Super Over 30

22 May 2025

Ball 1
I wonder if Marnus Labuschagne is regretting his county stint.

The selectors chose him in the squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final prior to his two games with Glamorgan. Their intention seemed to be to play him in the final, as an opener.

But then he played his first match for Glamorgan, and scored only 0 and 4 - and speculation is mounting that he might get dropped.

And so, starting Friday, an otherwise wholly unremarkable game in England’s County Championship (Division 2), shapes as one of the most significant games in the recent history of Australian cricket: Glamorgan versus Middlesex at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff - Labuschagne’s last game before the WTC final.

Sophia Gardens is an unremarkable venue, neither quaint nor big. I know, because I’ve been there once – I was briefly passing through Cardiff back in 2012, and, being the cricket nut I am, sneaked onto the edge of the playing surface when no game was on, until the staff kicked me off.

Labuschagne has had significant success there in his previous spells with Glamorgan. If he does not get runs in this match though, I think the selectors will have no choice but to drop him and pick either Konstas or Inglis as opener.

From that point, who knows? It does not necessarily mean the end of Lanuschagne’s Test career, of course . . . but it might do. It would be a sad fall for a player not that long ago being talked about as a potential all time great.

Indeed, if up to me, I would pull the pin, regardless. I like Labuschagne a lot, but from the 15-player squad picked, my top 7 would be:

1. Khawaja
2. Inglis
3. Green
4. Smith
5. Head
6. Webster
7. Carey

Ball 2
What is significant about this quote?

It is this bit that strikes me: ‘. . . obviously he’s (Bethell) going to be back in the UK for that India series.’

Because where is Bethell at the moment? In India, playing in the IPL - despite the fact that England play Zimbabwe in a Test match in Nottingham, starting 22 May, ie today.

Note that this clash is not as a result of the IPL being extended by 9 days due to the recent postponement. The original finish date of the IPL was 25 May - so England knowingly scheduled a Test match clashing with this date and then allowed their players to choose the IPL instead of it.

Curiously, Bethell won’t be staying for the full IPL: after one more match for Royal Challengers Bangalore, he will be heading back to England to play in an ODI series against the West Indies.

I am not criticising Bethell and I’m not even all that critical of the England and Wales Cricket Board. The cricket schedule, internationally and domestically, is complex and requires compromises.

But it should not come to this. It is high time that windows for Test cricket were carved out and ring-fenced - in both directions: no T20 franchise leagues on during the Test windows, and no Tests during the T20 franchise league windows.

Ball 3
I cringed when Sri Lanka bowled negatively.

It was back in the Test series in February and it was unwatchable. Ball after ball pitched outside leg, all padded away by the Aussie batters.

It didn’t last too long - but it was in primetime in Australia, with a huge audience watching on Channel 7. Anyone new to Test cricket would have thought it the worst sport in the world.

I bring this up because of a tweet with footage of such negative bowling in the County Championship. It needs to be stamped out but as things stand the umpires are limited in what they can do:

The relevant point in the Test match playing conditions

As you can see, umpires must apply the ‘one day’ wide law to stop such negative bowling. But this only works when the ball goes through to the keeper - it is of no use if the batter is padding them away.

I propose a new playing condition:

22.1.5 If the umpire believes a bowler is deliberately bowling down the leg side as a negative tactic, they may issue one warning. After that, the bowler will no longer be permitted to bowl from that side of the wicket (ie over or around the wicket) to that batter for the remainder of the innings.

So, for example, if a legspinner was bowling round the wicket and pitching the balls well outside leg stump, after one warning, the bowler would be required to switch to over the wicket; problem solved.

I think it is a simple tweak that will eliminate a minor blight on the game. What about you?

Ball 4
Virat Kohli was a very good Test batter but not a great one.

For much of his career, it felt as though he was on the way to being a Test great but he didn’t quite make it - as his average of 46.85 attests.

Some of the reaction to his retirement indicated an inability to cope with this reality. Or, more cynically, some outlets tried to bend reality to pretend he was a great - just for clicks.

