A cricket world understandably preoccupied by the impact of the quickfire Twenty20 format and the vast salaries being paid to play it in India's Premier League received a timely reminder of the virtues of more traditional forms in two five-day test matches concluded on Monday.

England beat New Zealand by six wickets at Old Trafford, Manchester to take a 1-0 lead with one to play of a three-match series. Australia beat West Indies by 95 runs at Kingston, Jamaica in the first test of three.
This is not an attack on Twenty20. It has brought a new dimension to the oldest of organized team sports, generating excitement, fans and innovations in technique.
To see virtues in one form of cricket is not to decry the other. It is the difference between Seinfeld and Arthur Miller, between a good limerick and T.S.Eliot's “Waste Land.” You can like both.
The action at Old Trafford and in Kingston was, however, a reminder that a contest which spreads four innings over up to five days can offer nuances, multiple shifts in fortune, changes of tempo and sustained tension not possible when action is crammed into two innings lasting 40 overs, slightly under half a day's play.
England and New Zealand fulfilled the potential suggested by their rain-ruined opening meeting at Lord's, London. That showed us two flawed but well-matched teams.
Manchester is famous for bad weather . It has staged two of the three matches in the history of test cricket abandoned without a ball bowled. This time it served up winds blowing straight down the field.
New Zealand is perhaps more accustomed to such conditions, which count as pretty much normal at the Basin Reserve ground in its capital city, Wellington. It dominated for 2½ days and on Sunday came within a single dismissal of being able to enforce the follow-on; asking England to bat again straight away because its first innings finished with a deficit of more than 200 runs.
England's last two batsmen averted that threat. Little more than a day later it was recording a remarkable victory following the fifth longest successful run-chase -- a target of 294 -- in its 131 years of test cricket.
In between had come the big twist. New Zealand batted for the second time with an advantage of 180. When England's spin bowler Monty Panesar was introduced, New Zealand's batsmen attacked him and seemed to be building an unassailable lead. Panesar struck back, taking six rapid wickets to bowl out New Zealand for 114.
Even then England's target looked difficult. The surface was offering help to the bowlers, in particular New Zealand's captain Daniel Vettori, another spinner, who had taken five wickets in the first innings.
England's batsmen showed technique and application. Andrew Strauss, who only a few months ago appeared on his way out of international cricket, batted for more than four and a half hours to score 106. He rarely looked comfortable or fluent, but was not out until England was close to victory.
New Zealand was unlucky. Its batsman Daniel Flynn had to retire hurt in the first innings after being struck on the head while batting. He did not bat in the second. The wind, which made control difficult for bowlers, was particularly strong on the last day. It was, though, a remarkable victory for England.
The match at Kingston followed a similar pattern until its final innings. Australia scored 431, but was denied a decisive first innings lead when West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul batted on after being struck on his head. He scored a painstaking 118, to limit Australia's advantage to 119 runs.
Australia then collapsed in its second innings, losing its first five wickets for 18 runs. Fidel Edwards and Daren Powell bowled with the fire that was once taken for granted among Caribbean fast bowlers. Australia recovered to 167 thanks to a counter-attacking 79 from Andrew Symonds. That left West Indies a target of 287. It was put out of reach by the controlled pace-bowling of Stuart Clark, who took five wickets.
Both results ultimately followed form. Yet the fluctuations of fortune and the long periods when they were genuinely in the balance meant these matches gripped the attention for days. There is life in the old game yet.
(International Herald Tribune)