newlands

Cape Town, day three: revenge of the bravado

By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 5 Comments »

It was hard work sitting in the Cape Town sun today (no really), let alone running around in it. And England were given the run around by Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and, latterly, Jacques Kallis.

For the first time in the match, the South African supporters relaxed. Finally, as Smith bedded in for what would become his nineteenth Test hundred, a belief swept through the Newlands crowd. It was a pity, from England’s point of view, that it didn’t bring a breeze with it. In the southern hemisphere, belief soon becomes bravado, and all of a sudden hapless fielders were being goaded and the barmy army had a rival in the noise department. At last! This is how I imagined Test cricket in South Africa to be.

Smith’s was a special innings. Eight of his Test hundreds have exceeded 150, and half of those have come against England. In fact, in the same way that M&S don’t just do food, they do M&S food, against England, Smith doesn’t just do hundreds, he does bloody big hundreds. When he passes three figures against England, he always adds another fifty or two for good measure.

Bar a few nervous moments in the nineties, it was vintage: brutal, inevitable, a captain’s innings. England will need to call upon the spirit of another captain’s innings tomorrow and on Thursday: Mike Atherton’s famous 185 not out in Jo’burg, fifteen years ago. A truly epic rearguard, Atherton batted 643 minutes and faced a staggering 492 balls for his Test high score.

Of course, any of the class of 2010 attempting to emulate this feat, will require dogged assistance from a number of teammates. In 1995, Atherton had Jack Russell, whose often forgotten contribution, 29 not out, lasted 274 minutes and 235 balls – that’s eight balls (and 133 runs) less than Smith today.

Such talk is premature, and no doubt foolish. The sun must have gone to my head.

Tags: cape-town, england-in-south-africa, graeme-smith, Mike-Atherton, newlands, tour diary |

5 Comments »

Cape Town day one: honours even?

By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 2 Comments »

Which camp will be happier with today’s play?

A definitive answer will be known by lunch tomorrow. From South Africa’s point of view, that the answer to the question isn’t obvious, is down to one man: Jacques Kallis.

Whilst a potential Jonathan Trott Newlands hundred may be the best story-waiting-to-happen, a Jacques Kallis one was the most inevitable. His 33rd Test century may end up being one of his most important. South Africa needed it.

The number of the day in the world of Test cricket, was 127. It was the total a Mohammad Asif-inspired Pakistan managed to skittle Australia for, to the nearly-but-not-quite-suppressed delight of Patrick Kidd over at Line and Length, and the South African score at a point in this match when England were doing really quite well. 127-3 became 127-5 in the space of two balls as Graeme Swann (who else?) brought his customary drama to proceedings.

At that point, in the 42nd over, it was England’s day, and only a few quick wickets from being their series. But from then on, Kallis set about evening out the equation. Some great batsmen always give the bowler reason to believe they’re in with a chance. Some great batsmen don’t, and Kallis is in the latter category. With his late bat movement, razor sharp feet positioning and a technique so straight it impresses even Boycott, Kallis is a bugger to get out.

He now averages 70.72 in Tests on his home ground, and at 34, his powers show scant sign of decline. In 2009 he averaged 48.36 in Test cricket, playing in a team that won only one of its six matches.

Does a man boasting over 10,000 runs and 250 wickets in Tests possess a weakness? The answer would be no, if only his personal website didn’t list Titanic as his favourite film.

Tags: cape-town, england-in-south-africa, Jacques-Kallis, newlands, patrick-kidd, tour diary |

2 Comments »

The architecture of cricket grounds

By Will last year, mid-June, 3 Comments »

Riya from the Architecture Journal wrote in to let me know of a piece they’ve done: six of the best cricket grounds.

They are, in descending order:

DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai, India
MCG, Melbourne, Australia
Kensington Oval, Barbados
Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa
Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan
Winner: Lord’s, London, England

1. Lord’s, London, England

As well as Victorian architect Thomas Verity’s Pavilion, which still stands, completed in 1890, the architects who have made additions to ‘The Home of Cricket’ is a who’s who of the significant hi-tech architects of the late twentieth century. Most famous is the Lord’s Media Centre, which won Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levete’s Future Systems the Stirling Prize in 1999.

The bulbous form is supported above the ground by two lift shafts and its glazed facade give journalists and commentators an uninterrupted view of the ground. The curved structure was fabricated using boat-building technology and was the first all aluminium, semi-monocoque building in the world.

Adjacent to this is Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners Grandstand, completed in 1996. The stand is a three tier post-tensioned structure with capacity for 6,200 spectators.

Completing the high-tech group, Hopkins and Partners designed Lord’s Mound Stand, an intervention that retained the original Victorian arcade on the ground’s exterior while building a new steel superstructure topped off with an exuberant fabric canopy of PVC-coated polyester fabric.

Less public, but an important project nevertheless, is David Morley Architects’ Indoor Cricket School on the same site. It was the first indoor facility to utilise natural light for the playing area.