Money talks — don't expect worst team to tour England to get another trip
How long was it before the realisation dawned that this was not an equal contest, that it was men against boys, seasoned Test match campaigners against wannabes? Five, six, seven overs? Ben Duckett got himself up and running with a brace of boundaries off Blessing Muzarabani in the eighth over; after that England never looked back.
It was help-yourself time for the batsmen, and they duly helped themselves, a task made even easier by an injury to Richard Ngarava, who did not bowl again after lunch.
At no stage did this feel like a truly competitive match. Unlike most England Test matches, too, it will have next to no influence on future planning. How can it when it is the equivalent of playing — at
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Spectator
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The titans who shaped Test cricket
Cricket histories are a dangerous genre both for writers and readers. They can be incredibly boring, the dullest of all probably being John Major's weighty tome, which said everything you knew it would say as drearily as you feared. So Tim Wigmore, a young shaver who writes on cricket for the Daily Telegraph, has entered hazardous territory. Speaking as a proud cricket badger, who even has a book by Merv Hughes on his shelf (Dear Merv, 2001), I will admit that I have read rather too many cricket histories, and I swore that it would be a cold day in hell (or possibly at the county ground in Derby) before I would willingly start another. But Wigmore has written a splendid, comprehensive book full of good stories and droll asides. It dips a little in the middle when Shoaib Mohammad starts batting, and keeps on batting, but what book of 578 pages does not? (Shoaib, who retired in 1995, is still batting in his dreams and my nightmares, and has just played an immaculate forward defensive down to silly mid-off.) In fact Test Cricket is as sparkling and entertaining as any book this long has a right to be. Wigmore has taken as his subject the pinnacle of the game, possibly the pinnacle of any game in the world, the Test match – played over (once) three and (now) five days between no more than a dozen nations (or collections of nations) whose first-class structures justify their hallowed status. So there are no Test matches between Brazil and Argentina – nor are there likely to be until there are first-class stadiums in both countries where regional teams play two-innings matches in whites, with lunch at 1 p.m. and tea at 3.40 p.m. Pork pies would need to be sold locally and everyone would run indoors at the merest sniff of rain or bad light. No, this book starts off with the old rivalry between England and Australia in the 1870s; adds South Africa a quarter of a century later; and then the West Indies and New Zealand on the same day in the 1930s. England fielded two separate XIs against these two teams for their first Tests – an experiment they have never been strong enough to repeat. (Australia often put out two teams in one-day internationals in the 1980s and 1990s, both of which would then beat England, which wasn't that hard at the time.) Wigmore supplies a clean and focused narrative structure. 'Within the space constraints,' he writes, 'I have been led by a sense of Test cricket's overarching story, paying particular attention to players who helped shape the game.' This means a lot of pages are devoted to people such as Abdul Kardar and Tiger Pataudi, while 'titans in less successful or declining sides', like Graham Gooch and Shivarine Chanderpaul, get far fewer. I have no trouble with any of this, although the lack of mention of my own favourite cricketer, Derek Randall, who scored an epic 174 in the centenary Test match in 1977, is obviously shameful. Wigmore has an eye for the telling detail. In a passage on the Australian batsman Victor Trumper, inspired by the photograph of him leaping out of his crease to drill a half-volley back over the bowler's head, we hear that in 1902 Trumper became the first batsman to score a century before lunch on the first morning of a Test match. This was something only five batsmen from any country have done since. I also didn't know that Trumper was the first man to popularise wearing the same national cap at every Test. 'The lore of the baggy green cap, then, is also the lore of Trumper.' Between 1895 and 1904, Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji scored 21,576 first-class runs at an average of 60.94. Then he became the Maharajah Jam Sahib of Nawanagar and had to stop batting for Sussex and England. In 1929, Ranji's nephew Duleepsinhji took part in one Test against South Africa, the only occasion in that country's first 172 Tests, until their readmittance to Test cricket in 1992, that they played against someone who didn't have white skin. South Africa, and their supporters in the MCC, don't come out too well from this book. When an Australian Services XI played the first of five matches against an England XI at Lord's in 1945 tickets cost a flat one shilling (five new pence) anywhere in the ground. That's as opposed to the £160 a friend of mine paid recently for one of this summer's Tests. At less than a fifth of the cost, this book represents a serious bargain. It's not quite as good as seeing Joe Root score 100 in the flesh, but it's not far off.
