accommodated two taped fingers and a protector. Morne Morkel was delegated to dress his captain.

It should never have come to this. Australia, despite playing with two Test debutants, had South Africa eight wickets down before 4pm and thought they just had to get either Dale Steyn or notorious bunny Makhaya Ntini out and the game was done.

Somehow the pair held on until after 5pm. When one of the newcomers, Andrew McDonald, removed Steyn, the Australians celebrated as if they had won the Test. That is when Smith appeared from the change rooms and walked to the field, heart beating fast beneath the hamburger stain.

"I just decided to give it my best shot," Smith said later. "If I got a first baller, at least I tried."

He decided he could not risk pain-killing injections in the wrist or elbow and knew that it was going to hurt like hell, but Smith also knew if he could hold on with Ntini for another 50 balls they could save the match.

Just like former Australian opener Rick McCosker, who batted at No10 with a broken jaw in the second innings of the Centenary Test against England in 1977, Smith was prepared to risk a lot of pain if it helped the team's cause.

"Luckily, most balls hit the bat," Smith said. "Once one ball hit my bat, I kind of thought, 'OK, that's one out of the way, just keep watching the ball'. I think I was more worried about getting a blow on the hand than anything else, but luckily it never happened."

Smith and Ntini lasted 40 balls before Mitchell Johnson bowled the incapacitated South African captain with a ball that deviated off one of the cracks that had opened up on the pitch.

Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, whose declaration on Tuesday afternoon receives some criticism but in the end was vindicated, was feeling as much pain as Smith for most of the afternoon. But he was over the moon when his side finally made a stand and won a Test in the three-match series to retain the No1 ranking.

"I congratulated him (Smith) on a great series win and I congratulated him on getting back out there this afternoon," Ponting said.

"I thought that showed a lot of character."

Smith was awarded man of the series, Peter Siddle man of the match, but some might say it was the game that won the day.
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Just a side note. What does the bold part mean......what are they trying to say.....:confused:
 
I think its the way he bats maybe :)

Yea smith has a new fan in me i have to say. Even before this coming out injured thing, something has changed him in the last year or so, he seems like he is going to be our best captain ever.
 
Good Life said:
That loss put a damper on a great series! We won, but it's the second time now in a row where we win 2-1 losing the last match. :rolleyes:
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Indeed. A draw would of been nice.

killadoob said:
Nope why should we have settled for 2-0 when we could go for 3-0 and possibly land on 2-1? what is so bad about winning a series in aus by 2 games to 1?

Merc please enlighten me as to why 2-1 is worse than 2-0 considering we could have won it 3-0?
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No no no. You've misunderstood me - at no point did I say 2 - 0 is better than 3 - 0. I said (or I should have been more clear) that 2 - 0 is better than 2 - 1. I thought you were saying that 2 - 1 is better than 2 - 0 which confused me.
 
sandmanm34 said:
That's fantastic to read!!

36 average in test and 38 average in ODI is hardly below par. He was very much a part time bowler but not inadequate.Not true. It's well documented that Hansie and Bob Woolmer meticulously went about analysing and accessing batsman, their weaknesses and strengths and how to get them out.mmmm not sure you can be blaming Pollock and Hansie for damaging the transformation process when the only players of colour selected at the time were Ontong, Ntini and Gibbs(Ontong possibly not a justified selection either).

Whose birthday was it anyway? Cliques are a way of life... Must have been Ontongs Bday, 4th January, I wouldn't have celebrated it with him either...
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Everyone in this current test side except McKenzie averages quite a lot more than just 36. Mac averages nearly 38 while everyone else averages at least 41. He was never a very good test batsmen at best he was average.
 
Mckenzie is very talented but he is just going through a bad spell, i hope they give him some more time because i think he will come right.
 
stefan9 said:
Everyone in this current test side except McKenzie averages quite a lot more than just 36. Mac averages nearly 38 while everyone else averages at least 41. He was never a very good test batsmen at best he was average.
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Mkaya, Dale, Morne, Mark, Paul, all average at least 41? Really?
 
sandmanm34 said:
That's fantastic to read!!

