Well done South Africa, and Poms struggle against India so blame Aussies

Congratulations South Africa!

Well done South Africa for revising the laws of probability , not to mention my expectations, and chasing down the record Australian total. I wrote the South Africans' chances off after I saw on the Internet that they'd lost an early wicket, so went to bed. As ABC Radio wasn't broadcasting the game (why not?) I didn't hear more until I heard Warwick Hadfield's characteristically pithy report on RN Breakfast. After that I didn't need a coffee to wake me up. It must have been a very good game: perhaps someone willone day produce a DVD for those like me who know that to subscribe to Foxtel will glue them to the couch and condemn them to a life of intellectual torpor.

Another thought: how will this game effect the Duckworth-Lewis method? Statisticians awake, the cricket world awaits your findings.

Whingeing Poms redux?

The London Daily Telegraph blames Australian umpires Hair and Taufel for England's sub-standard performance in the Second Test against India Their alleged fault(s): failing to refer close decisions to the TV umpire. In one instance, according to Derek Pringle, the Telegraph's man on the spot (or the couch?) " a combination of snickometer and super slow replay would have sent Pathan on his way". The Australian players may have an occasional disposition to abrasiveness but it's hardly fair to criticise our umpires. Mr Taufel has a good reputation in these parts (a New South Welshman, he stood in a recent SA - NSW limited overs game which I watched on TV and he struck me as being a model of impartiality, even though SA lost narrowly). As for Mr Hair, surely he's done his penance for no balling Murali Murilatharan sometime last century.

Who are Mr Pringle's ideal opponents? To him the Indian captain Rahul Dravid, is "a gentleman cricketer with a steely core". Gentleman and Captain of India? The concept and the office are incompatible , as anyone (except perhaps Mr Pringle) who knows anything about India and its cricket would confirm. If you'd like to find out more, start with Boria Majumdar's 2004 book Twenty Two Yards to Freedom: a Social History of Indian Cricket. "Steely core" is much more to the point: apart from being a standalone description of Dravid's talent it rhymes with both "a million crore" (rupees) and "Steve Waugh", two important influences on his life and cricket.

That said Rahul Dravid is indisputably a great cricketer. Not quite in the Ponting or Gilchrist class, but would probably get a place in a best World XI with them. I remember his innings in Adelaide in 2003 where he reached his century with a six which looked for a moment (as my heart sank) as if it would be caught, but fortunately for the match and the series, wasn't .