cricket with balls

When you click on the cricinfo link to the scorecard for the Eden Gardens’ test the first name you see is Hashim Amla.

That is just how their live scorecard works.

It isn’t making a statement with his name; he was just not out, after facing a few more than a hundred overs to win a series for his country.

He couldn’t win the series, but India must have realised that in order to win this test they were essentially only a chance when he was at the non-strikers’ end.

490 runs for one out in three innings. That is batting.

Before the English series Amla was averaging a very bland 40 with the bat after 37 tests.

On a older test match sofa podcast I said he had talent but had been a massive underachiever.

Now he has conquered India.

His team hasn’t, but he has.

Sometimes you can play in six tests when you are in form and it changes the trajectory of your career, at other times you will remember them as the six tests when you didn’t suck.

And in these two tests Amla definitely did not suck.

His calm head today made his team mates look like they were panic buying before the Mayan prophecies came true.

This isn’t the strongest Indian attack of all time, but Bhajji was humming, Mishra was more than handy, and it wasn’t like the rest of the South Africans looked like staying in.  Prince offered 23 runs as second highest scorer if you don’t count Extras.

While two tests is still not a series, what two tests these were.

Steyn’s bowling, Amla’s batting, Sehwagology, and Tendulkar’s hundreds all set this up.

Nothing could beat the end of the day.

At one end you had Amla batting like he was made of granite.

At the other end was a collection of leg spin, off spin and Sachin spin trying to pry out South Africa’s former number 8 as the minutes ticked away.

Match winning hauls, stoic defense, amazing attack, all packed into a seriesette.

Plus the result was right.

It proved that no team really deserved to take the crown, but that both teams could kick some ass when they got their shit together.

India are number one, which seems odd when in 50% of this seriesette they were beaten up.

Ofcourse with South Africa now winning 3 of their last 9 tests, India’s record is looking more and more impressive.

In the end the artificial ranking system means nothing, look at the player and crowd reaction to that win, that means more than anything a statistician can table.

Now all I need to do is stop wishing this was a 5 test series…

A couple of years back a dude broke into my house.

Unfortunately I was home at the time.

The dude saw me, ran off and stole a virtually worthless laptop.

He has never come back.

Having intruders in your home sucks a fair chunk of ass.

India recently invited an intruder to their house in a macho manoeuvre to show their superiority, then 11 big bastards turned up and mugged their team.

In the last 10 years India have beaten South Africa at home once, lost once, drawn once, and now can only win or draw.

That must hurt.

India has seen South Africa choke in big tournaments, struggle against England and only win one series against Australia (a team India has done pretty well against).

India have only ever won two series against South Africa, there first was back when I had only had sex once, and was wearing out copy of Basic Instinct on VHS.

The other was over 5 years ago.

It should be mentioned that India are pretty good at home.

So when an intruder (invited or otherwise) comes in to where you are good, and makes you less than good, that is really less than good. Exactly.

India has already given this series up, but a draw is needed to keep some sort of faith.

The way modern test series have gone of late, well at least those with England in them, a win after a loss by over an innings is possible.

India have even tried to pick a test team for this match, although I am pissed off they have abandoned the New Zealand tactic of employing two keepers in a game.

India losing the first test sort of ended this as a legitimate title fight (South Africa ruined their part in it by not beating England at home); the only result that could possibly explain the world of cricket right now would be India winning this test to draw the series.

When the best Test cricket can do is a hasty two test world championship series (if two tests is really a series, and it isn’t) between a side that can’t beat the heavyweights away from home and a side that coming into the series has won 2 of 8 tests it deserves nothing more than a draw.

It doesn’t even deserve Dale Steyn or Sehwag.

Those two should be rested on grounds of unnatural awesomeness.

This series deserves more Paul Harris.

2010: where mediocrity ruled the world.

Buy the book, get a t-shirt, or donate to the whisky fund.

