Whew!!At last its Test cricket back at its inimitable top. India registering a remarkable run-chase at Chennai chasing 386 runs and today South Africa scaling even more incredible peak of chasing 414 against Australia at Perth. What else u can ask for?? Competitive cricket on a sportive track with all the four results possible till the 2nd session on the final day of a Test match is the best possible medicine to the ailing Test cricket today. Though T20 cricket has found huge support from the crowd, Test Cricket is the Ultimate test of character and temperament!!Happy that V have good cricket to supplement it.Later part of 2008 has been phenomenal for the run-chases. Two of the top run-chases have recorded in the last ten days. While India's greatest run chase ,kicked off by a blinder of an innings frm Sehwag and backed up well by the middle order with Sachin playing as anchor and mentor to the young guns on a dustbowl with ball venomously bouncing and turning, marked how important it is to maintain the intensity in every session, the first Test match between SA n Aus down under at Perth proved how thrilling cricket can be with the momentum shifting from one team to another for four days and finally shifting towards the better side (South Africa) at the last day of a cracker of a test match. Australia's invincibilty is a past now and their No.1 status is just a reminiscence of their dominance earlier. Their aura is very much on the decline. This is a good sign as it opens up the platform even more wider.'The Wall' is back and resurrected. Its always a delight to watch elegance and skill on the cricket field without which the pitch ll be nothing but a mere 22-yard turf. But its even more painful to see a craftsman finding it difficult to survive. Test match is a cruel game. One time U score 600 in a series in ur prime but things change suddenly where U struggle to go past 600 in a calender year. But then Class is permanent! Skills never vanish overnight. Thats the beauty of Test cricket. Only talent stands the test of time. There is no flash in the pan kinda stuff. But it was hard to see Test Cricket finding it hard to pull in crowds of late. It was a painful sight to see an almost empty stadium greeting the apex of all Test records-Sachin overtaking Lara's tally of runs to become the highest run-getter in Tests-at Mohali while its even more painful when Indians did a winning rally waving at the concrete floors. Thanks to T20 and ODI, Test cricket is finding it very difficult to draw crowd to the grounds. Already tainted as a slow game and results coming out after a long time, Test cricket is finding demons in the form of slow over-rate and poor audience at the stadium. We can talk of improving the facilities and amenities at the grounds but only good cricket played at the right pace and spirit can sustain the interests of the fast-paced people. Thats what we are witnessing today!!!How better can it get!! Lets hope they mark the rebirth of Test Cricket.
5 comments:
I agree, quite a few interesting test matches. But we must also note that bowlers are losing their wicket taking ability, to a certain extent, because of "corridor" bowling which they practice in T20 n ODIs for containing batsmen.
In test cricket, that kind of bowling doesn't help because batsmen are happy to leave...sad to see that very few bowlers make the batsmen play when the ball is new...
for the rebirth of test cricket let play a 3 day test match to test our character and talent when i come there..........
@nutty: i agree with u..also its a pity that captains now resort to negative lines..its high time laws regarding wides in test cricket were amended!!only then its interesting n sporting
Dude there is new law, ICC is going to introduce 9 runs into scoring, like 4's, 6's and now 9's and is given based on the distance covered.
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