The 2014 Australian summer cricket season commenced with an extraordinary nightmare – a 25-year-old was nailed down by a ferocious bouncer.
It felled Phil Hughes on the SCG pitch, taking the world into awe. Two days later, the promising left-hander was declared dead at a Sydney hospital. Australia was inconsolable, Michael Clarke pleaded for Hughes’ jersey be retired. A man driven by cricket, Hughes was driven by cricket to death.
This postponed the Border-Gavaskar trophy, and before the rescheduled first Test began, there were doubts lingering around the participation of the eloquent skipper. An injury-ravaged career had abandoned Clarke’s hopes of representing his country on earlier occasions, and this was just another of those annoying casualties regarding his back.
But Clarke battled it before the match, which saw a 63-second applause to pay tribute to Hughes. Late Hughes was officially declared the twelfth man. Clarke, 33, struck a fitting century in the first innings before injuring himself again while fielding in the second – this time it was the hamstring that troubled him. Thus, Brad Haddin acted as captain when Australia fielded for the rest of the match, and eventually won.
Meanwhile, there quietly rose a hero in their dressing room. Steve Smith was chosen as the man to stand-in as skipper for the remainder of the series, despite Haddin being much more experienced. It was not amazing that Smith’s name was doing the rounds. He got an unbeaten 162 against India in Adelaide, which succeeded a hundred and half centuries against South Africa prior to this series.
Contributions in recent ODIs versus South Africa, runs against Pakistan in the UAE and twin hundreds in last summer’s Ashes highlighted his consistency further. With rumours that Clarke would probably quit international cricket all together, Smith grabbed the opportunity with both hands. And how! He recorded three consecutive centuries in the three Tests that followed. Australia, under their stand-in skipper, beat the visitors 2-0.
But he was not done yet. When George Bailey was suspended for a tri-series match in 2015, Smith returned to lead. He, along with Haddin, calmly guided Australia through an otherwise nervous run chase with an undefeated 102, thus becoming the first from his country to score centuries on debut as captain in both formats.
Clarke remained a spectator to these spectacular performances. Citing his own fitness issues and Smith’s success simultaneously, he confessed he was ready to resign and play under a new skipper. He was issued a deadline until the World Cup co-hosts’ pool game against Bangladesh to prove his fitness. And so he did. But fate delayed his comeback – a cyclone in Brisbane washed out the match. Clarke eventually returned when Australia met New Zealand – the other hosts – but saw Australia lose an excruciating humdinger.
Days later, they met unbeaten India in the semi-final, and their Messiah all summer long rose to the fore yet again. Before this clash, he had four successive fifties in the World Cup. And against India, a hundred was etched too. 105 of 93 – his highest ODI score then. Australia won by 95 runs.
In the final, undefeated New Zealand greeted them on a sun-baked Sunday afternoon at the MCG. With wounds of Auckland still fresh, Clarke’s army remained determined not to win the World Cup alone, but to win by beating their trans-Tasman rivals.
Two days prior to the final, news broke out – the cricketing world half-expected it though – that Pup would wear the coloured jersey for the last time for Australia. He decided to quit ODIs to focus on Tests. A veteran of 244 matches, the influential skipper declared the final to be his last – an ideal finish to a twelve-year career.
Brendon McCullum’s men might have hoped and noted how in 1983, minnows India were up against obvious favourites West Indies at the same stage of the tournament, and pulled out an alarming victory with the same score batting first – 183. But history failed to repeat. David Warner harshly punished New Zealand’s pace battery, and on his leave, 186,000 hands applauded to welcome their leader to the pitch with a lion-like roar.
Another 121 was required. They expected at least fifty runs from his bat, and he didn’t disappoint. They wished he hit the winning run, but ah! Just ten shy of victory, Clarke was bowled much to the disappointment of the growling spectators. A fifty-eighth fifty was recorded – his second of the tournament. While they acknowledged all his efforts in ODIs, the captain was observed with watery eyes. Clarke, following his 74 at better than a run-a-ball, raised his bat to 93,000 people in appreciation of their reverence.
Moments later, Smith came up with his sixth fifty-plus score of the tournament – all in a row. He finished unbeaten on 54, and hit the Cup-lifting run. A million New Zealand dreams reduced to ashes, a flurry of hopes jarred and shattered. Australia were champions. Truly champions, for a fifth World Cup crown came in a fifth different continent against a fifth different opposition.
Clarke’s glorious limited-overs’ career witnessed a fairytale end. At the post-match presentation, he revealed what the black arm band, which he sported during the final, had prescribed on it – the letters ‘PH’ – and that Hughes was ‘always playing with us as the sixteenth man’. He would wear it on every further occasion while representing Australia.
Australia, after suffering the worst loss four months ago, recovered victorious over the world. One day later, it was heard that their pretending captain of the first Test this summer would him on whose behalf he acted – Haddin, though not the greatest, but a lithe lad behind the stumps, wished to play only Tests.
The world was won. Hughes was remembered. The cricketing season ceased. Life sans Hughes had long begun, but not surely settled, and that sans two senior pros was soon to begin. Smith was on his way to greatness, and perhaps on his way to the driver’s seat in Australia’s ODI dressing room.
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