The Serve

Rain Delay favours Australia

It took an eternity to get to the serious matches at the World Cup. Now we are here and a one-day match becomes two. Oh well, we’ve waited this long, what’s another 24 hours?

For the length of time, rain has been the bane of cricket. Today it was a blessing. Had the drizzle stopped in the nick of time, the Windies would have been asked to make 163 off 20 overs - surely a far easier assignment than 323 off the full allotment they will be staring at tomorrow. Duckworth/Lewis is the best system the sport has but it isn’t perfect.

Today’s star was once again Matt Hayden, who’s renaissance is extraordinary. His place was lost because he lost the ability to dominate. One wonders whether he could be decimating sides on regular sized grounds, but that is not his problem. Today’s knock was better than his record breaking century against the Proteas. This time his side was on the brink. 2 for 76 in the fifteenth and a spate of missed run outs. The Aussies were rattled, but Hayden steadied.

Now it’s up to the bowlers. This is a good test for the attack. They needed every one of their 377 to suffocate South Africa, now they have a good but gettable score. Sunday was the first time in the most recent five attempts Australia had successfully defended over 300 against a real cricket nation. We’ll soon find out if they’ve changed their stripes since the disaster of New Zealand.