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It would’ve been easy for Ed Cowan to fall in a heap yesterday.
While the rains had eaten away at nerves during a washed-out second day, the opener had been in the field for almost two full days of play as South Africa racked up 450 first innings runs.
His reward was to go out and face the new ball against the most feared pace attack in the game. A host of critics were watching closely, waiting for him to fail.
It got harder as David Warner, Rob Quiney and Ricky Ponting all disappeared cheaply to leave Australia reeling at three for 40.
Instead of crumbling along with the rest of the top order, Cowan produced a determined knock to finish the day unbeaten on 49.
He combined his usual grit with an array of strokes that punished any delivery that was even remotely short of perfect.
Not bad for a bloke who wasn’t considered good enough to open for Australia.
Prior to the test Cowan was continually asked whether or not he felt under pressure to retain his spot in the side. Would another failure mean the end of his international career?
The 30 year old opener handled the questions in his usual good natured way.
“Everyone should feel under pressure in the Australian test team,” Cowan said.
“Certainly people are writing that if I miss out and Rob (Quiney) gets runs then I might miss out in the next test, but that’s the nature of the game.”
Unfortunately the ‘nature of the game’ is to now have an extremely short term memory and a seemingly skewed view of what failure is for a player who only has seven Tests to his name.
Steve Waugh ended his career as one of the most celebrated captains in the history of Australian cricket.
He scored 10,927 runs with 32 Test centuries, 50 half centuries from 168 Tests and ended up with a batting average of 51.06.
That’s quite a career, but the start of the journey was more than a little bumpy.
It took him six innings to get his first half century and another nine innings before he’d do it again.
It wasn’t until he strode to the crease for the 42nd time as a Test cricketer that Waugh would reach triple figures.
That day, in June of 1989, he would score an unbeaten 177 against England at Headingley in Leeds.
Cowan started life as a Test cricketer with 68 against India in the Boxing Day Test last year.
He now has four half centuries from his first 13 innings. His last Test innings, before this one, saw him make 55 against the West Indies in April.
All of this was instantly forgotten in the debate about his future.
We need to re-think the way we consider success at Test level for an opener who made his international debut less than a year ago.
He hasn’t been a failure and shouldn’t have been under any pressure to hold his spot. If people aren’t given time to find their feet at the next level, they’ll never flourish.
The most pleasing thing about Cowan’s knock, regardless of what happens today, is that you can see him growing as a Test opener.
He was all too aware that those 20’s and 30’s needed to be turned into big scores and yesterday, while he had to wait for the bad ball, he punished it when the moment arrived.
More of the same today should keep the critics at bay… at least for a little while.
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