Ashes Fiasco: How the tables turned against the lion in his own den (Part 1)
The Australian cricket team had sinned on Boxing Day. They were lead by a wounded lion, who had a thorn in his foot. He was old and persistent on defending his territory. Unfortunately, this flag-bearer of the Australian side has seemingly been through a
tough time trying as hard as he could to hold his crumbling team together. Unfortunately that was not to be. Just at a time when his team needs him most, his powers have waned. The lion has grown old, his reflexes have become slow, his patience almost at an
end.
For hours, his team was made to parade in front of thousands of supporters who were witnessing the invading army torturing, tormenting and humiliating their team. Subjected to a barrage of taunts thrown at their direction, being jeered at by the conquerors,
although fortunately there were no rotten fruits thrown at them. The old, haggard lion was trying hard to cling on to the last shred of dignity left as the conquerors pushed forward with their humiliation.
The Barmy army had only words to punish the flag bearer, the Poms came in with sticks and stones. Jonathan Trott was the royal guard who took upon himself to deliver the last rites. He did so in spectacular fashion scoring an effortless century, his third
ton in his 5th Ashes Test. Pietersen and Prior hit pugnacious half centuries, their scores dwarfing the total of the Aussies who desperately sought a win, however found themselves stranded on a railway track with a train fast approaching to run
them over. The Aussies were desperate and began rallying on their own. Peter Siddle struck and for a moment it seemed as if they were making a comeback. The Aussies fought, they held their heads high.
However, the wounded lion and his team knew well that they could only work to ameliorate the embarrassment and not escape the inevitable – defeat – which was two long days away. Only in cricket can we find humiliation so long drawn out, it is in fact the
nature of the game of the gentlemen.
The ordeal was becoming too hard for the wounded lion to endure. The Kangaroos were doing their best to pressurize the Englishmen and soon enough they referred an appeal which was turned down by Umpire Aleem Dar for Kevin Pietersen. A replay of the shot
played by Pietersen showed circumstantial evidence of an inside edge however when viewed by the hotspot, it was evident that the ball had passed from a different place and the spot was probably due to the bat clipping the pad.
The skipper showed evident signs of despair and engaged in animated discussions with the Umpires contesting their decision. His agony was understandable however it depicted the state of mind of a man, for whom the game of cricket had turned sour.
Ricky Ponting unfortunately has fallen victim to his own time. It were people like Allan Border, Mark http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 than any of them.
The hard part for the Punter has been his stint with the team during their rocky decline. For the veteran lion that has not been easy. It was as if even technology was conspiring against the Aussies and this was not the only time in the day that this happened.
Trott was almost run out when he was batting on 49. He seemed disappointed, almost sure that he had been run out, he started to make his way back to the pavilion. The replays however showed that Trott was safe by only one frame.
Had those two been out, England would have been batting on 296-6, with its tail coming in to bat. However, it was as if even nature was signalling that Ricky Ponting’s era is over.
Continued in Part 2...
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