AS is more and more likely in this age of three different formats, the cricket world has abruptly shifted from the shortest to the longest in the space of a few weeks.
The sprints, based on physical strength and a concentrated burst of power, have given way to the long distances that rather test stamina, strategy and resilience. Each has its own appeal, as do Usain Bolt and Mo Farah; cricket’s substantial differences between the two have been even more immediately obvious than ever over the past few weeks.
The eight top teams from the World T20 in Sri Lanka have all moved into Test series in different lands.
The T20 champions, West Indies, are in Bangladesh for the second time in a year for a couple of Tests.
Across the border, India seek revenge for last year’s 4-0 drubbing away in four home Tests against England. Not far south, Sri Lanka host two Tests against New Zealand, a team as much devoid of confidence as anything else.
Down Under, Australia are out to unseat South Africa as Test cricket’s top dog and restore their own position that had slipped to No.5 on the International Cricket Council (ICC) ranking.
Into the second Test of each of the three series, and at the start of another today, the statistics would ordinarily indicate dull, high-scoring matches, played on placid pitches, that are always regarded as the death knell of this format of this fascinating game founded 135 years ago.
With the three matches in Bangladesh, India and Australia still on going, there has already been one total over 600 (West Indies’ 649-8 declared in Khulna) and three over 500. These are based on four individual double centuries and 16 singles, one by a Bangladeshi No. 10 on debut; four batsmen have fallen in the 90s.
For all that, there have been such fascinating fluctuations from day to day, from session to session, that three of the first four Tests brought outright results (West Indies over Bangladesh, India over England and Sri Lanka over New Zealand); the other (Australia against South Africa) probably would have but for the loss of a complete day to the weather.
Bangladesh amassed 556, their highest total, in their first Test in Murpur – and still lost by 77 runs.
Precocious
They were 193 for eight on the opening day of the second Test when No. 10 Abul Hasan, a preocious left-hander in his first Test, thumped 113 off 123 balls in a partnership of 183 with Mamadullah that turned the match on its head – but only temporarily. Such heroics are likely to be needed again today to prevent another defeat.
Australia battered South Africa for 482 for five off the opening day’s 90 overs in the current match in Adelaide, the highest daily score in more than a century. Yet, the contest remains open after three days, as do all three Tests in progress.
It is significant that those who have prospered most are those not involved in 20-overs cricket, those not needing to make the adjustment.
Michael Clarke, the Australian captain, opted out last year to concentrate on Tests. His 230 in the current match was his fourth double of the year.
Flourished
The young Indian, Cheteshwar Pujara, England’s captain Alistair Cook, inevitably the enduring Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kieran Powell (a hundred in each innings of the first Test in Bangladesh), Darren Bravo and Australia’s opener Ed Cowan are others who have flourished in red ball cricket after missing the World T20 – or, in the younger Bravo’s case, having minimal involvement.
The example of Marlon Samuels, West Indies’ star of the World T20 triumph, is instructive. In his first Test back in white, he managed 17 runs, swatting a catch to deep mid-wicket off a short ball and gloving a difficult delivery to short-leg.
Next time, he was attuned and ready – to the extent of digging in for 455 balls for 260, the highest score of his finally blossoming career. That is the equivalent of 23 T20s.
West Indies arrived in Bangladesh expecting one thing and finding another. Vice-captain Denesh Ramdin echoed the consensus that pitches would be slow and spinning. They would, he predicted, assist the two main spinners, the heralded “mystery” man Sunil Narine, and the new left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul.
A few perfunctory overs were expected from the fast men: Ravi Rampaul, Tino Best and Fidel Edwards, the latter there only as replacement from the injured No.1, Kemar Roach.
The surfaces that were prepared, in Mirpur and Khulna, were not so much featherbeds as cricketing Restonic mattresses on which patient batsmen could gather runs in their sleep.
House and land would have been a sure bet on Chanderpaul totting up his unbeaten 203 in the first Test and 150 yesterday. He would have been dumfounded by the mindless slogs that cost Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim and their best player, Shakib Al Hasan, their second innings wickets. They are likely to also cost them the match.
Confidence
In the circumstances, Narine has not been a factor, unable to coax any noticeable bounce or turn from the unforgiving surface. His confidence has clearly ebbed with every passing over as he grapples with the special demands of cricket without restrictions.
So it was left to inspired spells from the totally unexpected to fill the breach. They were as fast and as hostile as conditions and timid Bangladeshi batting allowed and came from Best and Edwards.
As usual, all pent-up energy and speed, Best found the control on the final day of the first Test that so often eludes him and, with four wickets that ripped out Bangladesh’s middle-order, won a match that was in the a balance. The last, for his first five wickets return, was fitting return.
Limited by a hamstring strain to ten first innings overs, he was back at it again yesterday, perhaps not at his quickest, to dispatch three top order wickets in the space of 12 runs. Never short of a word, he proclaimed the tour of England in May and June to be “the rebirth of Tino”. He is proving it’s more than braggadocio.
For his part, Edwards, out of the team since the Lord’s Test in May, came in for the injured Rampaul. Right away, he was among the wickets, six of them for 90 in the Bangladesh first innings. It was his 12th return of five or more in an innings in his 55 Tests, a remarkable ratio, especially for a bowler so repeatedly undermined by injuries.
Should Darren Sammy (who has also played his part with the ball) and his team complete a 2-0 sweep today, it would be a tribute to their spirit. Such an outcome was always expected but, given the environment, they have been given a stern fight.
• Tony Cozier is the most experienced cricket writer and commentator in the Caribbean.
