da brdice： It’s not often that a glorious summer’s day dawns as gloomy as this
Roving Reporter: Andrew Miller at The Oval05-Sep-2003It’s not often that a glorious summer’s day dawns as gloomy as this. For thethird time in the series, South Africa had been granted best use of abelter, and England had duly been belted. Consequently, the mood in andaround Kennington at the start of the second day’s play was muted, to saythe least.As one might have gathered from some of the tone-setting newspaper coverageof yesterday’s debacle, The Oval is not the most scenic of venues. The shortand sweaty hike from Vauxhall tube station doesn’t attempt to rival thegrandeur of, say, Wembley Way, or even the leafy(ish) approach to Lord’s.The traffic-choked Harleyford Road, with its average of three police sirensper furlong, soon dulls any notion of romance.As for the ground itself – all red brick and concrete with a garnish ofdecaying tenement blocks – it is a moribund sort of place to witness what was expected to be the slow death and burial of a much-loved and lampooned cricketteam. Whether, as one esteemed columnist suggested in the morning press, thelatest addition to the Oval skyline resembles “a penis” is a matter forconjecture. But, having toiled up four flights of stairs and taken one’splace in an airless eyrie of a press box, even the most objective ofobservers is entitled to grumble.At least the touts can always be counted on to lift the spirits. They wereout in force today, lining the route from tube to turnstile, talking upEngland’s prospects in the name of a quick buck. At the notorious VauxhallCross traffic lights, a horde of supporters were teetering on the pavement,trying not to get run over by a bus. A lady collecting for sick childrenrecognised the potential of this melee, and was rattling her tinenergetically. “How about a collection for sick cricket teams?” interjectedone wag. It was only half unfunny.But hopeless situations do funny things to England, particularly where SouthAfrica are involved. After all, it was on the second day at The Oval, nine long years ago, that Darren Gough and Phil DeFreitas turned the tide of thatfamous match with a rollicking eighth-wicket stand. The rest, as Devon Malcolm almost said, is history – and history is the best that The Oval has to offer these days.So when Jacques Rudolph fell to the fifth ball of the day, the stands were asea of raised eyebrows. When Mark Boucher fell to those wily old hams, AlecStewart and Martin Bicknell, even the journos allowed themselves an excitedmurmur. When Jacques Kallis was run out by Ashley Giles’s fingertips andAndrew Hall fell for the single that had eluded him at Headingley, SouthAfrica were 421 for 8 and wobbling. And Paul Adams’s run-out on the stroke oflunch was the completion of a perfect morning.The pints and pies flowed merrily in the interval, and – briefly – all waswell with English cricket again. Just don’t mention the score at Multan,where their next opponents, Bangladesh, are closing in their maiden Testvictory. Yesterday’s Roving Reporter: A tour book with a differenceWisden Day 2 Bulletin