3 minute read

We kick off the New Year with the SCG test and can Pakistan hit back hard?

Check out the Racing And Sports Preview for the Test this summer with a few betting ideas at the end.

AUSTRALIA v PAKISTAN

3rd Test

3 – 7 January 2024 @ SCG

Pains me to say this – have the Poms been right all along this year?

Playing the game at frenetic speed and with improbable reality has been derided at the least and cost them the Ashes at the worst.

But with the tempo of 'Bazball' the game keeps moving and the other sidelights of any day's play somewhat become lost in the tidal wave of emotions.

Pretty fair to say that that frenzied style from last June and July, taken to the extreme on day one of the series, essentially cost England their best chance of leading and hence winning the series.

But was it in the best interests of Test Cricket? Some will agree, many will argue but if other circumstances since prevail as the norm, there won't be the game most adore around beyond 2030.

We're not even talking about the methodology employed. We're talking the progression/application of the rules. How can a sport's regulations continue to be so flagrantly abused?

It was lucky no one was penalised for over rates in Melbourne. In Perth it was Pakistan and the impact can be felt both in the here and in the future.

The future is via the docking of points from the World Test Championship which Australia gleefully espoused as important in their mega 2023 campaign. This could easily end as an impediment for the 2025 version.

But equally it is the contemporary game which becomes affected by waddling along within a day's play.

Too often overs are needlessly and irrationally lost from days of Test Cricket. The crowds on the day are duped, the home viewers/broadcasters curtailed and the players themselves are impeded.

And you know this is the case because amazingly, come the final day of a Test when the bowling team is pressing for victory, they can rattle through them to get as many chances as possible for a wicket.

So how do we fix this? Well, besides some ideas previously discussed like runs penalties, imposing future sanctions on teams/captains or fines applied, nothing has worked to date.

Could it be that the Match Referee decides what the cause of the failure was? If they resolve that it was orchestrated by a batting team trying to slow the momentum, the fielding side can determine when the overs are made up.

Maybe they believe the morning would be best as the ball may move more so play starts early. If they think hours of sun on the deck improves their chances, take the added overs late in the day.

Same goes if it is worked out that the bowling side was the most ineffectual in doing their job (as is mostly the case). It then goes to the batsmen who can say well we'll take the extra overs at the end of the day when they can see the bowlers floundering.

Or maybe a certain pitch might be best to bat on after the roller is on overnight so play starts an hour early. Whoever is deemed to have been at fault loses all rights. The choice lay with the impinged.

I bet the first time after a team feels aggrieved about what advantage comes from when they have to bat or bowl, some of the tactics may alter. The one thing cricket players hate is when they feel things are unfair.

Just recall the dramas of the very red new ball at The Oval last year. Of course it was a mistake. But lordy be did the Aussies go on with it. Perhaps more variables should come into Test Cricket.

Spicy pitches make the best games. Bland, boring, snore fests come from flat as roads 22 yards. The deck at Centurion for the recent South Africa v India Test was hooping and seaming and produced a cracker.

Recall a couple of the Manchester Tests in the 90s were somewhat under prepared and generated superb games.

Possibly the most historic game since the end of the Bradman era in terms of who became part of Ashes folklore began with Mark Taylor playing outstandingly and then the pitch flattened out as the game went along. That was where the Warne legacy was born.

Then four years on in 1997, when few else looked likely to get past 30, Steve Waugh produced dual hundreds and the tourists won by panels.

It's so much more entertaining when the bat and the ball are both challenged. You still have to bowl well even with assistance. But if the batsman has so many more questions needing answers, the game moves faster and with more anticipation.

Cricket needs to be far more malleable. The immovable feast that is Lunch is but one horrendous aspect when rain occurs. Classic example was Day 3 at the MCG.

Third Umpires and Match Referees getting stuck in lifts epitomises the bunkum. That was on top of the early rain but guess what – Lunch was still 40 minutes in duration. The players had been lollygagging around for half an hour before play started. Halve Lunch and GET MOVING – get the action going!!!!

Now to the SCG and surely no significant rain, SURELY. We laugh at the aforementioned Old Trafford with its dreary conditions. What was the old theory – if you can see the Pennines then it is about to rain. If you can't, then it is raining.

Well what is the equivalent for Sydney - Centrepoint Tower, Randwick Racecourse, UNSW etc? Amazingly it feels like every year the game has rain as its centrepiece.

And yet often it means matches have gone down to the last. There were multiple interruptions two years back against England and yet it ended with Steve Smith bowling to Anderson and Broad for the game (not the reverse). The pressure was palpable.

Pakistan showed stages of excellence and quality before the New Year. They just couldn't back it up strongly enough. They'll have a good hour, even a good session but it doesn't last.

Day 2 in Melbourne was a perfect illustration. Knocking the home team over for 318 was good on a competitive deck. Then they got to 1/124 and looked value for it. Suddenly 20 overs later they'd lost another 5/70.

It was mostly due to the unquestionable quality and persistence of one P Cummins. He's not got Brett Lee speed nor got the searing bouncer of a Mitchell Johnson. There isn't the lethal leg cutter of a DK Lillee or the Thommo sandshoe crusher. But if they were 10s on a scale of 1-10, he's about 9 in every category.

Because of that six year span when his body sadly kept him from us, he won't end up with all the records but there are still 4/5 years left at his best and near on 500 test wickets is a very realistic probability.

He got 10 for the match which was only the second time an Aussie Skipper has done that (the other was the strange Windies collapse to Allan Border at the SCG).

You can't see much changing being David Warner's last hurrah. Remember the last time he played Pakistan in Sydney he'd brought up a famous three figures by lunch on Day 1. You would expect him to be as motivated as he could be here.

Steve Smith will also be that way as it could be one of the last times he ventures onto his home ground in a Test. He's spent a lot of time in the middle of late without the full return.

In Sydney he averages 72 with four hundreds. Look out he doesn't make Pakistan pay as this will be more spin friendly than the last two games have been.

When he plays attacking cricket he is at his best. Let's hope all follow the lead. Tests need that constant aggression now. Or sadly if not, it may be seen off like the New Year – a lot of hullabaloo then quickly forgotten.

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