NEIL MANTHORP: Test cricket produces a week of high drama

Rarely could there have been a more dramatic week of Test cricket. Two matches taking place thousands of kilometres apart in Brisbane and Hyderabad producing days of compelling action and drama before delivering wins for the underdogs, which will be remembered forever by the players and those who watched them.          

The beleaguered West Indies triumphed by just eight runs against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane, their first win in the country for 27 years and just Australia’s second loss at the venue in over 30 years.

At the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad an inexperienced England bowling attack contributed to a colossal first-innings deficit of 190 before the tourists scored 420 in their second innings and bowled India out for 202 to win by 28 runs. It was utterly unprecedented.

The largest first-innings deficit in recent times from which a touring team has recovered to win a Test match in India was the 49 runs SA conceded to the home side at Wankhede Stadium in 2000. India scored 225 and SA could muster only 176 in reply before Shaun Pollock’s 4/24 helped dismiss India for just 113, leaving the tourists to limp home on 164/6.

Low-scoring scraps are very different beasts from Test matches containing two 400+ totals in which the character and personality of the participants are examined for many hours at a time, even days. In eight previous innings Ollie Pope’s highest score in India was 34. In the second innings in Hyderabad his 196 entered the top-five performances by an England batter on foreign soil.

Left-arm spinner Tom Hartley, 24, was selected primarily because he is over 2m tall and is quicker through the air than the average spinner. Despite being primarily a white-ball player for his county, Lancashire, it was hoped his style would suit Indian conditions. It was a hunch which looked embarrassingly misguided when his first nine overs of Test cricket were savaged for 63 runs. Then he took 7/62 to win his debut Test match.

In Brisbane the popular storyline was another 24-year-old, fast bowler Shamar Joseph, who hails from the village of Baracara in Guyana with a population of less than 500. There was no internet access during his childhood and formative years and just a single television which the inhabitants relied on for news — if they had any interest in news. It was two days by boat on the Canje River to the port city of New Amsterdam.

He followed in his forefathers’ footsteps by working in the logging industry until an accident almost killed him and he relocated to New Amsterdam, where he found work as a security guard and labourer on a building site. But he never gave up on his dream of playing cricket. Last week he claimed 6/68, including the final wicket, to win the Test and square the series against Australia. It’s fair to say his journey to Test cricket was a little different from many, and so are his values.

“This is my dream, to play cricket for the West Indies. I’m not afraid to say this: I will always be available to play for the West Indies, no matter how much money comes towards me. I will always be here to play Test cricket,” Joseph said after the match. Maybe he just needs a little longer on the big stage before he starts talking about “maximising my earning potential”. Or perhaps he is genuinely not attracted to the easy life (and money) offered by T20 cricket.

Meanwhile, back at home one of SA cricket’s most genuine and articulate coaches (he was the same as a player) was speaking about his team’s struggles to reach the SA20 play-off stages.

“We will have to do a little bit of soul-searching and find something within. This is a franchise with a lot of expectations on us [coaches] and the players. We’ve got the talent, but it’s about summoning up the will to go forward in this tournament,” said MI Cape Town’s Robin Peterson.

“These franchise tournaments come around thick and fast, and players play in them all around the world. So at the end of the day the important thing for me is that we stick together now and show a bit of resilience in this competition.”

Among his many qualities, Peterson is smart enough to spot the irony in his own comments. T20 cricket is too short to find “something within”, to “summon will” or “show resilience”. And in a format which comes “thick and fast” and “all around the world”, there is always another cheque for another club in another league a couple of weeks or months away. It makes “sticking together” less of a “thing” than it might be in a longer version of the game.