Nah lots of people have been going on about what an amazing knock/day of Test cricket this has been. I brought up Sangakkara and Jayawardene myself because I'm sure no-one would go into the India in Sri Lanka thread saying that sort of stuff after one of them knocked up a double ton at the SSC. The vast majority of posts in there would be about how dead the pitch was and how bad for cricket it is, yet here we've got the same thing and it's all praise.
Personal thing really but I find cricket on a wicket like this absolutely terrible to watch frankly and I get frustrated by the double standards that are applied to by the Australian public.
Amazing day of Test cricket is a little easier to stomach IMO - even though we're used to it now, recovering from 3/50 to 5/480 is pretty nuts, even if the pitch was a road and bowlers dropped like flies. Even with the pitch handing you runs on a silver platter, the ability of Clarke to absorb the pressure in situations and get Australia out of a hole is pretty special. I personally wouldn't consider it a day of 'great' cricket, but making 5/480 isn't an everyday occurrence, even on strips of highway.
Not to mention the advent of T20 makes runfests totally lovable in the eyes of many.
I reckon the SSC-style criticism isn't being leveled here because of the scoring rate - when Sanga and Jaya made their 624 partnership (whatever the ground was), they made it at a touch under 4 an over. That's pretty much a par run-rate these days; it isn't anything extraordinary. Warner and Clarke taking South Africa for over 7rpo in a session is far further from the mean. As Spark said above, on rarity alone the enjoyment goes up.
Realistically, a double ton requires a hell of a lot of skill and concentration to make, regardless of the pitch. The more I think about it, the less inclined I am to rubbish Sangakkara and Jayawardene if they make big scores on the SSC. Obviously things shift somewhat on an ATG XI basis, given you
have to look for small things to differentiate some damn good players, but I don't think anyone will deny Sangakkara is a modern great of the game because he's made runs on easy wickets. Those innings won't be rated as highly as the 192 I mentioned before, just like this knock will pale in comparison to that 150-odd Clarke made in South Africa.
