Cast your mind back to Sydney this time last year. Michael Clarke held the hopes of a country in the second last over needing three more wickets against India after a thrilling test match summer. Wicket. Wicket. Dot ball. Wicket.
Although Australia didn't need 3 wickets this time, they needed the win. The past two test matches had been lost and Australia feared they would lose their number one ranking in Test Cricket. After Andrew (Ronald) McDonald dropped his own wicket, the next ball was an lbw. Stein was out, the game was over. At least, that's what Australia thought. But out of the members stand comes the captain of the South African side, Graeme Smith. Only an hour ago he had been seen sitting in a tracksuit with a cast on his arm. Now he was walking out with a standing ovation dressed in Test whites with no cast to be seen.
16 minutes left of play or 5 overs. Ricky Ponting's heart rate was racing, he needed this last wicket.
Bring in Doug (the Rug) Bollinger on his Test Debut. Ntini's on strike, he's not looking for run's, he's looking for balls to go past, edging closer to the draw. Ntini hits the ball, and he's caught! And then dropped by Hayden, who could just be playing his last Test Match. Ponting's heart rate continues to climb until he puts Mitchell Johnson on to bowl a spell from the Paddington end. The man of the Summer has good reason to be chosen to bowl to Smith whose on strike, as Tony Greig correctly pointed out. One he has been the man of the Summer, managing eight wickets in an innings just two weeks earlier, and two, he's the reason Smith's arm was in a cast in the first place.
Everyone's counting on him, just like they were counting on Michael Clarke a year earlier in the same over. BOWLED!
No comments:
Post a Comment