And this included two of cricket’s most trusted sources: Cricinfo and Wisden.

Firstly, Cricinfo cherry-picked the very best section of Kohli’s career to claim that, at his best, he was better than the other members of the ‘big four’.

This was absurd on two fronts:
1. Kohli’s average in this spell is hardly any better than Smith’s or Williamson’s. To label it ‘When Kohli stood out from the pack’ is bonkers.
2. It is so clearly cherry picked to favour Kohli. Here’s a different period - from February 2014 to March 2016. Why not include this instead and head it ‘Kohli: not really part of the ‘big 4’:

Wisden also bent over backwards - in their case, to justify picking Kohli in an ‘all-time’ Test team.

'What about if we picked a side just of players who did not make 10,000 runs/take 400 wickets?’ they said.

And then realised Kohli would not make it.

‘Let’s limit it to post World War II - that will get rid of Bradman. And Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Headley and others.’

And so that is what they did (although for some reason they still allowed Len Hutton in):

The silly thing is, Kohli still does not deserve to be in the side. Of players with more than 5,000 but less than 10,000 runs (who played after or substantively after WW2), and excluding those already in Wisden’s side, Kohli has the 21st highest average!

Sure, some were specialist openers or number sixes (which doesn’t matter to me but would to some!) but even so, there are loads who could have been preferred to Kohli at number 4. I mean, surely Greg Chappell would be a no-brainer!

And away from Cricinfo and Wisden, the cherry picking ramped up even more. Here is just one example:

Ah, yes! That time honoured mark of ‘consecutive calendar years with more than 1,000 runs at an average of 75+’. Just rolls off the tongue!

Ball 5
After he made world headlines with his 35-ball century, 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi had a couple of low scores and, outside of India, has been forgotten about, for the moment.

Not by me though. As a crazy Don Bradman fan, I have always wondered how I would react if someone came along to challenge him as the greatest ever.

So far, nobody has come remotely close. And for those who claim Tendulkar, remember, Tendulkar’s batting average is closer to Hazlewood’s than it is to Bradman’s.

Test batting averages

The question is, is Suryavanshi about to be the first?

It is highly unlikely . . . but not impossible.

Following the two failures after his century, he has played two more innings:

1. 40 off just 15 balls for Rajasthan against Punjab - with 4 fours and 4 sixes, at a strike rate of 267.

2. 57 off 33 against Chennai - again, with 4 fours and 4 sixes, this time at a strike rate of 173.

All told, in his debut IPL season he scored 252 runs at an average of 36 and a strike rate of 207.

Now, sure - there are those who are sceptical about his age and, yes, smashing them on flat pitches in a T20 league does not mean he will be a Test success on a grey Thursday morning in Leeds.

But there is no denying it - what he has done so far is incredibly impressive. It is absolutely astonishing.

Comparisons to Bradman are idiotically premature - but at the same age, Bradman was batting in the lower order for Bowral, sometimes failing, sometimes getting an odd 20 or so.

Ball 6
Finally, back to England versus Zimbabwe which kicks off the England Test summer tonight.

This will be 40 years since I first watched Test cricket from England. For me, it is the best of all sport. Sure, I’d like nothing better than watching Australia win a FIFA World Cup. I love Wimbledon, cricket in Australia, golf majors, group 1 horse races, NRL and AFL big games, World Series baseball, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, competitive hot dog eating - you name it, I’ll watch it and love it.

But if a way could be found to normalise for all factors across all sports, for me, watching Test cricket from England - live at the ground or on television in the middle of the night in the middle of a Sydney winter - is the pinnacle.

The commentary is the best, the grass is so green, the pitches and ball and overhead conditions make for the best battle of bat versus ball, the history is ever present and, especially when you are there, the atmosphere leaves all other cricket for dead.

And maybe, just maybe, Zimbabwe might give England a bit of a shock and a run for their money!

This four-day Test is just the beginning of course. The five-Test series against India to follow promises to be one of the sporting highlights of the year - for me anyway!