The emotion and drama of the first two matches of this Carlton and
United Series had provided spectators and commentators alike with
plenty about which to eulogise
John Polack12-Jan-2000The emotion and drama of the first two matches of this Carlton and
United Series had provided spectators and commentators alike with
plenty about which to eulogise. Through the course of today’s third
game – between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground –
some more terrific cricket was conceived, particularly in the form of
the batting of two players. For intensity and excitement, however,
this encounter clearly suffered significantly by comparison.
Unfortunately, it was also blighted by an act of brazen stupidity from
a contingent of fans seated in the lower reaches of the Southern Stand
at this magnificent stadium.Before a huge crowd (which, on a very hot day in the Victorian
capital, may ultimately have been too big for its own good), the game
started in entertaining enough fashion after Australia had won the
toss and elected to bat on a hard, bouncy pitch and in the middle of a
lightning fast field. Openers Adam Gilchrist (3) and the still
completely out of sorts Mark Waugh (7) were gone inside the first four
overs and aspirations of a first Indian success over the Australians
this summer were imminent. But it was in between those dismissals that
Ricky Ponting (115) walked to the crease and it was essentially over
the course of the next three hours that he spent at the crease that
the fate of the game was decided.Relishing an appointment to the Australian vice captaincy in the wake
of the absence (through injury) of Shane Warne, the Tasmanian played a
superb innings. Initially, he favoured horizontal bat strokes –
several pulls, hooks and cuts evident early when bounce and pace in
the pitch was rife. But, as the variability of bounce diminished and
the pace in the track slowed, so he transformed his game, driving with
delicious authority forward of the wicket. Until he cramped late in
his stay and then bunted a slow Javagal Srinath full toss to mid
wicket, he scored at virtually a run a ball throughout a hand that
occupied just under three hours.So effective was his effort that he made life substantially easier for
those around him too. Indeed, he forced the constant rotation of the
Indian attack, prompted considerable revisions to the field, and
unnerved the bowlers into losing their line and length. Consequently,
the likes of Michael Bevan (41), Damien Martyn (30) and even, at the
end, Shane Lee (22*) and Damien Fleming (14*) all cashed in on a
handsome opportunity to make runs and to ensure that their team
continued to score in excess of five runs an over on its way to a
total of 7/269.As for the Indians, they fought determinedly, but their inability to
build upon their two early wickets told on them. They had an excellent
opportunity to run Bevan out when he had only one run on the board,
and captain Sachin Tendulkar also grassed a relatively straight
forward opportunity to catch Ponting (then on 109) at mid wicket in
the course of a generally sloppy overall exhibition with the ball and
in the field.When it came time for India’s response, Sourav Ganguly (100) replied
with a choice hand of his own. After the Indian upper order had
suffered similar problems against the new ball to those encountered by
their opponents, the lithe left hander constructed a beautiful innings
and, hard on the heels of his 61 in his only other game in this
series, continued to resemble the very essence of the player who came
to Australia with such a glowing reputation. Characteristically, his
driving through the off side was the feature of his batting and the
sheer placement and timing in his execution was a joy to behold.Freed of the constraints and mores of Test cricket, Rahul Dravid (60)
also played extremely well, and his 109 run partnership for the fourth
wicket with Ganguly had looked to be providing India with an
unexpected lifeline before calamity – both on and off the field –
struck. The first instalment of such tragedy came when, conceivably
out of tiredness, the latter committed the cardinal sin of failing to
ground his bat when attempting a quick single to Andrew Symonds at
cover in the fortieth over. Duly, he found himself over the line of
the crease with his bat but the fact that it was in the air when the
throw from Symonds hit his stumps meant that his blushes were not
spared.Worse (for everybody at the ground and those millions following the
game around the world) was then to come when a replay on one of the
stadium’s giant electronic scoreboards seemed to suggest that he had
made the crease safely. This prompted a mass protest from the large
contingent of fans seated in the lower reaches of the Southern Stand,
hundreds of bottles and considerable invective hurled in the general
direction of long on. Security and ground staff, as well as a large
cordon of police, were called into the area to maintain order but
peace was not immediately restored. Indeed, it was only after Dravid
and Robin Singh (34*) headed toward the offending spectators, and
pleaded for sanity to prevail, that play was eventually able to
resume.From there, neither the stain of Ganguly’s dismissal nor the blot on
the whole day created by such unacceptable public disorder could be
removed. In an innings in which consistently poor running between the
wickets was evident, the Indians consistently gifted further wickets
away at inopportune moments and they finished twenty-eight runs short
of their rivals at a tally of 6/241. That more crowd trouble ensued
(several members of the 73,219 strong audience foolishly invading the
ground at different times in the concluding stages) rendered it a
night to forget for many reasons, notwithstanding the impressiveness
and general efficiency of Australia’s performance in securing its
first win of the tournament.
