NEIL MANTHORP: T20’s impact: Will soaring scores and dynamic skills transform 50-over ODIs?

Brisbane — “Don’t overanalyse it, or even overthink it,” was Kagiso Rabada’s advice at the halfway point of Sunday’s final ODI against Australia, with the Proteas having conceded three centuries in a total of 431/2. “We’ve all been there at some point, and the wheel always turns.”

SA were bowled out for just 155 to lose by a record margin of 276 runs, but the wheel had already turned after the first two games, which the tourists won by 98 and 84 runs to become the first team to win nine bilateral ODI series against Australia, more than any other team. England have won eight. 

The scope and range of One-Day International cricket has changed so much over the past 30 years it’s borderline comical. When SA and Australia contested their first series it was across eight matches. Eight. That’s more 50-over matches than most teams play in a year these days.

The Wanderers hosted the first of them with the hosts racking up a solid 232/3 in their 50 overs with the great Peter Kirsten posting a doughty 47 from 114 deliveries. Hansie Cronjé made 112 from 120, which felt worthy of at least a fireworks display if not a memorial plaque. Scoff? Well, it was enough to win the game by five runs with Steve Waugh struggling to 46* from 59 balls with his team finishing on 227/5.

The series was shared 4-4, the first of two draws out of the 15 played so far. Australia’s win on Sunday had only consolation value and they remained with just four series wins from the 15 contested since that epic back in 1994.

SA have always been pretty good at bilateral cricket. For two years under Cronjé and Bob Woolmer the team maintained a win ratio of 80%, unsurpassed by any other nation in any era.

Yet for all the differences between then and now, there was also a striking similarity between this series and the ones played in the 1990s. It was the uncomplicated innocence of the contests. No “agenda”, no revenge and no World Cup around the corner. For that matter, very few larger-than-the-game superstars.

Much of the tone and atmosphere for the series came from the crowds in Darwin, Cairns and Mackay, the first two cities having seen no men’s international cricket for over 20 years and in Mackay’s case, ever. The first two have populations of under 150,000, with Mackay’s at half that, yet the venue capacities of between 7,000 and 9,000 were reached for every match with children and families much to the fore.

The proliferation of bilateral cricket in the late 1990s and 2000s led to market saturation and undeniable ennui among fans and even players. Fifty-over cricket became barroom wallpaper attracting match-fixers and corrupters like flies to rotting meat. The calls for “context” and jeopardy for international matches grew louder but went largely unanswered.

The rampant growth of T20 cricket rather than proactive or creative administration stymied the proliferation of meaningless ODI series. There is, now, an almost charming unfamiliarity with how to tackle a 50-over game.

“There’s so much time, sometimes you’re not sure what to do with it,” said Australia’s Josh Inglis after his rapid 87 in the series-losing second game. We don’t play many 50-over games these days.”

Speculation remains around the future of the format as it continues to be squeezed. Two points: 100 overs of cricket with a (mostly) guaranteed result offers one of the simplest and most efficient advertising platforms in all of sport. So, it’s not disappearing. And by squeezing it the product becomes more concentrated and less predictable.

T20 cricket has intensified individual skills, which are more likely to produce dynamic performances and results. They may be one-sided for a while, but scores continue to climb and there are more successful, high-scoring run chases than ever before. A similar pattern, I suspect, will develop and emerge in 50-over cricket.

We don’t have long to wait to find out. The Proteas play the first of three more ODIs against England a week today, just six days after landing in the country in two batches, one from Mackay via Brisbane and Sydney and the other “pioneers” on the second-longest commercial flight in the world, from Perth direct to Heathrow, all 17+ hours of it.