Wicket pitch of the north: Radical change of pace puts batters on notice

Ever since Dr Grace put his fallen bail back on his broken wicket and said to the bowler, “They’ve come to watch me bat, not you bowl”, the orthodox view on cricket is that most spectators come to watch batting and, given a choice, all the participants would be batters.

In Grace’s day, bowling was donkey work for the lower classes, batting a chance for gentlemen to preen. In the days of Bradman or Tendulkar, spectators turned at the gate and went back home if they heard the great one was out. Today’s Twenty20 revolution is based on the assumption that batting is entertainment and bowlers are the support staff.

After the spectacle that clipped along at the Gabba over the weekend, questions arise.

Most people I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed it and declared it the most watchable cricket of the summer so far. A fast game’s a good game, and this was a quick weekend for quick bowlers.

Seeing eight outstanding bowlers making life a misery for those standing at the other end of this green pitch felt to them like a kind of social justice, and a refreshing cool breeze after the blandness of the cricket in Perth and Adelaide.

The new ball swung, the pitch broke out like a teenager after a chocolate binge, and the somewhat older ball (it never got properly old) flew and ducked on the vertical axis while deviating both ways on the horizontal.

Pat Cummins celebrates one of his five second-innings scalps on the green Gabba pitch.Credit: AP

Mitchell Starc, who took his 300th Test wicket, was irresistible. Some of the wicket-taking balls that he, Patrick Cummins and Scott Boland delivered during South Africa’s two innings (which took 86 overs all up) were things of such beauty that you could only imagine how better batters would have kept them out. The Australian bowling masterclass included Nathan Lyon, who exploited the old adage that a pitch that offers seam also offers spin.

The South Africans – Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi – were also loving the conditions, knifing through the Australians. By Sunday afternoon, Usman Khawaja’s bizarre act of surrender said what many of the other batters were thinking: sometimes getting out is preferable to getting injured.

A first question about this mode of cricket is, was it just the novelty that made it so compelling? Or would we, as in the days of uncovered pitches, soon grow bored with stories that unfolded so fast?

If the bowlers had things their way every match, it might be like watching someone breaking nine seconds for the 100m because they have a hurricane-force wind behind them. It’s pretty, but frictionless.

Another question that had to arise was whether we were seeing not only a peak bowling performance but a nadir of contemporary batting. Travis Head, Steve Smith and Temba Bavuma were the cream that rose to the top in a thorough test of batting technique.

Cameron Green looked a million dollars for a quarter of an hour, Kyle Verreynne was outstanding on Saturday, and Khaya Zondo, supposedly South Africa’s batting weak link, produced what might be a career-making innings on Sunday.

Test cricket is meant to be a searching examination, and placid pitches too often reward sketchy batting performers with high marks. Batting is a subject that, as they say at this time of the school year, scales very well. It was high time that the conditions held some of those players to account.

Another question is whether it is “good” for cricket to see this kind of imbalance, whether ball over bat or bat over ball. Certainly, administrators and broadcasters couldn’t put up with their five days of “content” repeatedly being compressed into two.

South Africa pace ace Kagiso Rabada.Credit: Getty Images

They have an inbuilt bias toward batting, if not for crowd-pleasing reasons then to strengthen the bottom line. The issue for those who love cricket is what “good” is, and what role the Test format plays in defining it.

I suppose it’s something like an ongoing search for certification – who meets a desired standard, both batting and bowling, so we can distinguish between fool’s gold and the real thing.

In that light, the weekend didn’t prove much about the bowlers, other than they deserved their two-day Christmas party.

For the batting, the game elevated Head into elite company when he is in this form (in the first innings anyway). Steve Smith proved he is back at his best (in the first innings anyway).

Bavuma is the most valuable South African wicket.

Whatever individual journey David Warner is on, with his nonconformist white hat and his lack of runs, he is only going to be given a hundredth Test match in Melbourne through the selectors’ indulgence.

Otherwise, it showed us what we already knew, which is that these teams have world-class attacks. It was more light entertainment than high art, and if it sticks in the memory it will be because it was a radical change of pace.

It was fun while it lasted, and many of us would be happy if such a game continued for three or four innings a side. By its end, the Australians were relieved it didn’t.

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.