At the risk of sounding like Rudolph Straeuli, whose plan for the World Cup is sufficiently cunning as to be able to withstand heavy, and regular, hidings from any halfway decent opposition, South Africa’s defeat at Nottingham may be no bad thing.
Much has been made of the Trent Bridge pitch and it is perfectly in order to note that, having lost the toss, the South Africans had the worst of it in the fourth innings. At the same time, though, dodgy pitches are part of cricket, and Test cricket in particular.
They are not especially desirable, and certainly not to be recommended, but pitch preparation is an inexact science and, every now and again, Test cricket is all the better for a poor pitch.
It may seem a contradiction, but Test cricket is often at its most thrilling when the pitch plays up, more so if you happen to support the team batting first. Conversely, the game has often been ill-served by flat wickets and batsmen who lack enterprise.
By and large, the groundsman’s ideal pitch produces a result in the last session of the fifth day, but getting this exactly right is the trick. It is true that pitches are sometimes deliberately unprepared, to suit the home team.
There have been occasions when India have been particularly guilty of this, but, as players such as Kapil Dev have pointed out, the long-term benefits of this type of strategy are dubious. Formidable at home, Indian teams are notoriously vulnerable when they travel abroad.
By and large, though, administrators and television companies fear bowler-friendly pitches because three-day Tests lose money.
The real point about Trent Bridge is that South Africa played a good deal of decent cricket in a losing cause. The top order was shaky, even if Graeme Smith’s dismissals in both innings were unusual. He may go on to play another 100 Test matches, but you wouldn’t bet on him getting out too often stepping on his own wicket.
Both Boeta Dippenaar and Jacques Rudolph looked vulnerable, Herschelle Gibbs got himself in the second innings misjudging a pull, but it’s hard to take issue with his reasoning. On a pitch playing up and down, Gibbs was far more likely to make an impression on the bowling by playing his shots than by defending. It was a calculated risk. It didn’t pay off in the end, but this is hardly cause for criticism.
Gibbs is having an odd tour. There’s been more of the ridiculous than the sublime so far, but there’s still the sense that Gibbs has another big innings inside him in what’s left of the series. He’s simply too talented a player not to score runs.
As a team, though, South Africa will have picked up a trick or two. Indeed, even before that match had reached its halfway stage there was evidence of street smarts. At the end of the second day Smith voiced his team’s reservations about the pitch, thus ensuring that the point was made early in the piece and there was no need to look like whingers when they lost.
More to the point, perhaps, and notwithstanding the presence of Gary Kirsten, this is a young team moulding itself around the character of its 22-year-old captain. The test now is of its resilience.