Australia’s first match of the 2003 ICC World Cup (held in South Africa) against Pakistan began on an ominous note. Its top-order teetered at 86 for four in fifteen overs after a spell by Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar — a trio any team would yearn for in its ranks — spewed venom. Out walked Andrew Symonds with his nonchalant swagger. What ensued in the next 35 overs was carnage. Symonds pummelled an unbeaten 143; Australia amassed 310 and brushed Pakistan aside by 82 runs. The burly right-hander thwacked eighteen fours and two sixes en route to his ton, yet, he remembered none of the strokes that awed a boisterous Wanderers.
Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain at the time, sat with Symonds in the dressing room after the knock. “[I] was bouncing all over the place recounting great shot after great shot. But [Symonds] couldn’t remember any of those amazing shots and just took it all in his stride,” writes Ponting in his autobiography At the Close of Play.
This phenomenon is what the athletes refer to as being in ‘the zone’, or ‘flow’ as some sport psychologists call it. In Ponting’s words, “[It is the state in which the players] seem to be in the right place at the right time, and perform the so-called ‘one percenters’ when they are most needed..doing what they do in a semi-conscious state.”
Last evening at Auckland, after Brendon McCullum’s blitzkrieg, New Zealand lost four wickets for 78 runs in their pursuit of 298 from 43 overs. Grant Elliott, who turned 36 on March 21, was at the non-strikers end watching South Africa — the country of his birth — script a mini-resurgence. Elliott is a ‘proud Blackcap’ since 2008. There was no dearth, however, of New Zealand fans and scribes questioning his credentials, especially when he was named in New Zealand’s squad for the 2015 ICC World Cup. Their reasons were plausible. For one, Elliott wasn’t a stable bat. Moreover, he played his last ODI in the November of 2013 against Sri Lanka.
Prior to being named in the squad, Elliott’s thoughts didn’t differ much from that of his naysayers’. He was mentally prepared to call it quits from international cricket, but the unexpected opportunity instigated a paradigm shift in his plans on how he would walk towards the twilight of his career. He cited the example of Stephen Donald, the New Zealand rugby union player who kicked the winning penalty in the 2011 IRB Rugby World Cup Final against France after he was called in to the squad late in the tournament after injuries to other players. “That’s a great story and I looked at that and thought ‘what a way to finish your career,” Elliott told a New Zealand website, Stuff.
Today, Elliott is a bigger sensation in New Zealand than Stephen Donald ever was. Against South Africa’s Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel — a trio any team would yearn for in this era — Elliott etched an innings that will go down in the annals of New Zealand cricket as one of the finest. It wasn’t a Symonds-esque century that put his side far from the realms of danger — New Zealand were continually embroiled in a race against the required run-rate from the start — but it was more significant in the context of the tournament; plus it was a propeller to a grander stage, with an opportunity to make history.
Elliott’s strike-rate of 76.37 before this match was little indication of what the veteran was capable of. In this fixture — which could well have been the last of his brief career — he swept, paddle-swept, glanced, drove and cut with a motley mix of grace and angst that the match-winning loft off Steyn in the last over looked destined. A few weeks ago Elliott wasn’t sure where he was headed. Last evening Elliott was on autopilot, steering his side to its first ever World Cup final in the process.
The count of spectators that turned up at Eden Park was estimated to be around 45000. South African captain AB de Villiers, amidst the despondency, said it was the most electrifying crowd he has ever heard in his life. Elliott appeared oblivious to it all. “Nothing was going on in my mind when I hit the six. I don’t even know where the ball went,” he said. Elliott was in the zone.
“It’s beyond me. It’s just happening by itself, ” said Michael Jordan after he scored his sixth consecutive three-pointer during the 1992 NBA finals. Chicago Bulls won that season with Jordan bagging the MVP. It remains to be seen if the Blackcaps and Elliott can paint a similar portrait this Sunday.