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3 hours ago
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Aussies stage huge comeback in World Test Championship final as Steve Smith surpasses Don Bradman - and South Africa make a shocking mistake
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BBC News
4 hours ago
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Trivia-busting Rabada joins elite Lord's club of two
South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has joined an elite Lord's club of any player who takes five wickets or scores a century in a Test match has their name etched onto an honours board in gold the first day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final, only one other Test player in the storied 141-year history of Lord's has appeared on the honours board in both the home and away dressing quirky mark of cricket trivia belonged to legendary West Indies opener Gordon knocks of 214 not out and 103 against England in 1984 and 1988 respectively adorn the board in the away dressing less well known is the fact he is also on the home dressing room for the 122 he made for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against the Rest of the World in South Africa allocated the home dressing room for the WTC final at the home of cricket, Rabada's five-wicket haul was enough to see him join Greenidge in the exclusive club.A piece of sticky batting tape with Rabada's name written on it in pen has been attached to the board for his figures of 5-51, as is the tradition for players during matches. The gold lettering should soon with no place for neutral Tests at Lord's on the honours board since they were refurbished in 2018 it may well be stencilled on there permanently by the signwriter."It was cool to have it in the home changing room now," said Rabada, whose name is on the board in the away dressing room for the 5-52 he took for his country in a Test against England in 2022. Did England great Broad help Rabada? Perhaps he benefited from some insider trading from the fast bowlers' union to achieve the a savvy move, South Africa engaged the services of Stuart Broad - a man who is on the honours board for batting and bowling - in the build-up to this did so on the premise the former England bowler could impart some pearls of wisdom on a ground where he took 113 must have been eagerly taking notes – CricViz data showed that 84% of Rabada's deliveries on day one were on a good length, which is the most of any innings in his dismissal of Australia opener Usman Khawaja with a delivery from round the wicket which squared the left-hander up and took the edge was Broadian by nature."Stuart gave us a few pointers on certain field placings and in general with the conditions with cloud cover and wind," acknowledged Rabada, who has the second-best strike-rate (39.1) in the history of the game of bowlers with 100 wickets or more (beaten only by England's George Lohmann, who took his wickets every 34.1 balls between 1886 and 1896)."The ball was nipping a bit and at times moving off the slope quite a lot. I still felt batters could get in. We thought we should have bowled them out for 160 but that's just the way the game goes." There was also a redemption element of sorts to Rabada's efforts with the 30-year-old fast bowler had come into the match with something of a cloud hanging over him having recently served a short ban for recreational drug use."It wasn't my best moment, as I have alluded to," Rabada said, in a matter-of-fact manner."Life moves on. Every game that I play for South Africa, I try to do my best."On a day when 14 wickets fell at Lord's it would be easy to assume the South Africa quick bowler's five-wicket haul could be attributed to other factors."For day one of a Lord's Test match, it was below average in terms of movement through the air, and just about average for deviation off the pitch," said TMS scorer Andy Zaltzman."So that comes down to quality of bowling and consistency."Rabada also moved above legendary fast bowler Allan Donald and up to fourth on South Africa's all-time Test wicket-takers list as he took his tally to 332 three men above him on South Africa's all-time list are Makhaya Ntini (390), Shaun Pollock (421) and Dale Steyn (439)."As a player, growing up and representing South Africa, I have been inspired by those who have come before and seen what they have done on the big stage," he added."As a kid, I was inspired to do the same thing. To be on that list is something special and long may it continue."
