It'll stay not out though it would've hit the stumps.
It'll stay not out though it would've hit the stumps.
Wtf?
How is that not out?
Ball was hitting the wicket
An absolute shocker from DRS, Umpires etc
Cricket is well and truly dead
Ausssies win by two wickets. Series tied at 1-1. South Africa haven't won a Test series against the Aussies in South Africa for a long time.
CocK"!
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Aussies win but that takes 2nd fiddle to an absoulte shocking decision by the umpires both on the field and off.
Well done Australia.
Series tied 1-1.
Cricket is the real winner.
On we go to the main event in Bombay tomorrow. Virat kohli to hit a double hundred to cement his place in the squad to travel to Australia.
They were talking on SSN earlier about 1 man and his dog turning up to watch this match between 2 big sides.
Maybe Ach was right about Tests?
No maybe about itOriginally Posted by Marc Overmars
This was always going to be a close final day yet the stands were empty and this is between 2 top sides, not Pub Teamers like Zimbabwe, England or Bangladesh.
The commentator was a bit Comical Aliesque saying that Tests are far from dead when at the same time you can see empty stands.
Right about what - that ODIs and Twenty 20s are better? No, it's just childish stuff that I'm not even sure he believes but it has been refreshing not to have to read it. Test Cricket is proper cricket; it is a much better test of technique and 99% of cricketers (including those who have, or do, play cricket to a decent level - like myself) know this. It's much more than it being 'longer', the red ball and wickets behave completely differently. There's not much to debate over this.
Right about the interest of Test Cricket dropping? This is more debatable but I don't think so. At the grassroots level (upto Country Cricket), interest has definitely dropped massively. At the international scene, I don't think there is much difference. There might be some logical foundation to the claim if it weren't for the fact that SA are almost as bad as West Indies when it comes to their management of cricket. Their stadiums are quite often empty - so if you're looking for a fall in interest over time, you're not going to find it. In any case, I'm not sure ticket sales are the best way to measure interest. A Test match runs for 5 days, each day starts from 10:30am (or 11) and finishes around 6pm. Due to the length of the game, it doesn't do any favours in that everyone needs to go to work or have other 1 or 2hr commitments throughout the day. Viewing figures on the box will be as high as ever.
Where shorter cricket is more successful is attracting new non-cricket fans to watch games. In the same way even non-football fans are excited when a penalty shoot-out is going on. But I think that effect is diminishing fast.
What does annoy me though are the commentators and pundits these days (particularly tend to be English) who feel the need to keep defending Test Cricket. The post-match analysis in the studio was littered with comments like "That's why Test Cricket is the purest form of the game" or "There's no real substitute for Test Cricket..." etc. There's nothing wrong in calling it a great game when it's a great game, but it reeks of desperation when they feel the need to keep bigging up the format. There is no need. Everyone watching knows it. I get a feeling they'll stop as soon as England go and get battered in 3 Tests in Asia against Pakistan, before they get battered in the Test series in Sri Lanka which they will have played by March. By the time the next Ashes comes around, they'll have gone down the rankings after those sub-continent series.
Plus it's a Monday and South African grounds aren't packed for most cricket anyway. There were a lot more people there on Saturday and Sunday, as you'd expect.
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