Smith hails South Africa's Annus Mirabilis as rainbow gladiators slay ghosts of cricket past

    

Melbourne, second Test, fifth day: South Africa 183/1 (Smith 75, McKenzie 59*, Amla 30*) and 459 beat Australia 394 & 247 by nine wickets

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GRAEME SMITH spoke of a shift in power following South Africa's historic series win in Australia today, describing 2008 as the Proteas' "greatest ever year".

Smith, Neil McKenzie and Hashim Amla knocked off the runs with ease on the final morning to inflict a first home series defeat in 16 years on upon Australia, since the West Indies' 2-1 victory in 1992/93.

It was South Africa's eleventh win in 15 Tests this year and their tenth unbeaten series in a row - during which time they've beaten every single nation they've come up against.

"It's got to be the best," exclaimed Smith when asked where 2008 ranked in the history of South African cricket. "No disrespect for anything that's gone before us, we're very respectful of the history of our game, all the people who have had opportunities before us and who have never had opportunities.

"But I think for us it's got to be the most incredible season South African cricket has ever had, to sit here with the results we've got. I don't think anyone could argue with that."

And, having become the first team to win series in England and Australia in the same year, the South African captain was confident of a repeat performance in Sydney next week, knowing victory at the SCG would lift them to first in the ICC rankings.



"I think the balance of power is evening out in world cricket," added Smith. "Credit to Australia, they've dominated world cricket for a decade. I think they've obviously enjoyed that time.

"It doesn't mean that they're going to be beaten in future tours and be easier to beat. But I think the balance has evened out a little. I think we've just been composed, I think we've just gone about playing our cricket.

"When we've come out on the big days and been behind the game we've really played the better cricket when we've had to. I don't think I could have dreamt of a partnership like we had at the back end on day three."

There were so many stunning individual performances, with the man-of-the-match award going to Dale Steyn for his match figures of 10-154 and knock of 76 which turned the match around.

Steyn said: "The word choker came up - we don't have that kind of history on us. If we can start winning like this, fresh in our careers, this is what we can continue and take forward. Maybe it starts off a new generation, I don't know. I'm just very proud to be part of a side that's achieved something special."

"I don't think there's enough beer in all of Australia to satisfy us tonight," added spinner Paul Harris.

• Cricinfo: Complete second Test scorecard
• Sydney Morning Herald: Gallery of South Africa's triumph

JP emulates WG, CB and AB with knock of his life to turn Test on its head

Melbourne, second Test, third day: Australia 4/0 and 394 trail South Africa 459 (Duminy 166, Steyn 76, Harris 39; Siddle 4-81) by 61 runs

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JP DUMINY scored one of the greatest centuries in Test history today to stun a packed MCG crowd as South Africa went from staring down the barrel to favourites in the space of six absorbing hours.

Duminy struck a magnificent 166 in only his second Test to rescue the Proteas and put the hosts in a spin, turning a 196-run deficit at the start of play into an incredible 61-run lead at stumps.

The last three South African wickets reaped 274 priceless runs, with Paul Harris scoring 39 and Dale Steyn hitting a career-best 76, sharing in the third-highest ninth-wicket stand in Test history with Duminy of 180 runs.

"I probably came out here thinking I wouldn't play, being that I've travelled now for a year without getting a game," joked perennial-reserve Duminy after being last man out, walking off to a standing ovation and the embrace of both sets of players.

"But stranger things have happened in life. Ashwell [Prince] gets hit the day before the first Test on the thumb and fractured finger and there I was in the Test.

"It probably will happen [that I will be dropped]. If Ashwell's fit to play I'm sure he will play. But I'm just thankful for the opportunity. I've got a taste of Test cricket so I'm just looking forward to the next game."

The staggering rise of Duminy - his hundred in Melbourne came on top of the nerveless half-century he hit in Perth to see the tourists to victory last week - may have come as a surprise to some, but to historians of the great game, JP's success was only a matter of time.

      

JP, WG, CB, VVS, AB: what is it about players known only by their initials that makes them seem destined for success? One struggles to think of a single player known only thus who wasn't a cricketing genius. An overused compliment admittedly, but in these cases entirely appropriate.

There's something that says "hey, look at me, I don't need no first name, jus' call me by my initials", from the playground to the cricket ground. You can just imagine them in school, knowing how good they'd be, demanding to be named only by a couple of letters, almost always ending in an "eeeee" sound.

