Newlands a glittering advertisement for five-day Tests

With all the timing of someone's trousers splitting as they go on bended knee to propose marriage, Cricket South Africa (CSA) managed to deflect attention from the positive spectacularly on Tuesday (Janury 7). The fifth day of the second men's Test at Newlands was exquisitely poised: South Africa needed 312 more runs to conquer what would have been a world record chase of 438; England needed eight wickets. The pitch was still sound for batting, with enough rough to keep the bowlers interested. Victory for South Africa was a long shot, but a draw was there for the grafting. What to do except sit back and enjoy the unfolding spectacle?

So it was stone tone deaf that, 15 minutes before the start of play, CSA saw fit to send this release fluttering into inboxes: "In view of an unsourced and misleading report in the media this morning please be advised that it is [CSA] official policy to support four-day Test match cricket. We, in fact, hosted the first official four-day Test match between ourselves and Zimbabwe [in a day/night match at St George's Park in January 2017]."

That was in response to a Daily Mail story that claimed CSA would oppose their England and Australia counterparts "if they formally endorse an ICC proposal to make four-day Tests mandatory from 2023". The article was unsourced and unattributed, and in previous instances of that level of reporting CSA have said they do not comment on speculation. That they would choose to do so in this instance was evidence of shocking tone deafness.

The suits didn't get much love from Faf du Plessis: "I'm a fan of Test cricket going five days. The great draws of the game always go to five days. I understand a lot of money is being burned on day five because a lot of Tests aren't going five days. [But] I've been part of some great draws that have gone five days. It doesn't happen a lot that matches go five days, but it's still special when you've got Ben Stokes running in and he's absolutely shattered from long spells of bowling and we're just trying to survive. That's what makes that extra day so special."

Du Plessis spoke in the wake of his team