THE recent purple patch struck by Australian captain Ricky Ponting is something to watch and enjoy. Every batsmen worth his salt is rewarded by such largess by Mother Nature during the course of an international career. These are patches when nothing goes wrong for you. Even if you face the best of bowlers — spinners and pacers alike — with nothing more than a walking stick, you can hit them out of the ground. And when you err, the fielders drop the ball like they are the proverbial hot potatoes. When you get stuck in the middle of the pitch as a result of some confusion with your batting partner, the wicketkeepr fails to gather the ball and you make it to the safety of the batting crease. Even umpiring decisions start going in your favour.
By some clause of the divine law, these patches are due compensation for all those periods of time when nothing goes right for you. When you are out of form, there is hardly anything that does the trick for you. Forget the walking stick, there appear holes in the bat when it is in your hands. Even if you erect an iron wall between yourself and the set of stumps behind you, the ball will somehow still hit the middle stump bang. Even if a fielder is sleeping on the field, the ball off your edge will still settle smugly in his soft belly, or some throw from the boundary line will hit the stumps directly, leaving you stranded and flabbergasted. As for the issue of umpiring decisions, they will not just go against you, but they will go horribly so, with the umpires too eager to lift the dreaded finger even before a formal appeal has been launched.
Life in cricket is all about taking everything in your stride and about striking the balance; to keep it simple, straight and down to the basics when you are off colour; and not getting too excited and euphoric when the colour turns purple and foe and friends alike go green with envy. These are all parts of the life of a cricketer. What one does need to do, however, is to make the most of these purple patches and try to prolong them as much as one can possibly do. And this is exactly what most people fail to do as effectively as Ponting has been doing for the last six or so months.
In fact, if my memory serves me right, he has at least not been out of form for a pretty long time, which suggests that he has successfully lifted the average base level of his game. That being so, it explains why his purple patch is that much more purple than what is generally the case. In the last five months, he has scored a century in each innings of a Test match on three different occasions. To do it once in an entire career is something to be proud of, for not many have done that. To do it three times in international cricket is something extremely rare because only Sunil Gavaskar of India had achieved the feat before Ponting joined him on the list. To have done it inside one hundred and fifty days is well and truly remarkable, Ponting, of course, being the only one to have achieved the feat. Add to it all the other scores that he has achieved in both forms of the game during these one hundred and fifty days, and you would realize how purple the patch really is.
Riding on the crest of this gigantic wave, the Australians have been able to do so well in recent times after the Ashes debacle. Not that he was scoring any less impressively during the England tour, it is just that he is now getting better support from the likes of, say, Mathew Hayden, who has regained his touch, and Bret Lee, who was made to sit out till the team management finally lost faith in Jason Gillespie. If the scenario proves one thing, it is that cricket is a team game. Individuals, howsoever bright and talented they may be, can’t do all on their own. Therein lies the beauty of the game. n
THE recent purple patch struck by Australian captain Ricky Ponting is something to watch and enjoy. Every batsmen worth his salt is rewarded by such largess by Mother Nature during the course of an international career. These are patches when nothing goes wrong for you. Even if you face the best of bowlers — spinners and pacers alike — with nothing more than a walking stick, you can hit them out of the ground. And when you err, the fielders drop the ball like they are the proverbial hot potatoes. When you get stuck in the middle of the pitch as a result of some confusion with your batting partner, the wicketkeepr fails to gather the ball and you make it to the safety of the batting crease. Even umpiring decisions start going in your favour.
In fact, if my memory serves me right, he has at least not been out of form for a pretty long time, which suggests that he has successfully lifted the average base level of his game. That being so, it explains why his purple patch is that much more purple than what is generally the case. In the last five months, he has scored a century in each innings of a Test match on three different occasions. To do it once in an entire career is something to be proud of, for not many have done that. To do it three times in international cricket is something extremely rare because only Sunil Gavaskar of India had achieved the feat before Ponting joined him on the list. To have done it inside one hundred and fifty days is well and truly remarkable, Ponting, of course, being the only one to have achieved the feat. Add to it all the other scores that he has achieved in both forms of the game during these one hundred and fifty days, and you would realize how purple the patch really is.
