Michael Hussey showed that that the old fashioned virtues of nursing an innings are still invaluable. Tactful defensive resistance is as important as attack -- not losing a game may not be as good as winning it, but it's a not a loss
Before the contest began, Ricky Ponting talked about "new age" methods his team aims to use. He said his team wanted to make some of the Indians "look a bit old and a bit slow… and past their use-by date". That, he explained, his team would do by drying up the runs for the Indian batsmen -- exactly what's "new age" about that is a bit difficult to understand.
When they batted on a friendly track, perhaps troubled by the inexperience of their line-up -- which, though, had a decidedly middle-age median in sporting terms -- Australia themselves regressed to the batting methods of calmer eras.
The Australians, under Steve Waugh and then Ponting, scored runs at a truly "new age" style before and after the turn of the millennium. They scored runs at a hectic pace, savaging bowling attacks around the world; then, their bowling masters -- Warne, McGrath and Gillespie in the main -- had time enough to dismiss any team. The subsequent suggestion that Tests should be reduced to four days when Australia played was not wholly facetious.
But in their first innings here, they scored 430 in nearly 150 overs -- an average of 2.86. Michael Hussey, owner of the moniker "Mr Cricket", the man who got a break only after he'd made over 15,000 first-class runs, showed that the old fashioned virtues of nursing an innings are still invaluable. Tactful defensive resistance is as important as attack -- not losing a game may not be as good as winning it, but it's a not a loss.Hussey showed that the art of Test batting comprises protracted defence and sporadic attack, of knowing the field and stealing the singles, of batting with the tail. The only time he looked in danger was when he reached his century, the ball edged past his leg-stump to the deep fine-leg boundary.
"Old" and "old-fashioned" methods are not necessarily terrible. This masterful display of crafting a long innings ensured that Australia isn't the team that can lose from here, unless they do something remarkably stupid, or the Indians do something equally stunning.
The aged among the Indian team have been attracting attention, but it's clear that the Australians are not exactly spring chickens themselves. Hayden is nearly 37; Katich, Ponting, Hussey, and Stuart Clark are 33 each. Only four players are under 30, the debutant Cameron White the baby of the team at 25. The average age is 30.5. The median age of the Indian XI is 27.3.
Yet, the Australians are clearly superior as fielders and runners when batting; this, it's clear, boils down to fitness. It can be argued that the Australian people are biologically more athletic than Indians, and theirs is unarguably the most sports-inclined nation in the world. They have better training methods and, finally, better discipline -- nothing new age about the last, irreplaceable attribute.