36 average in test and 38 average in ODI is hardly below par. He was very much a part time bowler but not inadequate.Not true. It's well documented that Hansie and Bob Woolmer meticulously went about analysing and accessing batsman, their weaknesses and strengths and how to get them out.mmmm not sure you can be blaming Pollock and Hansie for damaging the transformation process when the only players of colour selected at the time were Ontong, Ntini and Gibbs(Ontong possibly not a justified selection either).

Whose birthday was it anyway? Cliques are a way of life... Must have been Ontongs Bday, 4th January, I wouldn't have celebrated it with him either...
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Got the b'day right, but a bit harsh on Ontong... I recall a nice 22 yo, who was a pawn in the saga...that's all I'll say about that.
But the invite we had was a harbour cruise with Rushdie(majiet) who was a fellow student with my sister, and wife...and we dropped in on the b'day celebrations. The comment did not come from one of the players..you can read between lines. Either way, cliques or not, there were clear racial divisions and Ntini himself was trying to become accepted amidst a lot of animosity.
There is a huge difference in the atmosphere of team under Smith and persistence with some people, given different backgrounds and rates development, has proven to have worked.
The Rices, Pietersens et al should be quiet now.
And btw, Gibbs wasn't there either...I said only 'non-whites' were;)

As for Hansie, we can agree to disagree, I know he is still highly revered amongst south africans- why I don't know- but he played for draws first and then wins in an era where Steve Waugh lifted test run rates to 4 an over in order to score enough to win, they were happy to settle for< 3 and <300.
He took wins when they came , rather than made them.

In the current team, who would you drop as an allrounder assuming that his batting alone was under par? Kallis? Everyone in the current team hold their spots first an foremost as batsmen or bowlers (except McKenzie atm), and Kallis is an amazing bonus.
Even Symonds (as an all rounder) bats at over 40, and if he cannot bowl they drop him. The benchmark has moved.

As for McKenzie, I don't know about his past performances, but he performed poorly here mainly because his very flawed technique was exposed in the Aus conditions and bowling.
And just a note on the opening spot. The Morkel decision was flawed for two reasons. Moving a proper batsman up, and if that guy performed, would have given them a great answer to the batting dilemma in who to open assuming Mac goes.
Secondly, what was Morkel going to achieve? They were more likely to get to 0-100 with a proper batsman and Morkel was more likely to get 40 coming in at 6-250. Big mistake which didn't answer all the questions.

Either way...I enjoyed the reading...just kept me up bloody late last night.

Think I will go for a cycle now in my SA shirt again , as I did last week:)

Who knows, perhaps business opportunities will improve too...they respect us now and know we don't give up...big balls first, talent second.

cheers:)
 
mezu said:
freaking umpires cost us the match..
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Don't forget that, technically speaking, Hussey wasn't out. Bad decisions go both ways.

OzzieCapie said:
Was out there today.
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You going to watch any of the T20s or ODIs?

And then, anyone who thinks that a psychopathic all-rounder with a money problem was a better leader than Graeme "the bravest man in cricket" Smith, needs their head examined. I was no Smith fan previously, but something changed, possibly around the time he played under Warne :), and he really is the best captain in world Test cricket at the moment -> the results speak for themselves.

Hansie Cronje destroyed my enjoyment of the sport for many many years.

And that BS about murderers have got less harsh sentences? What jail time did Cronje do? He got a live ban from a sport that already made him far richer than he would otherwise have been, and he still tried to subvert it for the purposes of self enrichment.
 
Well we got more dud decisions from the umpires than the Aussies did. We had Kallis and Duminy get really bad decisions. There may have been more but I haven't watched so I do not know. All it takes is one bad decision to turn a match completely on it's head, and sadly, this may have been the case on the final day of the final test.
 
While I'm at it.

South Africans have been regarded over here (Aus) as hard working etc...but, watch out for them...can be a bit shady, flaky... the comment "dirty South Africans" was made in another forum over here.

