How unpredictable pace, bounce of Newlands pitch defeated the purpose of Test cricket

It’s unthinkable that, in 2024, at a time when so much lip service is being paid to the primacy of Test cricket and a World Test Championship has been instated to provide context to every five-day match, a game of cricket should be reduced to a matter of luck, chance and fortune than skill, resilience and character. It might be tempting to wish away the rapidity with which wickets tumbled to the influence of the T20 format, but that temptation will only afflict those that didn’t watch at least 15 minutes of play during the day and a half of the blink-and-you-miss-it action at Newlands over Wednesday and Thursday combined.

‘More luck than skill’

On the first day, 23 wickets fell in 75.1 overs. Only once previously, in Melbourne in 1902, have more batsmen (25) been dismissed on the opening day of a Test. South Africa’s first-innings tally of 55 was their eighth lowest of all time and the fewest since their return from international isolation in 1991. India lost a record-equalling six wickets for no runs in 11 deliveries, going from 153 for four to 153 all out with six batsmen failing to tickle the scorers and a seventh remaining unbeaten on nought.

Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s straight-talking coach, held back no punches when he asserted, “It’s a sad state when you need more luck than skill. All the ethics and values of Test cricket goes out the window.” This is the home coach, remember, making no bones about how disgusted he was with the 22-yard strip rolled out at one of the more iconic venues in one of the more iconic games – a New Year’s Test match, no less.

First-time curator Braam Mong is certain to be hauled up for this ‘overprepared’ surface, as Conrad put it, especially because there was no extraneous interference in the preparatory process. There was no rain which forced the track to sweat under the covers and which prevented the ground staff from paying it full attention. There was no specific instruction from the Proteas management to attack India with bounce and movement. A first, and second, close look led to the assumption that Newlands would play true to norm, that it would put the batsmen through a stern examination of technique and character but no more.

Instead, this turned out to be a lottery. The ball misbehaved from 10.00 am on Wednesday, when ‘Play’ was called, to 1.34 pm on Thursday, when Shreyas Iyer slammed the boundary over mid-on that gave India their first win in seven tries at Newlands and made Rohit Sharma only the second Indian captain since Mahendra Singh Dhoni to fly out of South Africa with a Test series all square. And that misbehaviour was pronounced, significantly so.

Unpredictable bounce

Ashwell Prince, the former South African captain who is now the Proteas’ batting consultant, said he hadn’t seen a Newlands deck with so much pace on the first day of a Test. While pace and movement weren’t really the culprits, it was the bounce which played spoilsport. Because it wasn’t true and predictable. The bounce was variable; the ball leapt off a length like a cobra rearing its head, rapping knuckles and bruising egos, or it scooted through when banged in short, bringing batsmen to their knees, literally and figuratively. Survival instincts counted for little; it was a simple case of hunt (for whatever runs there might be) before being hunted down.

This was the greatest non-advertisement for Test cricket. Thousands had flocked the ground on both days, braving the sweltering heat, hoping to be entertained and hoping for a popular home victory in the final Test appearance of Dean Elgar, one of the more popular South African players. They were disappointed on both counts. They wouldn’t have minded the defeat so much because Rohit’s India are well-liked and backed in most parts of the world, but they would have hurt at being short-changed, at not getting their money’s worth, at being robbed of an even contest between bat and ball.

India have often been at the receiving end of stinging criticism for the kind of pitches they prepare when they host non-Asian teams. When the ball starts turning in the first session, there is a concerted hue and cry, conspiracy theorists screaming hoarse from the rooftops and match referees with hyperactive imagination quickly taking it upon themselves to read the riot act. Rohit questioned the double standards in assessing surfaces, admitting that he had no qualms playing on decks such as the Newlands one. “As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut when they come to India,” he added, stern-faced, almost daring a counter from the assembled press corps.

Faulty decks

Rohit’s angst wasn’t ill directed. Several tracks at the World Cup failed to pass muster from match referees Andy Pycroft and Chris Broad – the referee in Cape Town too – even though there were no obvious signs of either doctoring or dubious ‘surface tension’. Among the decks castigated were the one in Chennai (when India defeated Australia by six wickets with 52 deliveries to spare, chasing 200) and in Ahmedabad (when Pakistan were crushed seven wickets with 117 balls in hand after collapsing from 155 for two to 191 all out). Three-day Tests have been lampooned by refs and critics from outside as unacceptable and against the core values of the longer format. What will they say now of a South African deck where the home side collapsed to 55 all out and the so-called lambs abroad surged to a seven-wicket victory with ten and a half sessions to spare?

If prodigious seam on day one of a Test is good for the game, so is turn from the first session so long as both are consistent. It’s when the bounce develops a mind of its own that the pitch gets queered, pun intended. Let’s stop the haranguing and put out surfaces that bring all elements into play – not a ball of spin was seen at Newlands – if the uncomplaining spectators don’t rise up in revolt and boycott Tests altogether. That will be disastrous for an already beleaguered format.