Rabada Joy after 10-month wait

Thrilling Test rushing forward

    ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ and ‘less is more.’ Two concepts for straw-clutching lovers of Test cricket to cling to. It’s unfortunate that Pakistan aren’t giving Australia more of a fight in their festive season series, but the first day of the South Africa / India series in Centurion was a humdinger.

    There was a little too much assistance for the bowlers on the first day, especially as the venue has a tendency to deteriorate rapidly from the third day onwards, but you’d rather have an excess than a deficit of encouragement for the bowlers. Some Indian fans were up in arms, which is fair enough. Rank turners on the subcontinent against rank seamers in SA. Always a good debate. Although, on this occasion, there was nothing deliberate about the pitch. 40 hours under canvass before the start of the match didn’t help. 

    Everybody knows exactly where they stand on a pitch like that. There will be no respite, there will be a result – no matter how much afternoon rain there is – and the team with the better combination of skill and resilience will win.

    Nobody wants conditions for every Test match to be the same, but one in which the action is relentless and there will be a guaranteed winner is likely to sell many more tickets than one in which the team batting first scores 500. Both are appealing, but it’s profitable to have some of both. Spiritually and financially.

    It was a joyous day, not only for the crowd which finally arrived in the afternoon once the weather forecast reversed, but for the players, too. Kagiso Rabada was serenaded with increasing gusto by the ‘lads’ in Castle Corner and he didn’t mind a minute of it.

    “We love it, summer-vibes, cricket season is awesome. The guys come out and they love it, I’m not sure how many beers they were down, but it was a few,” Rabada said after his brilliant 5-44.

    “They were just having a great time at the cricket and it was lovely to see. I had to pinch myself to see a packed house because, the last time we were here, against India and the West Indies, it was half-full and then there was basically nobody here. This time it was sold-out. It was great to see festive season cricket in action, I really felt it out there,” Rabada said.

    The best players in the world still love Test cricket and want to play it, seriously, not as a rare pastime. Rabada’s fury is not alone amongst South Africa’s Test cricketers that they will be contractually bound to play the SA20 in February during the country’s next Test series against New Zealand.   

    It’s been almost a year since the last Test match, against the West Indies in February. It has been a long wait but it was worth it. Perhaps we will adjust to the future because this is what it looks like – six Tests at home every two years, occasionally seven when England or Australia are amongst the visitors.

    If the rest of South Africa’s cricket lovers respond like the Centurion crowd, Test cricket might survive after all. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Less is more. It’s not what we would have chosen, but it’s what we’ve got. Let’s enjoy it while we can.