Johannesburg – It was not the best weather for a batting picnic: there waseven a hint of high drama about the toss which Hansie Cronje won
Trevor Chesterfield25-Nov-1999Johannesburg – It was not the best weather for a batting picnic: there waseven a hint of high drama about the toss which Hansie Cronje won.Above were thick woolly grey clouds, the sullen face of the weather, typicallynon-South African and non-summer, more in keeping with England andtemperatures plunging in the England dressing room too at the sight of the massive electronic scoreboard as the it highlighted the chronic state of the game in a bucolic yellow.England reduced in 17 dramatic deliveries to two runs for four wickets, or ifyou prefer the Australian way, four for two: a single to Mark Butcher followedby five naughts propped up by a solitary leg bye. Not the sight anyone in theEngland camp would have enjoyed and Nasser Hussain’s pre-match prophecystarting to dig unpleasantly in at the midriff; the sort of uncomfortableelbow jolt to bring home the facts of the harsh realities of what a Test match is all about.We had Allan Donald firing off a barrage of bazooka shells supported by hissenior lieutenant, Shaun Pollock, and his rocket propelled missiles tearingapart the defences.There was that dramatic delivery to Mike Atherton: the ball skating around offthe pitch and scything through the air: the second luring the batsman forward,jagging through the gap at 136 kmp/h and ripping the off-stump out of theground. Donald, the war paint white stripe across his nose, throwing armsaloft to the glowering heaven and turning to his captain, Cronje, signalling hismoment of triumph.Round one of the Donald-Atherton duel to the fast bowler: it did not even getdown to a one on one struggle, just a tester then the armour-piercing rocketwhich left the batsman in no man’s land as he pushed forward; and it was onlythe sixth ball of the day, the first dramatic over of the series.Six balls later it was Pollock’s turn: a lifter kicking up at Hussain and theEngland captain standing a moment before the Indian umpire, SrinivasVenkataraghavan, signalling the long walk to the pavilion as the small, vocalcrowd joined in. An hors d’oeuvre as Donald served up his second over and thedrama of what followed: a chef carving up the underbelly of England’s batting.Butcher, the left-hander, edging a catch to give Mark Boucher the first of hisbag of five. Alec Stewart trapped in front the next ball.Not since South Africa had faced India seven years ago when Manoj Prabhakar,Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath reduced their hosts to a stumbling 38 for fivehad their been such a morning on an opening day of a Test. The ball skatingaround on a surface designed to aid cut and seam as well as pace and foundEngland’s top-order unable to cope with the aggressive South African approach.Not the sort platform for batsmen such as Michael Vaughan and Chris Adams tolaunch their Tests careers. It need a touch of courage, a phrase fromShakespeare’s Henry V St Crispin Day address to the assembled knights withtheir St George cross cloth over their chain mail top, might he beenappropriate.”Rise, oh happy band of brothers . . .”Adams rallied: he may be the Sussex captain but his roots are firmly entrenched in Derbyshire and showed for 49 minutes the gritty determination before he too perished, followed by Vaughan’s bid to lift the St George Standard with Andrew Flintoff. One making his debut the other with a career of two Tests: not much to go on there, Flintoff’ s only score 17 against South Africa.They showed the sort of character you would expect of those from the north;some handsome strokes too, good hard graft and strokes with it: a bit of flairto bring a weak smile to Hussain’s eyes and their coach, Duncan Fletcher’s aswell.It was Donald though who won the battle: his career best of six for 53 againstEngland with Pollock’s impressive four for 16 in 14.4 overs taking him pastthe 150 Test wicket mark. The boyhood heroes had won the day for South Africa and England left to ponder the irony of losing the toss and with it thesurrendering the initiative.