da dobrowin： As Hayden trudged off the MCG, his favourite venue, it seemed increasingly likely that his days at the top of the order were running out, despite his declaration during the week that he had no retirement plans yet
Brydon Coverdale at the MCG26-Dec-2008
Makhaya Ntini: “He’s hitting the ball very well, if you bowl like I did a bit full” © AFP (file photo)
Makhaya Ntini is not the man Matthew Hayden wants to be facing while trying to justify extending his career. When Ntini collected Hayden for 8 it was the ninth time he had picked him up in the 11 Tests they have played against each other. No bowler has taken Hayden’s wicket more times and no batsman has been dismissed by Ntini more often.It was a smart piece of thinking from Ntini, who was coming around the wicket, to lure Hayden into driving a ball that had some width and moved away a fraction. Hayden had been conscientiously leaving deliveries outside off but temptation got the better of him and histhickish edge flew to gully. It was a similar dismissal to the first innings in Perth, when Ntini angled the ball in to Hayden and nipped it away to catch the edge.As Hayden trudged off the MCG, his favourite venue, it seemedincreasingly likely that his days at the top of the order were runningout, despite his declaration during the week that he had no retirementplans yet. In Ntini’s previous over Hayden had driven handsomely downthe ground and Ntini said it showed there was a fine line between formand failure.”He’s hitting the ball very well, if you bowl like I did a bit full,”Ntini said. “Cricket has ways of … showing your downfalls, if you getfrustrated very quickly, those kinds of things are easy to show. Butif you are a hard-working person … you never know. He might come outin the second innings and score a hundred.”The early departure of Hayden brought Ricky Ponting to the creasesooner than he would have liked for the umpteenth time in the past fewmonths. Ponting has insisted all along that Hayden is striking theball well and while there are momentary glimpses of his best, thevisions are being cut short too often for an opening batsman to holdhis place indefinitely.”His results are [a worry],” Ponting said. “The way he started thismorning, he looked particularly sharp. He hasn’t got the runs that hewould have hoped for and that we would have hoped for. He’ll getanother opportunity in the second innings and then hopefully he cangrab hold of that one with both hands and make a big score.”What Hayden really needed was an attractive century, just like the onePonting delivered. His 101 was fluent but he was the only batsman whopicked up the pace of a pitch that was not offering as much bounce asexpected. Michael Clarke went to stumps on an agonising but important36 from 157 balls and Ponting said 6 for 280, on such a difficultsurface, was a good result.”We’ve had a reasonable day today I think,” Ponting said. “It’s prettyhard to gauge who’s come out on top today because the outfield as yousaw was reasonably slow so 280 to us is probably worth a bit over 300today I’d imagine.”It sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as anyone.The loss of Brad Haddin in the penultimate over, caught at slip offNtini, gave South Africa the edge. It was a pleasing outcome for thevisitors on a day when some of their bowlers, particularly MorneMorkel, struggled to find the right length.”We had to put in a lot of hard work today because the heavy outfieldmakes a huge difference,” Ntini said. “As a batting side you alwayswant to make sure that on the first day you have to pass 300. So forus I should say we’ve done very well not to let them pass 300 on thefirst day. We will take that day as a job well done.”