The Wisden Verdict
by Gideon Haigh
Wednesday, December 26, 2001

There's no need to remind South Africans of Melbourne's reputation as the Manchester of the southern hemisphere: their first Test against Australia on resuming international competition, eight years ago now, was confined to 230 miserable overs.

Today, rain was rather more welcome. The loss of three wickets was a relatively small price to pay after being inserted on a pitch that titillated bowlers all day, especially with McGrath at his steely, stealthy best. Whether the austerity policy the visiting batsmen adopted pays off remains to be seen. Austerity policies can backfire easily: ask any Argentinian politician.

Gary Kirsten is a handy leading indicator of South African ascendancy. In wins and draws, he averages almost 51; in defeats, a puny 15. But in ekeing out 10 from 18 overs today, he yielded the initiative to the bowlers long before his rather tame surrender.

Before the series, McGrath announced that he held the Indian sign over Kirsten. He makes such pronouncements these days rather blithely, as though clearing his throat. Kirsten's technique - never one you'd advertise to an impressionable child - is also exhibiting signs of wear and tear. He presents bowlers with a lot of air between bat and body when pushing off the back foot, and his eagle eye for line is dimming.

McGrath needed only seven deliveries at Kirsten to find the aperture in his defence, and only two from round the wicket. The shot itself was neither entirely defensive nor completely attacking; rather, it was exploratory, furtive, the stroke of a batsman constrained by discipline rather than strengthened by it.

Boeta Dippenaar, meanwhile, seems overpromoted at No. 3, his open blade inviting captains to stack the slips. Nor have South Africa's tour selectors helped his cause: he has filled the slot in both Tests, but in neither of the team's tour matches.

Dippenaar was more determined than Kirsten to assert himself, but a shade panicky in doing so. It is difficult for a batsman to move from abstinence to indulgence in a single stroke, as Dippenaar was attempting to do today when his flail was expertly intercepted by Hayden at gully.

Jacques Kallis, who should almost certainly be batting at the fall of the first wicket, alone showed real conviction, and the poise to move freely between attack and defence. His towering straight six from Warne's first over brought the day to a reassuring close for South Africa, not least because it seemed responsible for rousing the skies to further rain. The impression otherwise was of a team playing without any real plan, day to day, ball by ball even. And the shelter of rain can't be relied upon indefinitely - even in Melbourne.

Gideon Haigh is one of Australia's leading cricket writers and the author of several books including The Summer Game, the acclaimed history of Australian cricket from 1948 to 1971.

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