WHAT a sensational start to the final Test. Hashim Amla is making that close-in legside fielding position his very own. Then the subsequent tumble. Then the steadying by England. And so it goes on. The seesaw is in motion, and four days of drama still lie ahead.
A strong sense of grievance seizes the punters. They believe we have somehow been robbed. Twice we've had England staring down the barrel of a gun, the last man facing the last over of the game, no hope of getting the runs. – yet we're one down in the series. 'Tain't fair!
But that's the game we play. If you can't get the last man out, it's a draw. It's one of the subtleties that give the five-day game its richness. And if it's any comfort, Graeme Onions, the No 11 batsman who twice held out in the last over against the best pace attack we could muster, has unaccountably been dropped by England. He can't do it to us again.
And this time we just have to get our act together. The best we can do is share the series, but share it we must. Anything less would be a travesty, given our domination at Centurion Park and Newlands. And it would contradict the absolutely thrilling ebb and flow of the first and the third Tests (Kingsmead, of course, was all ebb).
Cricket will dominate the next few days. But there will be an opportunity this evening to watch, by way of diversion, Worcester v Leeds in the Guinness Premiership. Then tomorrow Bath v Wasps, Saracens v Northampton and Harlequins v Leicester; then, on Sunday, London Irish v Gloucester and Newcastle v Sale. These are crackerjack fixtures and English/European club rugby is a delight to watch. But there's no guarantee they will actually take the field.
Last weekend only one Premiership match could be played because of the snow and general icing up. That was between Leicester and Wasps, and it happened only after 22 tons of snow were removed from the field. The other matches were called off because the fields were deep under snow, the dead ball areas were frozen solid or the teams just couldn't get to the ground through the blizzard. This global warming really is becoming a problem. How the English Premiership will get through its fixtures before the Six Nations starts next month is anyone's guess.
For the record, Leicester beat Wasps 34-8. That's quite a hiding. Maybe Wasps had to shovel the 22 tons of snow off the field before the game.
But at the Wanderers it's high summer and high drama. The wicket is lively. At time of writing our pacemen and seamers were making hay (which is just as well as we don't have any specialist spinners). But this is test cricket and nothing is guaranteed. Every ball is a drama. We could be batting by the time you read this. We could be up against the wall. Who can predict?
Denouement could be Sunday, it could be Monday. It could even end in a Florida Road feue de joie. Lady patrons of the Filler are advised to wear knickers in case the elastic is needed to fashion catapults for the customary celebratory shooting out of streetlights.
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