Cricketing issues.

It was an attritional third day at Newlands – “attritional” being cricket speak for dull. The crowd slow-handclapped on several occasions as England established a convincing lead.

During the day I therefore examined some of the issues of the day and generally.

The first was the failure to call 13 no balls on Friday.

How can an umpire of the calibre  and reputation of Paul Reiffel miss these?

He is so near to the crease that he must be able to see the bowler’s foot well ahead of the crease.

One theory is that the umpires prefer to leave this to the video review and that if they call it wrong and a wicket ensues that dismissal is scrubbed.  This seems daft, like a football referee not bothering to call offside on the basis that VAR can.

As it is the batting side is denied 13 runs, the crowd celebrate to no avail and the bowler is disappointed.

Second, what sort of game would it be if there was no fifth day?

England, with this lead, could not risk a declaration and South Africa might get a draw. If England scored more briskly then there was a risk of yet another collapse.

My point being that it is the existence – not the actuality – of a fifth day that is key. My own view is that the drive for 4 day Tests comes from the players on the lucrative white ball circuit, not the fans and, it’s one more nail in the coffin of Test cricket.

I also wondered if Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley will be around come the Ashes in 2 winters, or on that list of discarded Test batters who never made it despite county form.

A quick look at the cricinfo website site  enumerated that list with Test batting average in brackets as follows:

Adam Lyth (20)

Keaton Jennings (25)

Sam Robson (30)

Nick Compton (28)

James Vince (24)

Westley (24)

Jason Roy (18)

Mark Stoneman (27)

Alex Hales (27)

Carberry (28).

Finally there was Kevin Pietersen’s beautifully-tailored brown jacket. It flowed off his shoulders with pinched in waist and very Savile  Row.

By contrast Marcus Trescothick in the SKY  studio had a lumpy checked jacket and you would need to be a sartorial genius to make Rob Key look elegant.