Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Durban test match: Finer points at Kingsmead
From: jcsheth@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu
Date: 17 Nov 92 16:04:19 CST
Organization: Wichita State University, Wichita, Ks

Hey netters,

   Once again, another test match, this time at Durban, peters out to a        
tame draw as S.A. notches a big second innings score. (at tea 131 for 2 )      
A few noticeable things popped up. Why was play stopped on day 2 due to bad light when
Kingsmead ground could have turned on its floodlights?? Following is an
interesting piece.                   

Richard Streeton writes in the London Times that at Kingsmead Durban on day 

" The game was not held on Sunday as after the high Veldt's worst winds        
  and rainstorms for two years turned the flawless pitch into a muddied 
  morass overnight.
     The winds were such that the plastic covers were shredded after 30
  metre long aluminium tubes were placed on top were then blown away.As
  is the custom in these parts, petrol was poured on the square and set
  alight to initiate the drying process.
     It left the pitch blackened with S.A. having to contend with an al-
  most old-fashioned sticky wicket, a phrase that is now obsolete. "

Wow!! Paula thata(rain) has sure ended Zimbabwe's and S.A.'s drought. Wonder         
how they sighted the ball the next day. Does anyone from South Africa          
have an eyeball input on this subject. Anyway, it seems only 3000 people       
were on the stands on the third day of the first test on their soil in 20      
years. Perhaps others still remember the trauma of watching a test match       
after 20 years enough to keep away. Or perhaps, S.A. fans have only an         
appetite for a game that consists of Rice, Cook, 'n' Wessels in it!!  

   Only 150 runs were scored on 3rd day and it must have a drag to watch.   
But PRAVIN AMRE , that doughty Maratha warrior (gond tribal?) is really 
test match material. His Yes-sir-no-nonsense-straight-bat-along-ground-shots-
-within-the-V-arc-merit-the-ball game is not suited for one-dayers were        
selectors tried to drown him first. He is plump like Gundappa who also scored  
a ditto debut century in need and I hope for India's sake that the similarity
doesn't end there. Skipper Azhar should have used him to impale some Zimbab
impalas. But Amray will get enough chances to nail and poach some springboks,
gazelles and kudus. ( in Xhosa: white striped spiral horned antelope)

    Around this time every year when Indians are regularly losing cricket 
matches, nettors come up with weird theories. Last year *beer* and *blondes*
who supposedly let India down 4-0 versus Aussies. This year it will be the
*KRUGER* and *LAAGER* theory (south african gold and beer) I sincerely hope
this is not the case but I coin it anyway. 

    The Englishmen will be touring India immediately after our S.A. tour
in February. That's when we will here new theories after their series loss.
They will complain much like ball tampering Pak (justified) about the 
*DELHI BELLY* (food poisoning or diarrhea) You can trust them to botch it up.

P.S. I was leafing through NOV.'92 National Geographic today n' lo 'n' behold,
     is a 4 centre pages fold out of a bird's eye June '92 picture
     of Cape Town S.A against some fabulous kopje Table mts grazed by clouds.  
     In the fore near the big harbor dock yards is a rail line and by it 
     are two adjacent stadiums by the Ocean. I want to know which is the famed
     Newlands ground which holds the 4th Ind/S.A. test. One stadium has 4 big
     floodlight poles while the other one has noticeable white screens at either
     end of the ground. Can some Capetonian please comment.  

Donald watch: when will he get a duck?
-Karthikeyan 
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket