One advantage of Test cricket, is that if it rains, there is still time for something to happen on another day. How will the organizers cope if they pour huge amounts of money into Twenty20 and the match is rained off?

You might think they would only schedule matches during the drier seasons but they’ve got Fifty50 series scheduled in south India, when when they could’ve started the series in the drier north.

they should’ve started in Oz, it’s always dry.

good comment soulberry, I like informed comment.

we have the same politics in Oz - WA and TAsmania gets far fewer than the east. but although there is a surfeit, it just happens that todya is the one day I can sit at home and enjoy cricket on the TV without having anything else to do. It’s all subjective in the end.

I just wish it was a Test. There is so much more at stake with Tests, so many more twists and turns. In fact, I’d almost rather be watching the Saffers play Test than Oz plying an ODI. And i used to be an ODI fan , too.

I’m glad Kallis got a century. Maybe the ‘break’ did him good. Sometimes I think players benefit from dropped, gives them time to reflect and regroup. Hayden did.

You asked for commentators from Pakistan and here I am

Not been able to go see the test because of studied and Ramadan, but I see that the crowds have some what improved as the test has gone on. Can’t really blame people for staying away if they organize matches at this time of the year, if some players (namelly Shahid Afridi) them selves have made them self unavailable because of Ramadan.

Back to the match, I aree, negative tactic from the board and the groundsman to produce such a dead track, its tacking some nasty turn now from the rough but through out there has been negligible pace and bounce. And such negative tactics are exactly why we’re in the position we find our selves in in this test, although to Kaneria and Rehman’s credit they did bowl very well in the last session today. Trouble is that Prince and Kallis are the two best guys to handle such a situation for SA.

And one big partnership is all they really need, anything over 300 should prove too much for Pakistan’s young and fragile batting order. It was quite surreal watching our collapse in the first innings on the 2nd day. On two occasions at least I just stopped a natural reaction after the openers fell which has prompted me to say for years now “ah well, at least Inzi and Yousuf are still there”…then suddenly realising that neither are playing in this match, you console your self by remembering Younis Khan’s test average and Misbah’s promising start in the 2020s. Then Younis comes in plays a horrible short and more people follow his vein, add in the odd dodgy decesion from the umps, and a few more bad shots/misjudgment/irresponsibility/good balls from Paul-Who?-Harris and there you, all the team out for 290 odd. If the tail enders hadn’t hung around it would have been worse.

If they don’t learn from this and produce a better pitch for Lahore, they’re doomed.

PS: I’m surprised you say there are only “a few” South African supporters, what happened to all the girls form over the (in)famous Kevin Pieterson thread?