Flogging the game to death

Twice in the last week South Africa posted 400, against West Indies and Ireland.

Australia raised the bar for the highest total recorded in any World Cup to 417/6 when they thrashed Afghanistan - and their winning margin of 275 runs was another best-ever figure.

Where will all this hitting end - with every ball going to the boundary and teams scoring 1000 off their 50 overs? Not England, of course. They are delirious if they reach 300.

David Warner contributed 178 off 133 balls to Australia's emphatic victory over Afghanistan. Warner was dismissed in the 38th over: had he batted through the innings from first ball to last, as Chris Gayle did against Zimbabwe, he would have rocketed past Gayle's 215.

Afghanistan's pace attack is perfectly presentable too. Yet they were still blasted all round Perth.

It is not in the first 10 overs that run-rates are spiralling; the figures for the initial power play in this World Cup are scarcely higher than for the last one in 2011. It is in the last 15, usually sparked by the batting power play from overs 36 to 40.

Most commentators seem agreed that a maximum of four fielders outside the semi-circles is too few - another administrative folly. Whether bowlers have a long-on, long-off and one deep fielder on either side, or four men out on the leg side and nobody on the offside, or some other combination, the game is weighted in favour of batsmen.

It is not as if the boundaries for this World Cup are small. The semifinal venue of Eden Park in Auckland may be a postage stamp, but most venues are full-sized, while the Melbourne Cricket Ground square of the wicket is a prairie.

Yet here we saw last Friday the ultimate in one-day hitting to date. De Villiers carted West Indies all over in smashing his 149 off 44 balls in January, but the Wanderers boundaries are short. At the MCG De Villiers went a stage further. If a bowler went round the wicket and pitched wide of off-stump, he skipped to the offside, went down on his knees and hit sixes over long-leg. When he reached his 90s, he did not nudge his way to a 100, as many batsmen would have, but powered on.

For a game of cricket to be worth watching we need contrasts: pace and spin, defence and attack, one side on top then the other. If a team blasts fours and sixes from the outset, and keeps going the whole way through, there is no contrast.

MCC, as the law's guardians, have been thinking for ages about the thickness of bats. And it is logical that, if the bat's length and width are circumscribed by law, then so, too, its thickness. It is bad cricket if a top edge flies for six.

Before such legislation, however, let us see quality wrist-spin in the last 15 overs, with pace off the ball, and batsmen unsure of which way it will turn. If SA, powered by De Villiers, keep on scoring 222 off their last 15 overs, then let loose the legislators.