a day at the test

posted by John Winn

My wife and I drove over to Headingley in good time this morning and using the park and ride from Beckett's Park were in our seats in the members' enclosure with half an hour to spare before wickets were pitched. Strauss won the toss and elected to bowl (remember when it used to be field?) and in leaving out Swann for Finn condemned us to a day of unremitting right arm over seam bowling and a consequent lack of variety in the English attack.

Putting teams in to bat in test matches has rarely brought success and although Petersen looked as nervous as a man who managed only a nought in his team's run glut at The Oval might be expected to, it seemed strange to insert a team who scored over 600 in their last test dig for the loss of only two wickets. If England were to get the early wickets to justify Strauss' decision then it was most likely to be Anderson who did the damage and he could not disguise his dismay when Cook spilled the easiest of slip catches, fielding in Swann's position.

84 for 0 at lunch and glum faces among the large crowd. The composition of test cricket crowds intrigues me for despite being a regular attender at championship cricket at Headingley I recognised very few faces in the east stand. Two ideas come to mind both of which may hold some water: firstly that people travel long distances to see tests, of two friends behind me one had travelled from near Edinburgh and the other from Northampton and secondly that many of the the test cricket crowd, keen and well informed as they are, would not think of attending county cricket matches, especially championship games.

That last point would I think be particularly  applicable to the west stand clientele for they were out in force and while we failed to spot any carrots there were the usual crusaders and more originally a number of Bradley Wiggins impersonators and a man in a grass skirt who had brought his own palm tree. England's  turgid over rate and after lunch Petersen's equally turgid batting encouraged Mexican waves which fortunately perished on the breakwater of the F.S. Trueman enclosure. Spirits were lifted when for only 37 runs 3 wickets fell and for a while it appeared Strauss might just have got it right but de Villiers joined Petersen and either side of a rain break this pair added 97 until shortly before the very late close the latter was bowled by Broad and when Finn cleaned up night watchman Steyn, South Africa ended the day 262 for 5. Whose day? No doubt England will feel there are 'positives to be taken' and the first session tomorrow will be crucial. If England get the early wickets they hoped for this morning then who knows? But you had almost certainly worked that out for yourself.