523 and Counting

There is something elemental and magnificent about huge partnerships.

I've been a personal witness to a few big ones - Adrian Dale and King Viv at Sophia Gardens, 1993, Robin Martin-Jenkins and Mark Davis at Taunton, 2002, Trott and Broad at Lord's last year - and it always seems just a little bit amazing that players can bat for so long against professional bowling and not be parted. Many components go into stands like this: skill, timing and patience of course, but also, to be sure, plenty of luck.

During the early days of this blog, in late July 2006, I wrote about the experience of following the Cricinfo commentary as Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara advanced on the world record in Colombo.

Yesterday was different. It was a busy day at work, and while I sneaked the odd glimpse at the scores from Northampton and Scarborough, events at the Rose Bowl passed me by until the day's end.

When I discovered that Michael Carberry and Neil McKenzie had put on 523 for Hampshire's third wicket, batting together through 135 overs, I reflected on the fact that it was a far cry from the days when the newly-minted pitches at the Bowl used to favour the bowlers, but I also considered the fates of the players involved.

Neil McKenzie, from the Highveld of South Africa and with his 36th birthday in clear sight, always was a good player. Reliable, unfussy, with plenty of strokes and also the broadest of dead bats when necessary (as I discovered to my cost during two of the longest days' cricket-watching of my life at Lord's in 2008). In the autumn of his career, he would have formed an ideal partner for the star of the show, Michael Carberry, a fine player from the south London suburbs whose struggles with serious illness over the last year have come close to ending his career.

Both have played Test cricket - McKenzie has 58 caps for South Africa, Carberry one for England - but both are unlikely to wear their country's colours again.

They will always, though, have Southampton.

Heavy Going

If you walk into Lord's during the lunch interval of a Test match, as I did last Friday, you're hit by a metaphorical wall of frenzied activity - tourists, MCC members, catering staff and anybody else who happens to be there (many of whom have already imbibed freely) get down to some serious socialising - and the impression is one of barely suppressed chaos.

Once I'd battled my way to my seat in the Warner Stand, virtually the first thing I saw was Ian Bell lifting Paul Harris for a majestic six, but, with KP already out, the game, in terms of entertainment value, was largely downhill from there. Belly was fantastic; he deserved the extra run and we can only hope that he can build on it and show the world how very good he is. This time I think he will. He was superbly supported by Stuart Broad, who already looks like a very good Test number eight who will surely go higher, even if his bowling still needs work and may cost him his place in the side before too long.

From late on Friday until its confused conclusion yesterday, the game was a war of attrition, and, by Sunday afternoon, at least in the pavilion, the optimistic buzz of Friday lunchtime had been replaced by a range of slumbering bodies.

It wasn't necessarily South Africa's fault though; apart from the gritty Prince they made a mess of the first innings, the pitch was (too) slow, and the situation demanded several days of grinding. Smith, McKenzie and Amla certainly provided that, although I think the gentleman in the MCC library (where I found myself yesterday lunchtime) who made great play of stating what a marvellous innings McKenzie had played was pushing it a bit.

Yes, a very good innings of its type, but, next time, just don't ask me to sit through it, okay?

Grinding to a Halt

With the first Test grinding to a drawn halt this morning as Neil McKenzie took the opportunity to further improve his Test average, all that can be said is that the Indian authorities need to try to ensure that future Tests are played on surfaces which offer a bit more to the bowlers. Not easy, but necessary.

The Chennai crowds looked respectable, but, with Tests in India under increasing pressure from the encroachment of the ICL and IPL, there needs to be a bit of a contest for people to watch.

There won't be a triple hundred of the speed of Sehwag's every time...

Nous

So, Smith and McKenzie (both sometime Somerset players, as various people with Taunton connections have enjoyed pointing out) broke the world record, and South Africa beat Bangladesh. It didn't make very much impression on me, though. Although some highlights were shown in the UK I didn't manage to see them, and, for all the intermittent signs that Bangladesh are improving, they remain Test cricket's biggest whipping boys.

However, it's good news for South Africa ahead of their trip to England this summer, and a feather in the cap of a player (McKenzie) who, until fairly recently, had joined my mental 'what happened to him' file. Not bad for Smith either, but then he's a bit more used than most to scoring Test double centuries.

No, for me the most enjoyable and resonant cricket of the weekend encompassed Tendulkar's match-winning ODI ton at the SCG. As the commentators never stopped telling us, he hadn't previously made a one-day century in Australia, and it was clear from very early on that he really wanted this one. Personally I think the small signs of age-related decline have been observable in him for some time now, but only in so far as he bats like a player who is merely outstandingly good rather than apparently immortal. Innings such as yesterday, all command and nous (apart from some of his running), serve to remind you what a great batsman looks like, even if it's one who won't see his 34th birthday again.

This is not something which can be said about Rohit Sharma, who gives off unmistakeable signs of class and temperamental solidity.

I suspect that he'll be around long after Tendulkar has left the stage, but, for now, all that matters is what happens in Brisbane tomorrow.

The Day's News

In New Zealand England are stuttering through their one and only proper warm-up match for the Test series, and, in Bangladesh, Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie are really putting Bangladesh to the sword. In all probability Roy and Mankad's age-old record will fall early tomorrow.

There's every chance that England will, in what is now the traditional manner, enter the Test series under-cooked, with a keeper making his Test debut. However, it's encouraging that Steve Harmison is finding the cut strip with regularity and it was good to hear Kevin Pietersen declare this morning that he was only interested in playing for England and all the money in the world wouldn't tempt him away to the IPL.

I believe him. For the time being.