Our correspondent loses her beauty sleep covering the ball-tampering saga but squeezes in a Melbourne walk and a Hobart museum
Firdose Moonda29-Nov-2016November 14
It has stopped raining. Really. This must have been what it was like when there were rest days. It seems an unnaturally long gap, long enough to lose the rhythm of the match but not enough to put either Temba Bavuma or Quinton de Kock off. De Kock has been fun at the press conferences. Asked about Dean Elgar’s comical ducking when he should have been catching, de Kock says, “I didn’t know whether to laugh or whether to what.” What?November 15
In 90 minutes Australia lose 8 for 32, four each to Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada, and the series is over. Just like that. South Africa are even more jubilant than they were in 2012, and why not? From the doldrums ten months ago to this is phenomenal. Steve Smith cuts a lonely figure and I think I see a tear when he confirms he is embarrassed to be at the post-match press conference.November 16
Many among the media and players use the early finish to go to MONA – the Museum of Old and New Art. We take the ferry from Hobart and enjoy watching the sailboats on the best weather day we have had in our week here. A new exhibition has just opened. There are several multimedia works, including a fountain that displays the most searched words on the internet; a happy room, as pictured by a Japanese artist who battled depression; a layered flower-and-bird carousel that rotates under strobe lighting and depicts how pollination takes place; and a four-bottled machine that is fed with scraps from the cafeteria, digests them, and at 2pm every day makes a poo.November 17
I have never been on a South Africa tour where they have won with a game to spare, so this is new (and exciting territory) for me.As we head to Melbourne for South Africa’s day-night tour match, the ICC confirms it is reviewing footage of Faf du Plessis shining the ball with saliva while having a mint in his mouth. The visuals appeared on Fox Sports and were not aired during the Hobart Test. A frantic late-afternoon work session ensues, some of it in the airport, the rest in the Melbourne City Library café, Journal.November 18
The MCG. The last time I was here was March 2015, for the World Cup final, when I experienced the venue in all its glory. Today it is empty and perhaps even more glorious.The entire squad comes out with Hashim Amla to defend du Plessis against the ball-tampering allegations. Amla speaks with an aggression I’ve not known from him before. He insists du Plessis had done “absolutely nothing wrong”, and that he does not know that the images are being investigated by the ICC, or that using sugar to shine the ball is a common tactic. It seems bizarre that Amla would be this ignorant, and even more strange that South Africa have mounted such a strong defence against something that has not even been confirmed.November 19
Today will be my first experience of day-night “Test cricket”, during South Africa’s warm-up, and my initial impression is that it’s no bad thing to have the morning off. I use it to catch up with colleague Brydon Coverdale, and meet his 17-month old daughter, Heidi, for the first time. Afterwards we take a walk through the streets of Richmond, a now-gentrified part of town that used to be an industrial hub.An installation at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art•Firdose Moonda/ESPNcricinfo LtdNovember 20
I have some work to mop up, after which I take the opportunity to walk around the Melbourne CBD. It’s one of my favourite things to do if I have a few hours to spare, and though I’m familiar with the laneways, there’s always something new to admire. There’s street art, a gin festival on the Yarra river bank, and ample pit stops along the way. Tough job but someone’s got to do it.November 21
An afternoon flight to Adelaide means I miss the airport argy-bargy, but I see the footage and am a little surprised the alleged ball-tampering has become so big. A Channel Nine journalist tried to get a word out of Faf du Plessis, shoved team manager Mohammad Moosajee in the back, and was shoulder-charged by South Africa’s security officer Zunaid Wadee. It all seems a bit AFL.November 22
Wake up to the news that du Plessis’ hearing will take place at 3.30pm. If he is found guilty, he could miss the final Test. A long day at Adelaide Oval awaits. I didn’t get to Adelaide at the World Cup, so I haven’t yet seen the footbridge that links the CBD with the stadium precinct. With glass panels on the side, it reflects the light that bounces off the river and makes everything seem otherworldly. It makes for one of the best approaches to a ground anywhere I’ve been, and takes the edge off how long we spend in there.By the time the hearing starts, we’ve already had two press conferences. South Africa start training without du Plessis and end it without him. He remains holed up in the SACA committee room for three hours. When he leaves 6.30, he is stony-faced and the atmosphere around the team is anxious. Juxtaposed against the gaiety from the SACA dinner on level two, it feels like being a strange movie. Eventually we are told du Plessis has been fined 100% of his Hobart match fee but is free to play in Adelaide. Minutes later CSA confirms he will appeal. Talk about a busy build-up.November 23
Du Plessis speaks for the first time since the tampering story broke, at his pre-match press conference. He is accompanied by the CSA CEO, who reads out a statement, explaining that CSA wants to see a clearer definition of the laws – to do with artificial substances in particular. Du Plessis conducts himself well and insists he felt he did nothing wrong. The everybody-does-it defence seems to have taken over the South Africans’ minds, but later Steve Smith confirms that all teams shine the ball the same way.Don’t miss the street art when in Melbourne•Firdose Moonda/ESPNcricinfo LtdNovember 24
The morning feels particularly long as we wait for the 2pm start, but then things progress fairly normally until the dinner break. As du Plessis says, usually at that time a Test day is over. Now we still have another session to go. The lights come on and there is a spectacular sunset in the final session. Wickets tumble. Du Plessis comes in. The crowd boos. He scores a defiant hundred. Some of them still boo. Then he declares, with 12 overs remaining and everything seems to have happened in fast-forward. As much as it seems like a novelty, I like the added dimension the pink ball and the changing light conditions bring to Test cricket. This could be fun. Less so when we only finish work close to midnight, but hey, it only day one.November 25
We don’t have the luxury of much of a sleep-in, because ICC CEO David Richardson addresses the media on the ball-tampering issue in the morning. He disagrees with CSA on the clarity of the law. That’s not all that doesn’t go South Africa’s way. Australia have their best day since the opening one of the series, in Perth.November 26
One of our bunch jokes that day-night Test cricket is like five ODIs in a row, and that by the third day we’ll start feeling it. He’s not wrong. It’s a struggle to wake up after two late finishes, and I can see that covering this format has its own challenges in terms of timing. Still, the cricket is engaging and I can see real potential for this format. The Adelaide crowd love it. It’s among their social events of the year. They fill the ground and the vibe is awesome – better still because Australia are finally coming good.November 27
Ultimately it is the perfect ending. Australia win something, South Africa win something. Everybody wins something. Even the most under-pressure batsman in the South African line-up, Stephen Cook, gets a hundred.Cook and I were at university at around the same time and when I first started in cricket, as a scorer, he was playing for the provincial side. We have known each other a long time, from before we had careers in cricket. That night, the media unwind in a pub and some of the South African players are there. Dane Vilas, who was also part of our old uni crew, is among them, and we get chatting. “How many times have you seen Cookie score a hundred like that?” he asks me. I think back to the days of club cricket, when Cook scored hundreds for the University of Johannesburg; to the days of provincial cricket, when he did it for Gauteng, and I realise just how far he, Vilas and I have come.The team are back home on Tuesday. Me, to McLaren Vale for a bit of downtime and then into my time machine: Adelaide to Dubai, Dubai to Cape Town, 14 hours up, ten hours down and I will arrive only about 18 hours after I leave. Say what?