“Hello, little boy. So you think you are better than me, than me, DALE WILLEM STEYN. I would laugh if I wasn’t ripping your limbs off.  You should thank your lucky stars they even let the likes of you on the same turfed surface as me.  Just looking at your pathetic faces makes me want to hurt you.  Every single fibre of your being disgusts me.  It is hard for me even to think of you existing without tasting the bile in my throat.  I am number one. Number ONE.  There is no one else on the planet who can do this, just me.  Bow, fucken bow you little tiny insignificant bitch.  Lick my toes, grovel, GROVEL HARDER. You are nothing; I am everything.  You should thank your God that you were even allowed to be destroyed by me.  Tonight when you try and sleep I want you to know I am over your bed, mocking you, whispering a story into your ear, the story of how I finished you.  Vengeance, thy name is Steyn.  You are my victim, a virginal sacrifice before my godly alter.  No man, or Gods, can defeat me when I thrash out my weapons of war.  The world is mine, I own it, you aren’t good enough to be stuck on my shoe.  There are two kinds of people in this world, me, and those who aren’t me.  Can you feel me, I am the hot air on your neck, the monster in your wardrobe, the creak in the other room, when you wake up and feel like someone is in the room, that is me, I’m always there.  You ain’t ever going to beat me, just give up.  You couldn’t dream up a nightmare as bad as I am.  There is no chance your woman will ever look at you the same way now, because I have cukcholded your soul.  This will be the story you’re too embarrassed to tell your kids. Today you went up against an unbeatable force, a monumental monolith, and all you could do was struggle out one breath as a time as it took you apart.  You are an insignificant piece of dirt and I wiped you on the cricket annals door mat.  One day you will think you are over this, you will be hanging with friends, maybe enjoying a beer and some fishing, but then the fear, the soul destroying fear, will smash down on you, and your friends won’t know why you are frozen still.  In what world would an ant like you kill a lion like me?  Turn your head; you aren’t good enough to even look in my general direction.  I have smited you from the earth; there is only crumbs left.  There is only one, his name is DALE WILLEM STEYN and he is NUMBER ONE. Alpha, Omega, STEYN.”

Buy the book, get a t-shirt, or donate to the whisky fund.

I wrote a whole post about the first two days of this series.

Then I deleted it.

Frankly, you’d be better off pretending you saw this.

Or you could fantasize about how a series like this could have started if Steyn and Sehwag were going head to head on the first day.

Anything to scrub the last two days out of your mind.

At the end of 08 South Africa beat Australia at home to claim the metaphorical, yet still very heavy, title of the world’s best test team.

The players were so happy some of them smiled as they frolicked in the water of Sydney.

Since that win in Melbourne, they have won two tests, lost four, and drawn two.

That is shit in any language.

Так что одержать победу в Мельбурне, они не получили два испытания, потеряли четырех, и извлечь два.

For a long time South Africa have be known as chokers, but this time they got to the top, however briefly, but they are now spiralling in some 05 Ashes Freddie kind of hangover.

If they played India in India tomorrow, they couldn’t beat India with a stick, even if India was a limbless child hung from a tree piñata style and South Africa was a non-blindfolded sober adult with fully functioning motor skills.

13 months ago this was the best test team on the planet, now their coach is leaving due to irreconcilable shitness.

During the past 13 months Graeme Smith’s captaincy and bear like demeanour have been lauded all over the planet for getting the side to the top of the tree, but if your team falls straight out of the tree it doesn’t mean much.

Two home series losses is not the resume of a top test team, even England don’t do that. Obviously something is wrong inside the camp, and Arthur leaving them on the edge of a “SUPER TEST CROWN HEAVYWEIGHT DECIDER” says that pretty clearly.

In modern times, thanks to pioneers like Vettori and KP, the coach gets axed when there is any rumbling, and had Arthur not jumped, I’d say the dude was going to be thrown out the door like the poor unheard of bowling coach.

On reflection, all of Arthur’s talk leading up to the last test was like some salty old criminal looking for that final score he could retire on.

I might bag Saffas but I truly mean this, South Africa are a proud race, and unlike other countries, they don’t accept draws, even come from behind draws. So Arthur, with or without his score, was going.

Obviously the harmony between Smith and Arthur was strained, as it usually is when you are losing. We don’t know what went on the change rooms, but I doubt it was anything as fun as Graeme Smith drilling Arthur’s asshole and then giving him a reach around.

Now that South Africa have seemingly imploded, I feel at a loss, I sort of hoped they would run cricket with an iron kitten killing boot for a few years so I would have plenty of material.

That seems highly unlikely now, as it stands their only chance of beating India would be Sachin coming out as a cross dresser on the eve of the first test, and even then they’d still need a green deck.

I almost feel sorry for them.

Almost.