January 8, 2010

The joy of draws

Is there someone out there interested in cricket? No I thought not. But even if cricket in the middle of winter leaves you a little cold, there is currently a rather interesting series of test matches in South Africa at the moment.

You could be forgiven for missing this as it is only available on Sky television. And South Africa is long way away. Also it gets rather confusing when you realise there are almost as many South African’s playing for England as there are playing for South Africa. And you get the impression that South Africans in South Africa are not overly impressed with England’s contingent of South Africans.

Not surprising then that these mercenaries are not doing overly well – and that the surprising success of England is due to some inspired batting by the often overlooked English contingent – and allegedly some good honest cheating by the bowlers. All in all it has been quite a highly-charged series – even though the grounds look shall we say less than packed.

The sheer unpredictability of the matches has been the key ingredient though. South Africa are gritty performers, a little bit dull and pragmatic – and allegedly the best Test Team in the world. Not surprising then that England were given a bit of a run around in the first test – and clung on with their fingertips to escape with a scarcely-deserved draw.

It was here that the somewhat obnoxious attitude of the South African camp first began to surface. They were it seemed a tad miffed that England celebrated an undeserved draw as though it was a win. This is a bit of a pity, because a draw in cricket is sometimes a wonderful thing – and this was surely one of those occasions.

Next match, the boot was firmly on the other foot. South Africa were probably lured into overconfidence and England pounced to not just win – but win by a crushing innings. Not surprisingly, England were cock a hoop and confident going into the third test. And were promptly under the cosh again, hanging on grimly at the death for another unlikely draw.

Cue more celebrations from the England camp, a surly response from some exasperated South Africans – and a general acknowledgement that this England team are really doing rather well.

England now cannot lose this Test series. Sure they can lose the next test – hell they probably will. But they might not. They might wriggle free of the cold embrace of defeat once again – and that is the glorious uncertainty of cricket. Sometimes a draw is a very fine thing indeed.