Twenty-nine days of Test cricket across three months and more than10,000 kilometres has not been enough to split the world’s two bestteams
Brydon Coverdale in Cape Town23-Mar-2009
Australia’s young team defied expectations to bounce back and beat South Africa after a series loss at home last year © Getty Images
Twenty-nine days of Test cricket across three months and more than10,000 kilometres has not been enough to split the world’s two bestteams. After the battles at home and away the final outcome wasAustralia 3, South Africa 3. The net result is that Australia arestill the No. 1-ranked team in the world and South Africa remainsecond. The numbers might be soon forgotten but the quality of cricketthat has been on display will be remembered for years to come.The final Test of a long, fiercely-contested and highly-entertainingsummer ended with ten minutes to spare on the fourth day. It was thefirst of the six Tests between these two sides this season that failedto reach the fifth day. Every match produced a result and threw upindividual performances that showed the five-day format at its verybest.At the WACA in December it was Mitchell Johnson’s scarcely believableeight-wicket haul followed by an even more surprising effort from ABde Villiers and the South Africans, who completed the second-highestchase in Test history. In Melbourne it was the arrival of JP Duminy,whose 166 stamped him as a world-class player. At the SCG it was thespine-tingling sight of Graeme Smith walking down the steps with anhour to play, ready to bat with a broken hand to try and save thematch.In Johannesburg it was Marcus North’s century on debut, combined withJohnson’s breathtaking unbeaten 96. At Kingsmead it was the20-year-old Phillip Hughes, who refused to back down against one ofthe meanest pace attacks in the world, and became the youngest man inhistory to score two centuries in a Test. And in Cape Town it was thereturn of the forgotten man Ashwell Prince to score 150 as an opener,followed by a Johnson hundred that was a footnote to the match butpossibly the start of a new chapter for Australia.There wasn’t a boring match among them. The evenness of the overallcontest bodes well for future bouts between these two teams – theseries will become more frequent and will no longer be heldback-to-back – which are, along with India, unquestionably the currentsuperpowers in Test cricket.”Right at the moment that’s the way it is,” Ricky Ponting said. “I’m notsure if that will always remain the same because there are a number ofother very good Test sides out there as well. Whenever you mentionrankings and things you’ve always got to throw India into that as wellbecause they are a very formidable team, mainly at home but they arestarting to put some better performances on the board away from homeas well.
Paul Harris and Mitchell Johnson were the stars for their respective teams in Cape Town © Getty Images
“But as far as we’re concerned, we’d like to think that with whatwe’ve done in the last few months, bringing on a new generation ofAustralian players, that we can maintain a really high level of Testmatch cricket. If we do that and play somewhere the way we’ve playedin the first couple of weeks of this Test match tour and then I thinkwe’ll take some knocking out of that No. 1 ranking.”It was a strange scenario at the end of the Newlands match. Australiahad lost and it was a hefty defeat by an innings and 20 runs. Yetthere were smiles in the dressing room as the match slipped away, inpart because there was the entertainment of Johnson’s hundred but alsobecause the result of the dead rubber could be quickly erased from theAustralians’ memory.As Ponting’s men had their photos taken with the series trophy andlapped up the atmosphere in the twilight with Table Mountain in thebackground, the South Africans also celebrated. It was the second timethey had beaten Australia by an innings – the first came in Durban in1969-70 – and they had rediscovered the form that deserted them aftertheir 2-1 win in Australia.The re-emergence of Prince and centuries to AB de Villiers and thestand-in captain Jacques Kallis gave the Newlands crowd plenty tocheer, as did the nine-wicket match haul from Paul Harris. Kallis saidhis men would celebrate the strong performance but would also reflecton a series that was over too quickly.”[We’re] obviously elated with the win,” Kallis said. “The guys reallypitched up here on day one and we played the type of cricket that weknow we can play. But it is frustrating that we didn’t turn up likethat on the first day of the series. Having said that Australia playedsome really good cricket and put us under pressure.”The difference in the first two Tests was the incisiveness of theattacks on helpful pitches and South Africa’s experienced unit led byDale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini was outbowled by Australia’s young group.It wasn’t until the flat surface in Cape Town that Steyn found thesort of spark he had boasted in Australia..”Sometimes you get on a wicket that helps you as a bowling attack andyou try and bowl teams out and you forget what really works, andthat’s hitting good areas,” he said. “We did that exceptionally wellin this Test match and that’s what was lacking in the first two Testmatches. I think the guys have learnt a lot. On a green wicket you’vegot to bowl exactly the same way as if you’re bowling on a flat wicketand that’s what gets you the wickets, not searching for those miracleballs that pitch leg and hit the top of off.”The miracle balls might not have come for South Africa in this seriesbut across the six Tests there have been more than enough miraculousfeats from both teams. Fans will look back on the past three months asa golden summer for Test cricket.