I Told You So

Amla 90x, Kallis 84x

It didn't take long for Craig McDermott's lessons to be forgotten. For the first two sessions, if the Australians were bowling to a plan which must have been designed by Woody Allen because there seemed little point.

Generally, cricket is game which can reasonably be compared to chess, only with real players. Its about testing your theories and the thrust and parry of strategies as you test your ability to bring your theories into practice. It pays dividends, however, to be able to adapt when ideas which appeared good around the whiteboard, go irretrievably pear shaped. It's something Michael Clarke has shown a great propensity for as a captain.

Today, he was too slow to make the corrections and it wasn't until the last session that Australia changed their approach. By then, the cost may already amount to too much.

Graeme Smith won the toss and didn't blink an eye in batting first, despite the choice of four quicks in his attack. Rory Kleinveldt was included at the expense of Imran Tahir.

Ben Hilfenhaus and James Pattinson began but Peter Siddle wasn't far away and the early signs were good as Smith was lbw to Pattinson - after review - missing a ball on his leg stump he should put bat on. At 1-29, an inroad, an opening had been chiseled in skin of this much vaunted batting line up.

That, however, was that. South Africa went to lunch at 1-90, 54 coming in the second hour as Hashim Amla and opener Alviro Petersen settled in against an attack which looked possessed by the need to execute odd tactics. Amla had an over of short stuff from Peter Siddle, delivered around the wicket immediately he arrived at the crease but as soon as it started, this attempt at softening up was shelved. Hilfenhaus, Pattinson and the enforcer, Siddle, went back to bowling full at the batsman's pads or short outside off stump. Actually, short was a theme of the opening two hours and the ball left the bat often, usually cut behind point or pulled through mid wicket. It was no surprise the scoring rate accelerated.

After lunch, until drinks at least, things tightened up a tad. Petersen seemed trapped in front by Siddle, but the DRS showed the ball hitting millimetres outside off stump. That's the law, as drip-fed through the ICC interpretation of the DRS margins for errors, so no one could have been upset when the coach umpire Richard Kettleborough enforced it. Naked eye, it looked out but as any optometrist could explain to you, the slow motion camera processes ten times quicker than any eye, undressed or not.

Still, it looked out.

Petersen settled the matter not long after, spooning a catch to Michael Hussey at mid on from an ordinary looking ball from Nathan Lyon which neither bounced or turned. He just played a bad shot. His dismissal bought Jacques Kallis to the crease.
One has the feeling that the Australians will work hard this summer for wickets against South Africa and with each fall, they'll look to the gate for relief and instead, will see another champion swinging his bat and smiling at the prospect.

Amla drove and cut superbly

The fall of wicket slowed things but again in the second hour of the session, South Africa got away. In this, the fourth hour of the day, Kallis and Amla added a run a minute. By tea, Clarke had tried using Michael Hussey and even Rob Quiney, chosen as a first drop but perhaps bowling Clarke or Ponting in the nets and earning the chance to lift the over rate. Lyon was trying the impossible, floating the ball on a perfect batting wicket on the first day and he was attacked by everyone.

After tea, Australia and its long suffering servant, Peter Siddle, added to the long list of moans for the day. Four balls into the session, Siddle bowled a ball which lifted quickly to Kallis' waist and should have been sent to the square leg boundary, but the pace taken off the ball, Kallis skied it instead to Lyon at mid off. The Australians were jubilant right up until the moment Asad Rauf placed his arm in Kallis' way and called for a review. As he has done before in Tests, Siddle had is heel on the line and Kallis stayed. Much was made that millimetres were again involved and Ponting, Hilfenhaus and Matt Wade all had discussions with the umpires until asked to move on.

It appears that players still find it hard to accept the umpire's decision despite the hoopla in support of the DRS and the removal of said conflicts.

It wasn't Siddle's day

Four overs later, Siddle again held one back and dropped the return catch Amla offered. It just wasn't Siddle's day and the fact he was Australia's best, won't help.

The last hour belonged to Clarke, ordering his men on new directions and his quicker men bowled the dry line out side off stump to at least slow Kallis and Amla. Despite that, the earlier damage has both close to hundreds.

Apart from close decisions not going their way, the Australians made a rod for their back by bowling too many gifts. Balls on leg stump will be devoured by most Test class batsmen but this mob are even more clinical in despatching such to the boundary. The only variation for hours were bouncers way over batsmen's heads or long hops outside off stump. On a batting belter, this was death.

A final word on the umpiring.

Kallis out and then not out

Billy Bowden appears so crippled by technology that he makes decisions in the knowledge that they will be reviewed and the shifts responsibility off his shoulders. He has been doing the same for the past twelve months and his time has come and gone. Asad Rauf was impressive in the many ways he defused the Australians after tea when things went so badly for them. Highest marks though for Kettlborough who had a much tougher day at the office than was every envisioned when the role was created. He handled himself well and stuck to the rules, even though unpopular with everyone else at the ground.

South Africa resumes tomorrow - rain permitting - and each new batsmen will be standing at the gate with his napkin tucked st his chin, ready to chow down. They might make a 1000 if they wanted, as even Kleinveldt - listed to come in at No 10 - has six first class hundreds!

This Test might be known in future as the Dosier Disaster!