Arrogance is a given, of course, but all great sportsmen need a touch of arrogance. Show me a man who doesn't bristle at losing and you show me a loser. Think Tim Henman. Ouch! Nice guy, good technique, no shortage of talent - but he lacked temperament; he lacked belief, confidence and, yes, arrogance, the knowledge in his own head that he is the greatest and is going to prove it.

But the key, as always, is not to take it too far, to do a WG, who, as legend has it, used to pick up the bails after he'd been bowled, put them back and carry on as if nothing had happened, the bearded doctor informing bowlers that "the crowd hasn't come here to see you bowl, they've come to see me bat!"

However, when it comes to all-round sporting prowess even WG was outdone back in the day, by one Charles Burgess Fry, a world class cricketer, footballer, rugby player, athlete and acrobat, and in later life a leading politician, teacher and publisher. Peerless!

For VVS, AB and JP cricket alone will suffice, the rigours of the modern game making it impossible to for them to try and emulate their illustrious Victorian and Edwardian predecessors.

And for Duminy, if South Africa go on to win this match and take the series, his finest hour may already have come, and not often can that be said of a player in only his second match.

• Crininfo: Latest from the second Test
• July 2008: An ode to AB

Wallace and Gromit Christmas number ones, but is Grommie top dog nonpareil?

THAT'S grand, that is Gromit!

After fighting off the Strictly Christmas special, The Royle Family, the Queen's Christmas Message, Corrie and Eastenders - not to mention seeing off the challenge of the Doctor - Wallace and Gromit were crowned the undisputed kings of Christmas tele this year, and the most-viewed Christmas show for five years.

Nearly 15 million viewers tuned in to watch A Matter of Loaf and Death, in which Gromit saves his master from becoming the 13th victim of a deranged serial killer, with the help of his new bitch Fluffles, the cutsie-pie poodle who melts his heart.

Now, winning the Christmas number one is one thing, but to achieve true greatness you've gotta be able to pull it off over a long period of time - which Wally & Grommie have undoubtedly achieved - but bigger questions remain, namely those pertaining to who's the greatest cartoony pooch of all time.

It's a tough choice, and, yes, I am stretching the definition of "cartoon" somewhat by including Gromit in the first place, but - and I hate to break this to you - unlike Lassie (and Santa Claus), Gromit, like the cartoon dawgs, doesn't actually exist, though he'd make a hell of a pet here in the real world.

    

So, who makes the shortlist? First up we have Snowy, Tintin's faithful companion; I've lost count of the number of times the powder-snow pup has rescued the boy journalist, almost as many times as Gromit's rescued Wallace, though Snowy's appeared in far more adventures.

Secondly, it's those pesky lil' pups Scooby and Scrappy Doo. Who can forget those immortal catchphrases "Ta dadada ta daaa, puppy power!" and "Let me at 'em Uncle Scoob!!" Just think how many times the assorted collection of gold prospectors, oil barons and truck drivers would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those two.

Thirdly, and quite possible the greatest of them all, the cheeky sidekick to that wackiest of Wacky Racers Dick Dastardly, Muttley, or "Muuuuuuuttttttleeeeeeeeyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!" as his partner-in-crime hollers out to him, to which the mischievous little pup almost always replies "Rrrrrasam, Rrrrrusum" followed by his trademark laugh, "a-heeee-heeee-heee-heee!"

Tough choice, huh? There are many more I could've mentioned, Droopy, Huckleberry Hound, Spike from the Tom and Jerry cartoons, Scratchy from Itchy and Scratchy, Mickey's orange pet Pluto, Snoopy... so many great dogs, but only one winner, and it'll take a greater man than me to decide which of our canine chums is king.

A-heeee-heeee-heee-heee!!!

• Wallace and Gromit
• BBC iPlayer: A Matter of Loaf and Death

It's showtime!

IT'S the song you just can't escape at the moment, and it could occupy the top three positions in the Christmas singles chart this Sunday.

But will it be the late Jeff Buckley's version, Leonard Cohen's original or the much-maligned cover by X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke...

    

Who gets the Christmas number one? Who deserves to get it???

Tune in on Sunday to find out!

• You Tube: Jeff Buckley sings Hallelujah
• The Times: Buckley fans promise fight to the finish
• Capital 95.8: Listen live to the chart show Sunday from 4-7

Guess who's back...

