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Is there such a thing as momentum in sport?

How much momentum does Australia really have? (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Expert
23rd March, 2017
12

It is a strange question you may think as we’ve all seen teams, or individuals, get into form which is subsequently reflected in their performances or results.

And yet it is an undefinable concept far from the literal, scientific meaning.

What, in a sporting sense, actually is momentum?

Given the fact there is competition or someone directly in front of you trying to achieve the same thing, the so-called momentum can be thwarted as quickly as it can be created.

And if that is the case, should any store be placed in the endless references to it by those who have a microphone placed under their nose?

There is a reason for this opening preamble and it comes in the shape of Steve Smith.

After Australia’s creditable draw in the third Test – long odds indeed once the captain had had his stumps rearranged with the deficit reading 89 and six wickets and more than two sessions remaining – Smith stated that the momentum was probably with his side ahead of the decider in Dharamsala.

His reasoning was that India would’ve expected to have won from such a strong position – a fair assessment – and also that the tourists will be buoyed by their escape, another fair point.

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Steve Smith celebrates a run out

This wasn’t the standard ‘taking the positives’ drivel so beloved of the modern-day interviewee but a hard to disagree with statement.

But flip this on its head and Smith’s claims of his charges owning the momentum doesn’t really stack up.

The first day aside, India had the upper hand and, of the two combatants, only one got themselves in a position from which to claim victory.

Coming on the back of their victory in the second Test the overall balance of power across the series is with the home side.

Taking this into account, surely any momentum that does exist is with Virat Kohli and his men?

An argument in this case can be made for both sides and if one cancels the other out then a definition is tricky to come across.

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Ricky Ponting believed Australia had the momentum after winning the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley in 2009 only to see his team comprehensively beaten at The Oval a few days later.

And the same was true of Alastair Cook post Cardiff in 2015, not long before England succumbed heavily at Lord’s.

For every time where it seemingly plays out, there is an occasion where the opposite occurs and, as such, it doesn’t really offer much to the analysis.

What Australia did show in Ranchi was that they are becoming a different animal, certainly on the batting side, in Asian conditions.

At the start of the final day expectations from many wouldn’t have been for the close to arrive without any significant drama having taken place.

To thwart such luminaries as Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, with all the elements of the game squarely in their favour, was a fine effort and doubly so given the chief roadblock was presented by the relatively green Peter Handscomb and the oft-maligned Shaun Marsh.

For Ashwin to be restricted to just two scalps from 64 overs of toil was bordering on the remarkable given the much easier ride he usually experiences on home soil.

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The fruitless efforts of Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe may have hinted at a slight straw to clutch at going into day five – thankfully not much harping on about pitches this time – but batting in pursuit of time rather than runs is a rapidly disappearing art.

So commendations to Handscomb and Marsh and an enthralling series gets the chance of a fitting conclusion.

As for picking a winner, surely it all depends on which side has the all-important momentum.

Which, at the moment, is neither.

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