The roller used before the South Africans came out to bat on the fourth day after tea could have seen the match end right there at the SCG, so believes Ian Chappell.
Ian Chappell was on air when the roller was doing its job when the ground umpire intervened, halted the roller to indicate there were patches of oil on the pitch caused by oil on the roller itself.
At which point, Chappell referred to an incident back in 1975 when a similar incident had brought a match to a dead end as per the rules that the pitch conditions had been altered. Apparently there was also some pitch digging business. But he was willing to believe South Africa could have created shenanigans right then and brought the game to a close.
Would South Africa be want to be reminded of this? That would perhaps depend on the result!