And with a little bit of good reason. There have been some guys over here who haven't really been above board, so to say, then you have the Hansie saga, the biting in Rugby and it all adds up, and you "hey we are not all like that you know, we saffers have good upbringing etc" and its like "yeah,but.....". We were getting attention for the wrong reasons.

Now this series has gone a very very long way to south african-australian relationships. They have seen how this team performed, the good spirit, the fighting spirit...and the aussie crowd responded. Smith said how well they were treated by CA and the crowds. The nation enjoyed having them here as much as it hurt them to lose. To see them rise and applaud an injured skipper who may prevent them from winning was confirmation.

To the obvious question based on one's accent "where you from" ...I/we no longer cheekily say "Sydney", but "Cape Town"

cheers
 
Ozzie i would be careful about going on about the hansie saga, as i recall there where a couple aussies who where also involved in match fixing so your calling the kettle black in this regard.

Biting in Rugby? bwhahahahaha funny how the Aussies dislike us so much because they know we are only team in world cricket who can beat their asses even when they set totals like 414 in a 5 day and 434 in a one day bwhahahahaha. Only SA can give it to the Aussies :), the dirty smelly sheep shagging criminals :p
 
killadoob said:
Ozzie i would be careful about going on about the hansie saga, as i recall there where a couple aussies who where also involved in match fixing so your calling the kettle black in this regard.
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AFAICS Ozzie is an SA in Aus, certainly his loyalties seem to lie with the SA cricket team.

In any case, the fact that there were other countries involved does not minimise what Hansie did. Recognise the fact that that man lied to his country and his sport.
 
Yes chis but singling him out is not right, he was not the only one involved but he took most of the stick, while what he did was wrong on so many levels, pointing him out as the only one is not on in my opinion.
 
OzzieCapie said:
While I'm at it.

South Africans have been regarded over here (Aus) as hard working etc...but, watch out for them...can be a bit shady, flaky... the comment "dirty South Africans" was made in another forum over here.

And with a little bit of good reason. There have been some guys over here who haven't really been above board, so to say, then you have the Hansie saga, the biting in Rugby and it all adds up, and you "hey we are not all like that you know, we saffers have good upbringing etc" and its like "yeah,but.....". We were getting attention for the wrong reasons.

Now this series has gone a very very long way to south african-australian relationships. They have seen how this team performed, the good spirit, the fighting spirit...and the aussie crowd responded. Smith said how well they were treated by CA and the crowds. The nation enjoyed having them here as much as it hurt them to lose. To see them rise and applaud an injured skipper who may prevent them from winning was confirmation.

To the obvious question based on one's accent "where you from" ...I/we no longer cheekily say "Sydney", but "Cape Town"

cheers
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That is certainly good to know. Our rugby team was just has humble and hard working when we won the world cup, and it seems our cricket team is following on from that.

It seems that sport is becoming one of our primary "positive advertising vehicles" in foreign affairs.
 
jak3 said:
That is certainly good to know. Our rugby team was just has humble and hard working when we won the world cup, and it seems our cricket team is following on from that.

It seems that sport is becoming one of our primary "positive advertising vehicles" in foreign affairs.
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If only the politicians will stay out of it... ooops sorry, carry on :rolleyes:
 
Seems like Smithers made a name for himself down under...
People on 702 are praising him like crazy.

One question, I really out of the current cricket scene atm....
Was it a "tired" Aus team or was it really our team lead by Smith that brought us the 2 wins?
I know a win is a win... but just asking...

I also heard Botha is captaining the Proteas ODI side?
Really?
 
JK8 said:
One question, I really out of the current cricket scene atm....
Was it a "tired" Aus team or was it really our team lead by Smith that brought us the 2 wins?
I know a win is a win... but just asking...
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No, it was a team effort led by Smith that won those first two tests. :)
JK8 said:
I also heard Botha is captaining the Proteas ODI side?
Really?
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Unfortunately, yes really. :rolleyes:
 
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