NOTES FROM THE OVAL IV
Job half done, pack up swiftly, move on quietly
NZ 511 & 179 for 4d
SA 162 & 247
NZ won by 281 runs
You can quibble if you want. You can always quibble. Test cricket is such that if you’re delicate enough, you’ll feel that pea under the mattress.
Did Tim Southee persist with Wagnerball for too long?
Did New Zealand even need to bat a second time?
Do we need to drill down more into the issues at the top of the order?
Does this result actually mean anything?
Maybe; it’s academic; not yet; yes.
Let’s start back to front.
New Zealand had to win this test and they had to win it well. A 281-run margin is the very definition of a crushing victory. All cricket fans, not just New Zealand ones, should be very pleased because it goes a long way to bolstering the bedrock idea of the sport: test cricket is bloody hard.
The idea that you can cobble together 11 cricketers from the middle reaches of domestic cricket, six of whom had never played a test before, and compete with one of the more consistent international teams of the past decade was a mildly terrifying idea for the sport to ponder.