Australia’s series win has been among their most characteristic – and least. And Ponting has been at the heart of it all
Sidharth Monga10-Nov-2009One can see why Ricky Ponting rates this series win right up there with the more special triumphs – the World Cup, the Champions Trophy, which are the pinnacle of ODI cricket. And to think that before this series, having beaten England 6-1, he seemed as interested in these seven-match bilateral back-and-forths as in meeting Harbhajan Singh for a coffee.It is special, for it is perhaps Australia’s most human success. It is special, for it stretched Ponting’s leadership; for it was not the sort of one-sided clinical triumph Australia are used to. Limited-overs cricket makes a case for replacements coming in and immediately doing well enough, but losing nine players, five of them during a tour, is no joke. Just to put it in perspective, look at how India did without Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan in the World Twenty20 in England, or without Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer in the Champions Trophy in South Africa.This series tested Ponting’s patience and resourcefulness, and Australia’s bloody-mindedness. It was their most un-Australian display: dropping catches and missing run-outs (Hyderabad), bowling poorly at the death (Vadodara and Nagpur), wasting good starts with the bat (Delhi and Mohali). In effect, for a change, they looked capable of beating themselves. Yet this was their most Australian display: hanging in, clutching to last straws, taking risks when they were least expected to, fighting back after making mistakes, and opportunistically jumping on the first small window Sachin Tendulkar provided them in Hyderabad.In a way Ponting epitomises the quintessentially Australian aspects of their unexpected success in this series. As the team has grown weaker by the day, Ponting, in a way, has come to resemble Allan “Grumpy” Border more. He is one of the very few current players who openly criticises the schedules that non-ICC Twenty20 tournaments have resulted in. Border apparently went to the extent of forbidding his players from talking to opposition players, lest it softened them when they played. Ponting is not a fan of players turning up the evening before the start of a tough series for Australia, especially when one of them, his key fast bowler, injures himself in the next match. He lets it be known that he wishes “the next generation of players coming through have the same sort of want and desire to play as much international cricket as I have, because that’s what it’s all about as far as I’m concerned”.Ponting went on to complain about the poor practice facilities in Delhi, and the umpires not allowing him a ball change, other than the one after 34 overs, when the dew came down in Delhi, but he also took responsibility when a boundary-less period between him and Michael Hussey cost them the match.That loss in Delhi came on the back of a mauling in Nagpur. Over those five days, they had lost five players to injuries, and whatever momentum they would have hoped to carry from Vadodara. After Delhi, Ponting looked resigned. “Where do you go from here Ricky?” he was asked. “Mohali. Tomorrow.”He did go on to say he was proud of the way his team had fought. “We are just trying to get on with it [the injuries], we are just trying the best we can. We are trying to play the best cricket we can. We are finding it a little bit difficult at the moment. We will keep giving our 100% and keep hoping that one of these close games we can win.”
As the team has grown weaker by the day, Ponting, in a way, has come to resemble Allan “Grumpy” Border more
Ponting will have no complaints with what he got out of the resources that were available to him. The ferocious pride in playing for Australia was all there. Beating Australia takes more than skill, Sachin Tendulkar will testify. MS Dhoni even remarked after the Hyderabad loss that it was the mental battle that they lost – the final collective step that they didn’t take. It’s like Rafael Nadal, who makes you hit an extra shot. Australia make you take that extra step. It was the sudden transformation that Suresh Raina’s wicket brought in Australia that night that makes beating them so difficult. Until then, they were dropping catches, they were missing direct hits; suddenly, after that wicket, they regrouped, ready to attack, knowing Tendulkar was the match.Tendulkar’s innings will be the abiding memory of this series, in a time when not much stays in the memory. Hussey’s consistency, Shane Watson’s aggression, Shaun Marsh’s willingness to put his hand up, Peter Siddle’s hostility, might be forgotten. But in the end the small things mattered.If you count being bowled out as 50 overs played out, India scored more runs than Australia did in the first six matches, at 5.41 an over. Australia managed 5.3. Yet the scoreline says 4-2 to Australia. Guwahati and Nagpur cancelled each other as facile wins, Mohali and Delhi as tense but easy ones, but it was in the close ones, the thrillers in Vadodara and Hyderabad, that Australia proved to be tougher.Not for no reason does Sourav Ganguly reckon that India will come out better for this continued struggle with Australia. They came here without hullabaloo – no claims of thrashing India, no smug quotes in the media. In three days’ time they will leave, having reinforced their place as the best ODI team in the world. Having shown India it is possible to win without big stars. Having shown the world that a West Indies-like decline or an eighties-like decline (after Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell left together) will not happen. Having reinforced the sporting cliché that it’s not over until it’s over. And having contributed to reinforcing the popularity of the 50-over game. The Gods of Big Things have become the Gods of Small Things, but the scoreline reads 4-2 Australia.
