"Quite ridiculous!"

That was the subject-line of an email sent me yesterday by my South African friend, the body of which email read: "Sat up till 3 in the morning to watch the most amazing ODI ever!". I agree. Whatever your opinion of one-day international cricket, and I have many problems with it, you have to respond to this news somehow, perhaps with an acknowledgement unaffected by relative assessments of test and one-day cricket, or the balance of power between bat and ball: that South Africa's feat, more than representing a great batting feat, represents a twist in the limitations placed on possible schoolboy fantasies (the last such moment I can remember was Kolkata 2001, and then before that Headingley 1981). Kids growing up playing backyard games all over the world are just going to have to fantasize a bit harder, and work a bit more on constructing outrageous twists of fortunes in their day-dreams.