HOLD THE FRONT (WEB) PAGE!

According to the website williamhague.org.uk the baldies have staged a coup and ousted David Cameron as Conservative party leader.

The remarkable news of Hague's second coming as Tory leader was revealed by Harriet Harman at (deputy) PMQs this lunchtime, to rapturous applause from all sides of the chamber.

    

The news brings to mind a website from eight years ago - www.williamhague.com - which featured a picture of a naked man, accompanied by the disclaimer "Hi, I am William Hague and a very keen naturist, I am not William Hague the conservative politician from England!"

Sadly, both the site and Hague the naturist are long gone, though "Hague the conservative politician" is still going strong.

The baseball cap may have been ditched, but the Yorkshire wise guy can still debate anyone over the dispatch box and drink anyone under it!

• Watch Harman and Hague battle it out
• Debate the fun and games over at Guido's blog

Best finish ever

Madras, first Test, fifth day: India 387/4 (Gambhir 66, Tendulkar 103*, Yuvraj 85*) & 241 beat England 316 & 311
by six wickets

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SACHIN TENDULKAR dedicated India's historic win today to the people of Bombay, describing the record-breaking triumph as a "special victory".

The six-wicket win sparked scenes of wild jubilation amongst the 50,000 fans at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai as well as across the whole of India - none more so than in Tendulkar's home city of Mumbai, where hundreds of people died in the terror attacks of last month.

Those outrages had put the Test series in doubt, but come England did to resume their tour and play their part in one of the most Incredible Tests in history, laced with feats of individual brilliance, records galore and topped off by one of the most emotional finishes ever.

"This is a very, very important 100, right up among the top ones," said Tendulkar after hitting the winning runs and bringing up his century with the last shot of the game. "This hundred will give a certain amount of happiness to people but what happened in Mumbai, it's very hard to recover from that.

"Cricket is a lesser thing compared to what has happened. Whatever we can contribute, we've been able to do that. We're right with the people who have lost their dear ones."

It was a sentiment shared by England captain Kevin Pietersen, for whose team the mental toll was just as great. "To start a Test match two weeks after the tragedy in Mumbai, it's a fair show on both sets of players," said Pietersen.

"There are lots of positives to take into our dressing room: the effort everyone's shown, jumping on a plane to come back here - no excuses - and coming in here and putting in a fantastic performance against India."

"It's a very, very bitter pill to swallow," added Pietersen. "After day one, if you'd said to us we would be defending 250 on the final day, we'd have taken that. Our boys are hurting but we'll come back strong."

    

The game had it all: a century in each innings (Andrew Strauss), the fourth highest successful fourth innings run chase, one of the fastest fifties ever scored (Virender Sehwag), the best ever debut over in Test history (Graeme Swann) and a match-winning century from arguably the greatest player ever to have picked up a bat.

This was an innings once and for all to silence all the doubters, those "ignoramuses" as Sunny Gavaskar had described them, all those who believed Sachin lacked bottle, lacked the character for a fight, to lead from the front and finish off a match, working for each run on a tricky last day pitch.

Praise also must go to Virender Sehwag, without whose thunderous assault on England's bowling the previous evening none of this would have been possible, and Yuvraj Singh, who came to the crease with 163 runs still needed and only MS Dhoni and the tail to follow.

His was an innings of great maturity, discarding the one-day form which had brought him two centuries earlier in the tour and playing a real Test innings, showing great patience and a cool head, ignoring the barbs and picking off the runs with ease.

Then, as the winning post came within sight, he even eschewed the chance of another century and forsook the glory of the winning hit, blocking balls to the crowd's delight - never in all my years of watching cricket have I ever heard such deafening applause for a straight bat - and leaving the Little Master to hit the winning runs.

And hit them he did, paddle-sweeping Swann round the corner to bring up his 41st Test century, win the match and complete, by some distance, the highest successful fourth innings chase in Asia and the fourth highest anywhere, punching the air in delight as he was lifted up by Yuvraj with the cheers of the crowd ringing in his ears.

Seldom can the mood of a whole nation have been transformed so quickly by so few, illustrating most vividly the tremendous power of sport, to heal wounds, raise morale and showcase the very best of the human spirit, and in so doing fully justifying the decision to play.

It may have finished India 1-0 England but the real score was Cricketers 1-0 Terrorists.

