Tag: news

Following the crushing first Test loss to India in Perth in November, there was a moment when Australia’s Test team looked as though they may have reached a cliff much sooner than predicted.

Ten weeks, five Test wins and two significant series victories later, that seismic defeat in Perth feels like nothing but a bump in the road, with the horizon looking even better than expected.

Last summer they used just 12 players across seven Tests home and away, playing three of them without a single player under the age of 29, and produced less than convincing series wins over Pakistan and New Zealand whilst drawing with West Indies at home in between.

It was a summer where Australia showed versatility and adaptability in both decision-making and execution across a vast spectrum of conditions and opponents.

Reports of Smith’s decline as a Test batter were greatly exaggerated, as were fears of Australia’s batting depth overall.

The performance of Inglis and Webster, although he didn’t make a century, and the looming return of Green means Australia is now flush with options ahead of the World Test Championship final which will create a selection squeeze.

The treatment of the two youngsters in Konstas and Nathan McSweeney rankled many, with the latter felt to be set up for failure as an opener after earning his place through middle-order Shield form, while the former captured the nation’s hearts only to be cast aside based on the conditions in Sri Lanka.

A quick glance, however, at the top 10 Australian Test run-scorers shows a litany of examples of players given a taste of Test cricket at a young age, losing their place and then returning to dominate at the highest level.

Smith himself was dropped after making 77 in his second Test as a 21-year-old, recalled five Tests later, then dropped again for two full years before becoming Australia’s best since Bradman.

Australia will still experience some pain whenever Smith and Khawaja finish, but the future looks brighter than it did 10 weeks ago.

That next rung of Sean Abbott, Brendan Doggett and Nathan McAndrew are all performing well at first-class level but all are over the age of 30. Replacing two ageing generational batters out of six in the short to medium term looks far easier than replacing three generational quicks out of three.

For now, Australia march to a second consecutive WTC final with enough depth and confidence that any of whatever 15 they choose in their squad could play a role in the final. Thereafter they play three Tests in the West Indies, where the performance in Sri Lanka might have more bearing on how they set up than how they play at Lord’s, before a date with England for a home Ashes. Perth feels a long time ago.

Following a hiatus for the BBL, Sheffield Shield cricket returns on Saturday for the final four rounds of the regular season to see who will make it into the final at the end of March amid what is a very tight table after six rounds. Here’s a reminder of how things stand.

1. South Australia

Leading the table, South Australia can dream of playing in their first Sheffield Shield final since 2016-17 and pushing for their first title since 1995-96.

Who will they be missing?

2. Victoria

Sitting a little over a point behind SA, Victoria are again well-placed for a spot in the final for the third time in four years having narrowly missed out last summer.

They lost out on a chance to go top when they fell to Queensland by 23 runs in the round before the BBL having overturned a deficit of 109 to beat the same opponents in Brisbane. They have three away trips in the final four rounds.

Who will they be missing?

3. New South Wales

NSW were declared champions in the Covid-disrupted 2019-2020 season but have not won the Shield in a full campaign since 2013-14. The game against Victoria in Sydney in round eight could be critical for them.

Who will they be missing?

4. Western Australia

The defending champions have given themselves a bit to do if they want to make it four titles in a row after suffering two defeats in their first six matches.

They had been looking good after an opening-round draw was followed by big back-to-back victories against Tasmania (who they beat in last season’s final) but Victoria toppled them in Melbourne and they were just unable to hang on in Sydney.

Who will they be missing?

5. Queensland

Queensland kept their season afloat with the 23-run victory over Victoria at the MCG but there remains a significant gap to make up to reach the top two.

They had the better of a draw against NSW in Sydney where they weren’t helped by the weather but were on the back foot against Tasmania after being made to follow-on. They have two home games during February before finishing on the road in March.

Who will they be missing?

6. Tasmania

Three defeats, including the last-ball meltdown against South Australia, and just one win in six leaves Tasmania at the foot of the table the season after they reached the final last summer.

