Nine-overs-a-side is just not cricket

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Come rain, shine, Test cricket, 50 overs, T20, or even nine-overs-a-side, if theres a ball and hes got a bat, Hashim Amla will make runs. Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

South Africa 77/5 (9 overs)

England 29/2 (4.1 overs)

Match abandoned

Old Trafford - Television required some form of entertainment on Monday night, as did those who paid between £45 and £60 for a ticket ... but nine overs? Really? It was all a bit farcical.

Still, come rain, shine, Test cricket, 50 overs, T20, or in this case, nine-overs-a-side, if there’s a ball and he’s got a bat in his hand, Hashim Amla will make runs. England will also drop him.

And so after the game was reduced to a nine-over “hit out” following afternoon rain - the toss had been snuck in just before the heavens opened with England choosing to field - out came Richard Levi and Amla, to open the brief South African innings. Levi lasted one ball, caught down the leg-side off Steve Finn.

Not surprisingly, it was something of a procession, there not being the time to build an innings. Amla, engaged in some painfully unattractive slogging, but such is his form that even the ugly shots are going to the boundary. And so he lashed at whoever Stuart Broad brought on to bowl, the ball flying square on the off-side often, and one thick top edge went over the wicket-keeper’s head.

For those accustomed to seeing Amla craft an innings or even those who watched his creative stroke-making in the first ODI in Southampton, it was aching viewing, but in the team cause, it was extremely effective. Until Jacques Kallis, who came in at No 7 (could it get anymore farcical?), no one else got more than five, but in such a rapid innings, it was perfectly understandable.

Kallis finished on 13, with two boundaries. Amla, quite astonishingly - or maybe not, given how he’s batted on this tour - made 47 from 30 balls, with seven fours. He was dropped on 31 by Eoin Morgan, a difficult chance with the ball almost disappearing into the cloudy night sky. It was the umpteenth drop of Amla by an Englishman on this tour - as someone pointed out: “Maybe they like watching him bat too”.

The rain returned during the quick break between innings, but the umpires, needing to ensure some form of entertainment for TV and the brave folk who stayed behind, continued on, with Morné Morkel, a replacement for Lonwabo Tsotsobe, conceding two in his first over.

The highlight of the match came in the second over when Craig Kieswetter smashed Dale Steyn’s second ball high in the air and Robin Peterson, running back and then around from mid-on dived full length to hang on to an outstanding catch, which given the atrocious background conditions, must rank as one of the catches of the tour.

A couple of boundaries came England’s way, but the rain also returned, just five balls short of what would have constituted a match. Morné helped his brother Albie by taking a fine catch on the backward square-leg boundary to get rid of Luke Wright with the rain teeming into his face.

The umpires took the players from the field for the final time - England needed to be 42/2 at the end of the fifth over to win the match. Ultimately, this was another forgettable encounter, and after the Test series, the tour can’t end soon enough.

Proteas coach Gary Kirsten will return to South Africa tomorrow, to spend a few days with his family. The rest of the South African tour party will leave for Sri Lanka from England on Thursday morning, Kirsten will join them next Sunday.

The Star