 Posted: Mon 5:10, 21 Mar 2011 Post subject: Don't blame Steve Smith Jersey, says Ricky Ponting |
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| Don't blame Steve Smith Jersey, says Ricky Ponting
If anything sums up the agony of inches in Australia's close loss it was Steve Smith Jersey's overthrow in the final over of a gripping game. Had it hit the stumps, he would have been hoisted high on shoulders and celebrated long into the night. The delighted Australians would have cloaked him in beer and glory and he would have gone to bed with a fuzzy head and a smile. Instead, his gaunt-faced teammates, exhausted and dehydrated after five long days of cricket in the northern Indian heat, had to console the lad and assure him it wasn't his fault. It wasn't, but it won't stop him blaming himself. And he couldn't as he sat in the depressed dressing-room after the match. Steve Smith Jersey will relive the moment over and over and every time he does he will see number XI batsman Praghya Ojha struck on the pad, feel himself rise with the side in appeal, see the batsman scamper from his crease and himself swoop on the ball and throw. It missed by a moment. The Indians were nine wickets down and needed six to win. Nobody was backing up and the last thing Steve Smith Jersey will remember of the incident was the ball raced to the boundary for four overthrows. How he would have ached to chase it. How he would have loved to see a fieldsman appear on the ropes and toss it back, but they were all up in a tight cordon, attempting to smother the tailender. The Indian crowd was delighted, the Australians bamboozled and frustrated as Billy Bowden signalled four. Two balls later the match was gone. The ball had struck Ojha plumb in front, but Bowden ruled the batsman had hit it. There was a lot of conjecture that there had been no edge, but the Australians said later they had no squabble with the umpire's decision. The overheated, frantic and frenetic last moments of the Test seemed to send India into meltdown. The television coverage dropped out completely due to solar activity and the Cricinfo website seized up and died as millions attempted to log on and see what was going on. After the game a philosophical Ricky Ponting said that Steve Smith Jersey's actions in attempting the run-out were exactly what he wanted from his young players. "You feel sorry for Steve Smith Jersey," Ponting said. "He was the substitute fielder, on for Doug (Bollinger, who was injured). He is a young bloke who is always looking for positive ways to win. "The boys were saying that had he hit the stumps it would have been game over. He would have been out of his crease. That is what we expect from our guys. If there is a half-chance we expect them to run in and take it." Ponting, who is an aggressive fielder cut from the same cunning cloth, backed his charge. "There is no blame at all going towards Steve Smith Jersey for having a shot at the stumps," Ponting said. "If that was me I would have done exactly the same." |
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