An amazing test

I couldn’t let one of the best tests and test series of all time go by without saying something, now could I?

We were there for day 3, which was splendid and full of pinkness (the shirt I wore was blinding) incident and event (how did those bloody bails not come off?), but nothing compared to the fifth day. That was mental! I can’t believe Graeme Smith batted with a broken hand. I’ve had a broken hand, I couldn’t have lifted up a bat, let alone wielded one. He totally deserved his man of the series award.

I can’t believe it came down to the last few overs. How about Ntini batting defensively? You rule, Ntini!

I rate this Australia v South Africa series almost as high as the Ashes series in England when those bastards won by, like, two runs. (I still think we was robbed.)

I’m ecstatic that South Africa and India are as good as (if not better than) Australia right now. True contests at last. And Sri Lanka and England aren’t far behind. I really hope that the West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand start to get their shit together too.

I cannot wait until the next three tests in South Africa at the end of February. (So far away! Waaah!) But I’m stoked I’ll be in Australia to see the first two.

I am absolutely thrilled I was at the SCG for one of the days and that I got to watch every day of all three tests. Fifteen days of glorious cricket. Best game in the universe. Nothing could be better. (Well, if they sacked Ponting as captain that would be better. Though I’m not sure who to replace him with.)

Note: Yes, there’ll be more writing advice shortly. I just need a little time to recover from the edge-of-my-seat tension of that last day’s play.

Posted by Justine at 3:11, 8 January 2009 under Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia | 8 Comments »

Comments

Malcolm Tredinnick Says:

Hear, hear (although Sri Lanka are looking a bit ordinary against Bangladesh in their series, so “not far behind” is relative). If Channel 9 accidentally sacked the majority of their commentators and left it up to ABC radio to provide the audio, that’d be cool, too. Things were almost thrown at the television a couple of times that I had to listen to them.

January 8th, 2009 at 3:26 am
2. Justine Says:

I really enjoy Shane Warne’s commentary. But I could cheerfully kill Ian Chappell. With my bare hands.

January 8th, 2009 at 3:30 am
Ned Says:

A good day not to be an English cricket fan too. Oh dear oh dear.

January 8th, 2009 at 6:23 am
4. Justine Says:

I am probably evil, but, gosh, I love to watch the English cricket team implode.

January 8th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Dave H. Says:

I was listening to the Test Match Special podcast about the KP/Moores fiasco this morning and thinking “Oh, I’ll bet Justine is enjoying this enormously.”

January 8th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Ned Says:

I’m hoping we can dangle enough cash in front of Warnie to get him to take Moores’ job.

January 8th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Nicola Says:

We went to days 1 and 2. Lots of fun, although I now have strange mottled arms from where I missed spots with the sunscreen! It was great seeing Clarke get his century. I take it you don’t rate him as the next captain? Also, we spotted John Aloisi a few rows in front of us in the Ladies Stand. Sigh. So lovely. It was a great test. And nice work Peter Siddle.

January 8th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
JJ Cooper Says:

Wow. Another Aussie author who enjoys writing dialogue and watching cricket. Landed here by luck. Glad I did. Great blog.

Cricket: perhaps one of the best series I’ve seen in a while, even though we lost. The only downside really was Matty Hayden – nice enough bloke who’s just out of form.

Now, time for some one-dayers and 20/20.

JJ

January 10th, 2009 at 4:52 am