James Sutherland’s general comments about an uncompleted investigation into ball tampering did the ruling body no good and allowed the issue to festerIt was as Cricket Australia as Cricket Australia gets. Process before progress, careful phrasing before straight answers. The chief executive officer, James Sutherland, fronted up on Tuesday evening South African time after a day of anticipation about how Australia’s ball-tampering scandal would be resolved, then postponed resolving it by 24 hours, saying the investigation he had commissioned was incomplete.Some concrete information of significance did come out. Preliminary findings implicated only the Australia captain, Steve Smith, his deputy David Warner and the junior Cameron Bancroft. The three would be sent home and replaced by Matthew Renshaw, Joe Burns and...
Australia should have been reflecting on an impressive win in South Africa but once again all the talk is of an unsavoury spat between playersHere we go again. A better than decent Test Match concluded on Monday in Durban but will never stand a chance of capturing the attention it deserves. Events of the previous afternoon made sure of that. Press conferences came and went where the participants argued their corner in the usual way. Match officials will try to unpick it all from narrators unlikely to give an inch. Will anything change? Almost certainly not.That David Warner was front and centre was all the spice the tale required. Of course he has form, most of it some years ago,...
Two batting places are up for grabs in Test series against West Indies as selectors search for settled line-up in time for the Ashes in AustraliaIt is quite an achievement to beat South Africa for the first time in two decades in this country with what was to all intents a nine-man side. England were dependent on their old guard for victory while those seeking to establish a place in the side were unable to make telling contributions.The combination of Liam Dawson, Gary Ballance and Dawid Malan mustered 138 runs in 12 innings in this series – though one should not discount Dawson’s five wickets. At the top of the order Keaton Jennings scored 127 runs in eight visits to...
With his five-wicket burst, Moeen became the second England cricketer after Ian Botham to take 25 wickets and score more than 250 runs in a Test seriesIt had to be Moeen Ali, the man of Joe Root’s first summer as Test captain, who would pick the lock that sent England hurtling towards a 177-run win at Old Trafford and what was their first series win over South Africa at home in 19 years. After his 10 wickets and 96 runs at Lord’s came his hat-trick at The Oval, before the audacious counterattack with the bat here on the third evening was followed by figures of five for 69 in England’s fourth-innings surge.The shining smile that resides above the luxuriant beard...
Bowling a tad too short, not bad luck, at England has hobbled the paceman just as dropped catches have damaged South Africa’s chances during the Test seriesAs South Africa emerged after tea on the third day their captain, Faf du Plessis, called a huddle on the outfield and urged his players to deliver one final push to protect an under-acclaimed record of losing only one away series in the past nine years.England at this stage were slightly wobbling. Their 138 for six offered a lead of 274 and, though the pitch was already showing signs of capriciousness – not least from the footmarks at the James Anderson End – four quickfire strikes would have given the Proteas something resembling a...