It may not have been the most prolific innings of his test career and it certainly wasn’t his most beautiful. But the 156 runs that Ricky Ponting pried out of England’s bowlers at Old Trafford may well be the most valuable score the Australian captain will ever make.  

Australia began the final day on 0/24 needing 399 runs to win or, more realistically, needing to endure 98 overs, if it was to kill England’s chances of winning the test and going 2-1 up in the series. It was a task many commentators believed well beyond the abilities of an Australian team used to bullying opponents into submission rather than blocking them into impotence, as would be required.

In fact, such has been Australia’s dominance over the past five years, there have been only two occasions in recent memory where the world champions have been required to bat out the fourth innings of a test. Unsurprisingly, both occasions came against India - the first in Sydney, the other in Chennai. Even though the Australians had nullified their opponents on both occasions, those matches were not thought to be a good guide. Ponting, had not led his team in either match and umpiring decisions and rain both played their part. Moreover, this time their challengers had a five-pronged bowling attack, including probably the world’s two finest exponents of reverse swing (more on that later) and a spinner who had recently found his line and confidence.

The world champions were in serious trouble and a record number of spectators had turned out to watch. Old Trafford holds only 21,000 fans. With tickets selling for just a tenner, the stadium had filled before 10 o’clock in the morning and the same number of people had to be turned away at the gates. Even Buckingham Palace has never had that many witnesses to the changing of the guard.

For the most part of the day, England’s fans would have been pleased with what they saw. Langer fell in Hoggard’s first over. Hayden looked as uncomfortable as he has throughout this series, sending three Flintoff deliveries through a curiously sparse slips cordon before Super Fred finally put him out of his misery by removing his leg stump. Martyn played and missed outside off a number of times before being given out LBW to a Harmison delivery that found the middle of his bat before careening into his front pad. Katich and Gilchrist proved once again that they are exceptionally vulnerable to Flintoff’s bowling, and Michael Clarke, fresh from the hotel bed and now runner-less, played his shots before leaving a reverse-swinging Jones delivery that claimed his off stump.

England now had 34 overs left to bowl out the Australian tail, but like Edgbaston, Warne and Lee resisted. They were aided this time by the fact that their captain was still left batting with them. Ponting eventually fell with four overs left to bowl and Lee and McGrath were left alone for a final, desperate 24 deliveries. In the end it wasn’t enough. Lee played the final delivery from Harmison off his pads and to the fence for four. He celebrated by punching the air as though he had just achieved the marvellous – as if he had just won the Ashes. 

Ponting’s knock may have kept them alive in the series but, the fact that it was needed at all, has shown just how vulnerable the world champions have become.

Australia’s ascendancy has been based on developing a winning formula and by selecting and, having available, the personnel equipped to deliver it. Apart from extreme circumstances (such as injury, an Indian tour or an SCG turner), the team selectors have not wavered from a policy of playing six batsmen, four bowlers (three quick, one slow), tied neatly in the middle by the most outstanding keeper-batsman the world has ever seen.

The simple philosophy has conquered the world - Australia has not lost a series since India in 2001 – and there have been only occasional hiccups in the annihilation of enemies. In the previous Australian summer, the home side did not drop a test against New Zealand or Pakistan. That followed a series victory in India (the first since 1969) and was in turn followed by another 2-0 series victory across the other side of the Tasman Sea in New Zealand.

But, as Sun Tzu will no doubt have told John Buchanan, things will not always be as they are. A team must be ready to adapt to changes in the game, to changes in opponents or changes in resources. To this end, experiments should be taken when they matter least – when a series has already been won or where an opponent is weak. However, like all empires holding onto fading glory, Australia has become conservative, looking backwards rather than to the future.

During its series win in New Zealand at the end of last summer, Australia fielded the same ensemble of players in all three tests. Not even Brett Lee, whose form in the one day game was outstanding (the NSW man played only one first class match in the domestic competition for the entire season due to regular drinks carrying duties for the national team) could break into a team whose selectors insisted on consistently choosing the ageing but until-then reliable “pace” triumvirate of McGrath, Gillespie and Kasprowicz.

Now Australia is faced with a situation where, given Gillespie’s poor showing in the first three tests (three wickets at 100 a piece), one of its parts badly needs replacing. Of the players who could come in to the side to replace him, only Kasprowicz and MacGill have test experience. MacGill is unlikely to play, given that Trent Bridge is a seamers’ wicket, and Kasprowicz has been tried and performed unconvincingly already this season.

The selectors are left, then, with the choice of blooding Stuart Clarke or Shaun Tait in a match that could decide the fate of the most important trophy in cricket.

Of equal concern is that for the first time in a long time it is not the Australians who hold the most effective weapon: reverse swing. So far this series, Simon Jones and Andy Flintoff have wreaked havoc on the Australian batsmen because of their inability to play the ball coming at them the wrong way. Moreover, because of the speed at which these bowlers send the ball down, England can extract reverse swing from the ball after only 20 overs. 

Suddenly the Australian batsmen look as hopeless against England’s quicks as the English did against Warne at the height of the leg-spinner’s prowess. Several Australian batsmen have been clean bowled leaving the ball, or caught flailing outside off when it is apparent they have no idea which way the ball will shape. Like reading a spinner off the pitch, it is too late to do anything if the swing is not detected until the ball has already started deviating – particularly when it is delivered at such velocity.

Particularly vulnerable have been the left-handers - Adam Gilchrist, Simon Katich and Matthew Hayden all seem completely confounded by the ball reversing, as though they have never seen the phenomenon before. Worse still, Australia seems to lack anyone capable of doing the same to with old ball. The only saving grace is that Old Trafford has over taken Pakistan as the epicentre of the reversing ball. It is unlikely that the conditions at Trent Bridge will be quite as conducive to England’s bowlers.

In the end, Ponting’s innings was all that stood between the world champions and defeat. The captain offered barely a chance to England throughout his seven-hour innings and showed that with application and no small dose of ability, reverse swing could be countered.
 
In the early stages of the game the rumour was that, after a string of bad on-field decisions, the Australians were losing faith Ponting’s captaincy. Now the team must follow his example if it is to retain the Ashes.

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