• Cricinfo: Complete first Test Scorecard from Madras
• October 2008: Sachin breaks Test run-scoring record

Strauss and Swann on song as India fluff their lines

    

Madras, first Test, third day: England 172/3 (Strauss 73*, Collingwood 60*) and 316 lead India 241 (Dhoni 53;
Flintoff 3-49, Panesar 3-65) by 247 runs

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ANDREW STRAUSS and Paul Collingwood shared an unbroken 129-run stand to consolidate England's advantage as they looked to set up a rare Test win in India.

Strauss struck an unbeaten 73 to go alongside his first innings century while Collingwood shrugged off the disappointment of a Billy Bowden shocker first time out to hit a well-deserved half-centruy after Alistair Cook, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen all fell cheaply.

Earlier England's bowlers made short work of the India tail, Andrew Flintoff and Monty Panesar picking up three wickets apiece, their recently scalped skipper MS Dhoni the only batsman to trouble England with a quick-fire fifty.

Though for all the action on the pitch, the real drama, at least to those of us listening in 5,000 miles away, was to be found elsewhere - and I'm not talking terrorism.

What keeps us going through the cold and lonely nights, what keeps us in a state of semi-consciousness huddled in our beds, trying to keep warm, and trying not to sleep, is Test Match Special.

The stats, the stories, the banter, the jokes, the wind-ups, the interviews and above all else the commentary itself. All in all a much better proposition than the Sky output, improved though it is from the early days of over-hyping the patently underperforming England of the 1990s.

Those were truly the dark days for English cricket, the days of 3-0 series defeats to Zimbabwe and 3-0 Test whitewashes in India when they were led by Michael Atherton and David Lloyd, both now of the Sky commentary team - the latter akin to a medieval jester, a bumbling, couthless oaf happy to play the clown.

    

But I digress; back to TMS, and here's just a handful of anecdotes from the first three days of the first Test which have kept me warmed-up in bed, awake on the bus and sane at work...

An Indian, whose name is Danny Lal, who Vic Marks informs us keeps three pictures in his wallet: one of his wife, one of his little daughter, and one of VVS Laxman! I kid you not!!!

Back in the day, in the seventies and eighties, Marks and Sunny Gavaskar would wile away the hours in the slip cordon at Taunton dreaming up fantasy XIs alongside Peter Roebuck and the Somerset glory boys Ian Botham and Viv Richards, with topics ranging from the best bearded XI to the best-looking XI, to name but two.

A listener emails in swearing he'd been served by Monty Panesar at a pharmacy in East London! A tale which opens the door to the old Fighting Talk question on "sportsmen as shop assistants", the winner of which is almost always going to be Wayne Rooney as a butcher's assistant.

TMS golden girl Alison Mitchell getting stuck in the toilet at the MA Chidambaram, rescued by the polished boot of a policeman kicking in the door. Poor Ali. I can think of few worse places in the world to be locked in.

Bill Frindall informing us all that Graeme Swann was not the first bowler to take two wickets in his maiden over in Test cricket, Bearders forcing Cricinfo into an about turn. The man who did it first? Richard Johnson, for Engalnd against Zimbabwe at Chester-le-Street in 2003.

And, if you eschew the crispness of digital radio and listen in on long wave, not just TMS, but the range of other Radio 4 shows which book-end and intersperse the cricket that make for great listening, from Yesterday in Parliament and From our own Correspondent to the often irritating, seldom sensical and always entertaining Shipping Forecast.

I could go on, but there's the Strictly results show to catch...

From the cricket fields of India to the dancefloors on England, the BBC does it like no other; makes you feel proud to pay the licence fee - it's worth every single penny.

• Latest score from Madras
• Test Match Spacial blog

Hip-po hooray!

A RARE pygmy hippo has been born at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire.

The calf, born on November 13th, is one of only 3,000 pygmy hippos in the whole wide world.

Visitors to the zoo have until Friday to vote on her name, choosing between Loko, Kadina, Zimmi and Lola.

• Help choose the name of the new baby
• Amazing pics of the newborn hippo
• Pygmy hippo born in Sydney
• Hand puppet helps hippo to feed

Bat beauty

AND here's something else to warm the cockles of your heart:-



Cute Knut! Simply adorable!!!

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• Metro: Flying foxes rescued in storms
• BBC News: Berlin Zoo to wave farewell to Knut