Pitch battle at the centre of historic two-day Test

Amid the records and benchmarks across two crazy days of fast-forward cricket at the Gabba, perhaps the most instructive was – as far as the game's great statistical minds could glean – it is the only Test in almost 150 years to be done and dusted across a weekend.

Given the world short-course swimming titles were being held concurrently in Melbourne, it seemed fitting Australia pioneered a similarly abbreviated variation on the five-day game by having 34 wickets tumble after the un-traditional Test starting time of Saturday morning.

But while the novelty of a two-day Test can be partly attributed to a pair of world-class bowling line-ups going head-to-head, the reason Australia and South Africa were unable to take the first NRMA Insurance Test into the working week was undoubtedly the Brisbane pitch.

Forget England's 'Baz Ball' philosophy of playing Tests at breakneck speed, this was 'buzz ball' with a heavily grassed Gabba strip offering encouragement for fast bowlers on the first morning before handing them a licence to thrill as the game rapidly progressed.

"You’ve got to ask yourself the question - is that a good advertisement for our format?" South Africa skipper Dean Elgar said after his team was bowled out for 152 and 99 inside 86 overs.

"Thirty-four wickets in two days – pretty one-sided affair, I would say.

"I am a purist of this format and we want to see the game go to four or five days.

"And the nature of it, how it started to play with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball, you are kind of on a hiding to none as a batting unit.

"If you think about it, only two or maybe three batters, applied themselves half-decently and scored runs.

"I don’t think it was a very good Test wicket, no."

Understandably, Australia captain Pat Cummins did not share his rival skipper's dim view of the Gabba playing surface, which will be the subject of ICC match referee Sir Richie Richardson's end-of-game report to head office in Dubai with the subsequent verdict on its fairness (or otherwise) to be possibly known later this week.

"Personally, I don't mind when the groundsman err on the greener side occasionally," Cummins said, at the same time as Australia coach Andrew McDonald and a Cricket Australia official were engaged in a pitch-side conversation with the Gabba curator.

"I’ve played a lot of Test matches when they’ve erred on the flatter side, so I think it was the same for both teams."

Cummins' equanimity is likely predicated on his primary job as a fast bowler more than the other obvious point of mitigation – that his men ended up as winners, albeit thankful they weren't chasing many more than the 34 they needed this evening.

His assessment can also be balanced by the view put forward by his vice-captain Steve Smith who claimed in the immediate aftermath of Australia's six-wicket win it was "probably the most challenging wicket I've seen in Australia in terms of seam, up and down bounce, spin …"

"It was like there were different areas of moisture on the wicket, so some balls were taking divots and going slow off the wicket, others were hitting harder parts of the wicket and zinging through," Smith told cricket.com.au.

"So once those soft bits are hit, it creates some divots as well.

"You would've seen a lot of the balls that hit the divots and either shot low or took off, so as a batter it's very difficult to play against."

Given there's only been 21 Tests since 1877 that have produced a result in two calendar days – as opposed to two days' worth of playing time, allowing for rain delays and other contingencies – it's not surprising Smith struggled to recall a game quite like this one.

He cited last year's Ashes Test at the MCG, which ended before lunch was taken on day three after England were sent packing for 185 and 68, as the nearest he's come to experiencing this new weekend format.

And he was already back in the sheds this evening when Elgar – following the dismissal of player of the match, Travis Head, to a scorching delivery from Kagiso Rabada that rifled past the left-hander's rib cage – posed the question of on-field umpires as to whether the track was becoming dangerous.

"I said 'how long does it go on for until it potentially is unsafe?'," Elgar told reporters this evening, citing the examples of bouncers flung down by his fastest bowler Anrich Nortje that careered above the heads of batters and keeper Kyle Verreynne.

"It was never to try and change or put a halt to the game, no doubt.

"That’s where the umpire’s discretion comes into play, not us as players.

"I am not a curator, I wouldn’t know how to prepare a cricket pitch but it was interesting to see how quickly this one actually did start divoting, and how quickly the ball sped up, especially the new ball.

"And also today, the older ball was flying through which shouldn’t be really happening.

"The divots had quite a big role to play with the sideways movement and up and down and that steep bounce, which is quite something to face."

Cummins clearly didn't share his captaincy counterpart's claims that conditions had become potentially dangerous, and might have pointed to the fact the Proteas' second-most productive union of their second innings came from last pair Khaya Zondo and Lungi Ngidi (30 runs).

When told of Elgar's revelation about approaching umpires Richard Gaffaney and Rod Tucker to inquire as to the point at which balls flying steeply from the pock-marked surface might be considered a risk, Cummins offered a wry smile.

"If you're going to lose the match, you’d probably try anything, wouldn’t you," Cummins said this evening.

"There was some sideways movement, a little bit of up and down bounce but it was fine.

"There's no balls jumping off a length or anything like that.

"No way (was it dangerous)."

As events unfolded, Elgar did not receive a response from either umpire as to whether or not they might consider stepping in in the interests of player safety.

Across the course of the six sessions into which this Test was compressed, no batter copped more than a glancing blow from deliveries jagging at subversive angles, even though bowlers from both teams routinely topped 140kph.

In the case of Nortje, that crept above 150kph though from the evidence presented in his closing overs tonight those most at risk at that time were the ones in the immediate vicinity of the sight screen at the Stanley Street end.

But the South Africa captain will be among the many who await the ICC's assessment of the Gabba pitch with interest, in the knowledge he now has a couple of unplanned cricket-free days in which to digest it.

"There were only a handful of runs left (when the question to umpires was posed) so maybe they thought I was just trying to take the mickey," Elgar said with a half-smile.

"But it’s not a bad reference point going forward to get a reply.

"I don't see it changing anything … but there wasn’t a reply."

Men's NRMA Insurance Test Series v South Africa

First Test: Australia won by six wickets

Dec 26-30: Second Test, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Jan 4-8: Third Test, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Lance Morris, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

South Africa squad: Dean Elgar (c), Temba Bavuma, Gerald Coetzee, Theunis de Bruyn, Sarel Eree, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Heinrich Klaasen, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams, Khaya Zondo

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