Perth's son of a pitch delivers again

AUSTRALIAN cricket without Perth would be like Dirty Harry without his .44 Magnum.

Third Test, Perth

AUSTRALIAN cricket without Perth would be like Dirty Harry without his .44 Magnum.

Every year we write stories predicting blood, thunder and general madness in Perth and this magnificent son of a pitch never seems to let us down.

No wicket in the world compares to prancing Perth.

Asked whether South Africa had something like it, commentator Neil Manthorp said "only the indoor nets at Potchefstroom when they take the astoturf off and leave bare concrete - and even then you would want to practice with a golf ball."

What a wonderful occasion Perth Tests are.

You look around and see people sitting on sundrenched terraces and in old-fashioned stands which may contain material from Noah's Arc.

An amazing thing about Perth is that it is a cricket ground which looks like a cricket ground - very rare in the modern era.

The menacing vibe is different to any other ground in Australia. When Mitchell Johnson hit Graeme Smith on the hand yesterday, the ground erupted as if the lions had grabbed one of the Christians.

Yesterday Perth gave us the contest this Test series not simply craved but needed.

Australia's rousing comeback in Brisbane may have been absorbing stuff and South Africa's last day steel in Adelaide admirable in the extreme.

But this series needs a winner. Perth will deliver on cue and we should all be thankful for that.

Three draws would like going out to dinner and having three prawn cocktails.

The first hero of this Test is curator Cam Sutherland who has rejuvenated the wicket to what it was in the 1980s and provided bowlers with the claws they have been craving.

The wicket was no smouldering volcano but it had natural pace and bounce and asked batsmen to play a completely different game than they did in Adelaide.

In the second Test batsmen could comfortably advance on to the front foot but yesterday most batsmen looked tentative - some were plain scared.

Australia's bowlers did splendidly as a unit yesterday and we may have overread the challenges of meshing a completely new pace attack.

A few decades ago it might have been a bigger issue than it was yesterday.

They were the times when moving states or clubs was a massive no-no and you tended to play your entire career in the one stable with the same team-mates who became best mates. But the modern cricketer is a transient beast.

Some cricketers play in the Indian Premier League without even knowing the name of the player bowling at the other end. South Africa's sacked leg-spinner Imran Tahir has played for 20 first-class teams.

John Hastings made his Test debut and fitted in nicely. His nickname is "The Duke" because his first two names are John Wayne. Just the man for the wild west.