Back-to-back defeats against Western Australia hurt them early in the season but they played superbly to beat NSW in Sydney with only 13 minutes remaining on the final day. In their favour for the latter part of the summer is that they have three home games out of four.

Who will they be missing?

One metric that can be used to answer that question is to judge the number of close games, which we’ll define as matches that were won by 10 or fewer runs of with six or fewer balls to spare. In the 30 group stage matches in 2025, there have been six tight matches, including one which was DLS affected. In 2024, there were 10 and 2023, nine. Similarly, this season, the number of matches won by a margin of more than 30 runs or six wickets is 20, the same as last year but seven more matches than the 13 in 2023.

Word from those who have had bat in hand is that pitches are more challenging because they are slower, lower and have turned more than usual. Considering that the competition takes place at the same time – early January to early February – every year, it’s puzzled many that the surfaces are behaving like it’s much later in the summer and explanations have been hard to come by.

Evan Flint, the former head groundsman at both Newlands and the Wanderers, believes the age and continual use of the surfaces across the country is starting to show. “Ideally a pitch should be relaid every 10 to 15 years, however with increasing content it’s impossible to do,” he told ESPNcricinfo “A new pitch takes 12 to 18 months before it can be used again, so this puts too much strain on the other three or four central pitches.”

That could mean that this season proves be an outlier, with the tired surfaces on their last legs, following what has also been a heavy international load. Before the SA20, there were Tests at four of the six venues (last season there were only Tests at two) and white-ball internationals at all six. “A lot of the central pitches were used before the tournament started and used surfaces often get slower over the course of the season,” Flint said.

In addition, heavy rain everywhere except the Western Cape added to the challenges at the start of the competition, especially for inexperienced groundsmen. There is a new curator at Kingsmead, and, since Flint left, fairly new curators at the Wanderers and Newlands, which means that there’s a lot of learning that takes place on the job and occasionally even those who have been around for a long time, don’t get it right. “It’s also a difficult job, so even with all the experience it can sometimes go wrong,” Flint said.

And that just has not worked as well. The 2025 league phase has seen the lowest percentage of runs scored in boundaries: 53.8%. In 2024, almost 60% of runs came in boundaries and in 2023 it was 56.8%. Fleming also mooted the idea that they may be due to when the games are played.

“One of the things I’m learning from being here a few years is that the starting time is a little bit of a challenge,” he said. “A lot of domestic cricket is played through the evening hours where the wickets have played quite well. We’ve found there’s quite a distinct difference between the last part of the day and then moving into the evening, even if the wicket’s dry.”

Most SA20 games start at 5.30pm local time, which is daylight in the Western Cape, where the sun sets at 8pm in peak summer, twilight in Gqeberha and on the Highveld and just about sunset in Durban. That means some matches are played as mostly day games, others as day-night and the rest as night games.

On double header days, the early match is entirely a day game, starting at 1pm, and on Sundays, the matches start at 3.30pm and end just after sunset. Under lights, the ball tends to come on quicker and there perhaps isn’t as much of that as there could be, but match times are set at what’s best for broadcasters, not batters and that may sum up how we should actually measure the SA20.

On screens, it is seen as the tournament with some of the best vibes: the crowds are diverse and engaged and have gotten behind their teams, some of the world’s biggest names have smiles on their faces when they’re playing, and even when they’re losing.

In the aftermath of Capitals’ 95-run defeat in their final game, the players gathered on the outfield with the families and their former captain Wayne Parnell, had a hit about with Parnell’s two young children and looked on as MICT set up a net on the field so they could train for their week in the playoffs.

Capitals felt no need to send either their new coach, Jonathan Trott, or their new captain Kyle Verreynne, to explain their dismal season and instead put up their rookie Keagan Lion-Cachet to the press afterwards. He was all smiles in defeat and “couldn’t have asked for anything else,” other than to be part of the tournament that has brought cricket in South Africa back to life.

“I’ve learned so much more than what I knew in the beginning, and cricket is a game where the more you learn the better you get,” he said. “The more people share their own experiences and skills with you, the more you learn.”

And one thing about the SA20 in its early years, is that it’s a tournament that will keep learning.