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Australia v India, CB Series, 2nd final, Brisbane
Jaded and searching for inspiration
Peter English at the Gabba
March 4, 2008
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Ricky Ponting symbolised the problems of the Australian team, which was beaten in all aspects by a superior outfit
© Getty Images
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There's no problem. It was just one bad game. Our challenge is to lift our game. Throughout the past week of dire batting the only thing Australia did not do was admit something was wrong. The mind of a professional sportsman does not have any room for public doubt and during the crisis Ricky Ponting's men retained their world-champion air.
Almost a year after Ponting lifted the World Cup he has experienced a brace of losses to India. The embarrassment is that he has not won the CB Series trophy, the country's annual one-day prize, for the past two years and will not have an opportunity to get it back. The Australian tri-series is finished and India will be the perennial holders.
In a summer of such discontent it is a result that will rankle the Australians for years, but the hosts were outplayed by a superior team in almost every aspect. The main deficiency was the batting and it was the area that cost them. A spirited lower-order resistance led by James Hopes managed to get them within nine runs of keeping the contest alive, but there was too much to achieve after the side was 3 for 32 and 5 for 123.
Faced with a must-win situation, Ponting demanded his players return to their traditional standards, but over the past month he has been one of the most incapable of getting back. Briefly he stirred in Sydney ten days ago, but on either side there has been angst and disappointment.
Nothing has been easy for Ponting since the Sydney Test and he has been unable to distance himself from the off-field drama. He has found compartmentalising impossible and the confusion in his batting has been the most significant. He swears he has been hitting the ball well in training and has practised harder than ever.
When he walks to the wicket his crispness disappears and he finds ways to depart. Praveen Kumar is not the sort of bowler who would usually worry him, but he was Ponting's conqueror in both finals. Most disturbingly, Ponting went to a pull shot each time, the first resulting in a played-on and the second looping to Yuvraj Singh at mid-on. Nobody, including Ponting, could believe the dismissal and the Indians celebrated another bout of fortune.
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Admitting there was a problem when the order began to stutter a couple of weeks ago might have helped. Instead, the same mistakes were repeated and only in the past three days has there been a strong attempt to fix them |
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A tough catch was missed by Ponting when Sachin Tendulkar was 7. The chance was extremely difficult, like a handful of similar ones Ponting has grassed this summer, but a year ago he would have snapped up most of them. His groundwork has been uncertain and he misfielded in the same over he reprimanded Mitchell Johnson for a bad throw. It is hard to inspire team-mates when you are unable to inspire yourself.
The energy of the Indians, who benefited from receiving new recruits after the Test series, has drowned the Australians. Only Hopes, Nathan Bracken, who has been outstanding with 21 wickets, and Brad Haddin were brought in as one-day regulars and the team has been as jaded as the tri-series concept. The core batting line-up has carried the same members throughout both campaigns and they have become weary and unable to rediscover their best.
Admitting there was a problem when the order began to stutter a couple of weeks ago might have helped. Instead, the same mistakes were repeated and only in the past three days has there been a strong attempt to fix them. The hasty think-tank did not give them enough time for change and Australia's top wilted at the Gabba.
Ponting has improved immeasurably as a leader since the 2005 Ashes loss, but he has a habit of letting high-profile prizes slip. Last year the CB Series went to England and this version has gone to India. The kick in the backside he delivered after Sydney did not work and with the team in a slump he was unable to force a collective improvement. This was the problem.
Peter English is the Australasia editor of Cricinfo
© Cricinfo
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