3 minute read

A summer of test cricket comes to an end with the New Year’s Test in Sydney.

Could Australia win all tests of the Summer for the first time in a while? There are World Championship points at stake!

AUSTRALIA V NEW ZEALAND

Second Test

3 - 7 January 2020 @ SCG

After a very successful twelve months following the disgrace of Cape Town, a new year brings great opportunities.

The abnormality of 2020 though, is that it is cluttered with a series of short form tournaments and tours across the globe. The long form has been hit hard.

A seduction of dollar obsessed matches, that nobody remembers, over quality tests that can live long in the memory and the history of the sport, are becoming a real issue.

Sadly the recent Tests played have not been able to flow on from the sheer excitement and unmitigated pressure that the Ashes Series created.

Every one of them had meaning and were fought to great conclusions whereas back home they have fizzled with Australia's dominance over firstly Pakistan then New Zealand.

That is part due to the poor execution by the visitors and part due to the fine bulldozing by the locals.

The smothering, restrictive nature of the Aussie bowlers caused batsman to make disastrous errors. The line and length at beyond 140kph enveloped them.

Not just statistically but objectively the best attack we've provided in toto was McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne. Not much could be done there and when it was, it was nearer 150 clicks.

Well Cummins, Pattinson, Starc and Lyon are not far behind. Poor ole Josh Hazlewood picked a bad time to have his hammy ping.

The ability to bowl with sharp pace but also in the channel where the batsman has to make the quickest decision to go forward or back, to attack or defend is one that defines you as a bowler.

Cummins basically perfected it in 2019 and in his first go back, Pattinson followed his spiritual leader. He is a fiery customer but on-song, a massive bonus for his team.

He's quicker than Hazlewood so that pressure element is a key matter and if he maintains that weight on his opponents then 'Patto' is a feared commodity.

Toss in his capabilities with the bat as well. I'll bet he could make a test century as a night watchman. His technique is better than a few of his upper order mates.

The irony is that even though Australia has obliterated the foe, they've done it without a meaningful contribution from the man so rightly eulogised from the old dart.

Steve Smith just hasn't come to terms with the bouncer barrage that mainly Neil Wagner has conjured. And good on the kiwi as his lion-hearted bowling has been deserved of due recognition.

Smith can't decide whether to go on a full-bore attack. Does he hook or pull everything or sway out of the way? Those half and half shunts to short backward square leg have looked strange at best.

Not every team has lefties that can produce that style but you can imagine the right arm around the wicket attack will be the first item on all team's play sheets going forward.

It's now up to Smith to either combat that in a distinctly aggressive manner OR to go full Steve Waugh and never play the shot again. It will be a great watch as to the approach.

However given his somewhat failed season, the categorical take is that others have stepped up. Warner has rebounded, Labuschagne doesn't know how to get out early and Head got going late.

Whether Burns is any long term solution is open for debate and Wade's weird methodology, in accepting total punishment like some sadistic torture, has questionable outcomes for all concerned.

On the other side of the bargain, New Zealand has struggled with their two big batsman as well. Williamson and Taylor haven't handled it well. Are they tired after a hugely relevant but emotionally draining period?

But they clearly found someone in Tom Blundell who gave as good as he got, at least being combative.

They just couldn't get their attack functioning all at once. They've lost quicks from both the tests to date yet all the while, Wagner and to a lesser extent Southee, have trudged on defiantly. Much kudos to them.

It is to Sydney now where you would expect spin to get a good 'turn'. At least that is the hope. SCG tests are best when the twiddlers get their chance to shine.

It might be locals like Warne or MacGill, Sleep or Taylor, Holland or Bennett who thrived in games when more than 15 overs an hour were bowled. Mushtaq, Kuldeep, Kumble etc kept up the interest and had success there away from home.

'Fast game's a good game' as the saying goes.

There has been a fair bit of banter played out in media circles designed to get leggie Mitchell Swepson to play. Introducing new faces and proponents of the riveting art are fundamentally good things.

However should it come at the expense of Nathan Lyon, his retort to the person pushing the agenda was craftily and delightfully apt.

Lyon is hardly bowling poorly and the Shane Warne suggestion that one option was for him to put the feet up and be replaced by one of his own kind was met with a curt return serve.

Warne would have gone troppo if Stuart MacGill had come in to give him a rest.

He basically reacted that way when MacGill out bowled him in the West Indies Tour of '99 and Colin Miller played the final/deciding match.

Mind you his public disdain of his captain at the time contributed to that angst. That, and the fact Brian Lara kept putting his tossed up turners into neighbouring suburbs.

The best way for Swepson to play, especially on spinning pitches, is for a quickie to miss out OR if we had a medium-pace batting allrounder. Since neither is likely or evident, it is hard to see a change.

The ground itself has been a talking point. The outfield has been all askew since that U2 concert and with the lack of rain, you can only imagine it has been pumped with so much water. The Lower Sydney Basin may not have had enough to cope with that and what is more needed for the firies.

New Zealand will miss Trent Boult's skill. However they will need a lot more containment in the spin department and Santner hasn't done it so far.

Watch for Matthew Wade to be far more positive and instinctive this time. You can bet he won't be keen on taking many more red welts.

He was keeper in his only two previous tests in Sydney – interestingly in 2013 then 2017. Clearly he likes his runs spaced to use the old racing parlance.

The first one was his only test century on home soil, still batting at number six. He can be in the runs again. Assuming he gets a fair amount of time at the crease. Have small play on him to make a hundred but more on the first bat-raising exercise.

Our New Year's resolution - one we hope to keep (by at least January 10th) is for more test cricket to be played. That and a bi-product - more attacking test cricket and one played in the spirit this series has been.

The BBL quite rightly is the cash cow enjoyed through the Summer. Let's not lose the true sacred cow in the process.