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The Guardian
15-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Test cricket: slow-burning intensity can deliver the finest sporting pleasures
Never try to explain Test cricket to an American. In sport, Americans value brevity, drama, a guaranteed resolution. Draws are anathema and ways must be found to avoid them. Two enterprising journalists once took Groucho Marx to an MCC game at Lord's and he pronounced it 'a wonderful cure for insomnia'. What Groucho would have made of the 'timeless' Test in Durban in March 1939 – it had been going on for 10 days before England, close to victory, decided that they had to catch the boat home – doesn't bear thinking about. George Bernard Shaw summed it up perfectly: 'The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.' Yet, as the Lord's Test between England and India that concluded on Monday in dramatic fashion with a victory for the home team by 22 runs showed, Test cricket can also provide the most gripping sport of all – in large part because it unfolds over five days, slowly gathering in intensity. Twenty20, where each side bats for 20 overs and the game is done and dusted in less than three hours (the baseball model), may be taking over cricket globally, but there is nothing that matches the complexity and sustained excitement of a hard‑fought Test. Twenty20, though immensely skilful in its own way, is bubblegum pop. A Test such as the one we have just witnessed is Wagner's Ring Cycle. This match will be ranked with Headingley 1981 and Edgbaston 2005 in the pantheon of unforgettable Tests of the modern era. Lord's had everything: heroic performances – especially Ben Stokes, England's bearded Siegfried, looking as intense as Bob Willis at Headingley in '81; ill-feeling over the time-wasting tactics employed by both teams earlier in the match; a raucous crowd, with plenty of noisy but good-humoured support for both teams; and the bizarre denouement when the injured England novice spinner Shoaib Bashir bowled the feisty Mohammed Siraj to win the match. Siraj had middled the ball, but it spun back to hit the stumps, with Siraj, who could legally have kicked it away, seemingly transfixed. Bashir raced around the ground in ecstasy; Siraj was in tears; the earlier ill‑feeling was forgotten as England's fielders consoled the Indian No 11. Drama, pathos, humanity: Hollywood (or indeed Bollywood) could not have written a better script. Test cricket, as the Wisden editor Lawrence Booth told the Today programme on the morning after the match, is always in the middle of an existential crisis. As England were celebrating their mighty victory, the West Indies – in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s the best Test team in the world – were being bowled out ignominiously for 27 (the second-lowest Test total of all time) by Australia in front of empty stands in Jamaica. Test cricket may be buoyant in the UK, but it is in desperate trouble in other countries where money is short and Twenty20 is seen as a more viable option. If the greatest form of the game is to survive and flourish, the cricketing authorities need to address the inequalities at the heart of global cricket. Let Lord's 2025 be an inspiration, not an epitaph for a format that is sometimes seen as anachronistic in an age that demands instant gratification.
News.com.au
13-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Australia vs West Indies Day 2 live updates as wickets fall
The West Indies resumed their first innings at 1/16 on Day 2 of the third Test in Jamaica, but it didn't take long for the Aussies to snare wickets. There was plenty of drama on the opening day of play in the first pink ball Test at Sabina Park as verbal send-offs from West Indies speedster Jayden Seales caused controversy. West Indies vs. Australia Test & T20I Series | Watch every ball LIVE with ESPN, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer. Australia was wiped out in the final session under the lights to be rolled for 225. Mitchell Starc struck early in the final overs of Day 1 and the Aussie pace battery continued to fire on Day 2 with Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins both picking up wickets to leave the home side 3/62. While the Aussie bowlers keep getting the job done this series, the Aussie batsmen largely failed again. Shamar Joseph again led the West Indies bowling effort with four for 33, lifting his tally to a series-leading 18 wickets. Seales and Justin Greaves claimed three wickets each on a pitch offering considerable seam movement but still with enough in the surface to encourage the spinners, raising questions about the visitors' decision to omit veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon in preference for an additional fast-medium bowler in Scott Boland. Seven of the visitors' top eight — all-rounder Beau Webster was the exception — got past 15 although none could carry on to the really big innings to put their side in a dominant position. Turgid, almost tedious cricket defined the first two sessions with Australia advancing to 138 for three by the dinner break. However, a comparatively frenetic passage of play followed, triggered by the demise of Steve Smith for a topscore of 48, as Australia lost their last seven wickets for 68 runs in 15 overs. Wickets fall early on Day 2 Josh Hazlewood has taken the early wicket of West Indies makeshift opener Brandon King. King was trapped on the pads in front of the wicket, ending his nervous innings on 14. The West Indies batter called for a review, with the ball just kissing the top of leg stump. It didn't take too long before captain Pat Cummins took his first wicket of the innings with the West Indies in trouble at 3/58. Cummins got the prized wicket of Windies captain Rostone Chase with a ball that climbed high and took an edge through to Usman Khawaja at first slip. Big twist in send off drama Jayden Seales has denied his finger-pointing gesture made following the dismissal of Mitchell Starc was a send-off, with the West Indies paceman claiming he was signalling to a teammate rather than in the direction of the pavilion. Seales was also given a caution by the on-field umpires after he screamed at Steve Smith after the vice-captain edged a Shamar Joseph delivery to second-slip. Seales was handed a fine earlier this series after giving Pat Cummins an almighty send-off on the opening day of the first Test. Speaking after stumps, Seales said he didn't direct his celebrations at opposition players. 'No send-off, that was pointed directly towards Alzarri. We had a conversation before the delivery. No send-offs,' Seales said. 'I'm not planning to get any fines or push the limits with the umpires anymore, so definitely not crossing that line.' Steve Smith the hero as Aussies fell apart Smith and Cameron Green (46) put on 61 for the third wicket in the one passage of play during the daylight hours when the bat threatened to dominate the ball. 'It was almost like he was batting on a different wicket,' Green said at the end of play in an appreciation of Smith's positive innings. 'I was really struggling out there but clearly he is a class above.' Despite the batting collapse in the final session, Green, who is still unable to bowl for at least another three months, was happy with his team's position after day one. 'We just wanted to give them a tricky last 45 minutes at the end and to get them one down is really crucial,' he added. An almost T20-style attitude to batting, typified by captain Pat Cummins' consecutive sixes off Seales, was also a reflection of Australia's eagerness to get as many runs as they could quickly in that final session to allow the bowlers a decent shot at the West Indies' depleted top order under the lights. That helter-skelter tempo at the end contrasted sharply with the pedestrian opening session, made exciting only by the antics of opener Sam Konstas. He was almost run out by Campbell and then dropped at third slip by Anderson off successive balls from Seales before being trapped leg-before for 17 off the first ball bowled by Greaves. Anderson, who replaced Keacy Carty, is one of three changes to the West Indies team from the second Test. That match was Kraigg Brathwaite's 100th in Test cricket and possibly his last, as he was dropped in favour of Louis for the series finale while left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican returned at the expense of fast-medium bowler Anderson Phillip. — with AFP
