There are at least two Pontings. The put upon and the up. Charlie Brown and a Miyazaki peasant boy who has just lead a victorious campaign against a greedy state backed foe. When he’s in the latter mode (and this is undoubtedly closer to his equilibrium state) he and his team are pretty much indominatable. There was a moment in last night’s game in which we witnessed the passage from one Ponting to the other. Charlie Brown dove full length to collect a catch in his right hand only centimetres from the ground. He came up as a different animated character. In that instant he was transformed. He retained the new form as he batted, and the unbridled joy of the peasant boy grew stronger. His team will follow him.

A key question will be whether ecstatic Ponting will have the strength to carry Dizzy up with him. Can he also take on the molecules of Enkidu? Drag Dizzy out of the depths of these despair ridden nightmares. I can barely stand to watch Dizzy bowl at the moment, it hurts me so bad. It is a pain I am willing to endure though – however long it goes on. I will watch Dizzy bowl endless wicketless spells in the tests if Ihave too. He will comeback sooner or later – this may depend on Ponting. (There is another surely failsafe method of getting Dizzy back in form that has been suggested to me by one of my cricket sprites – force him to listen to interminable recordings of Nasser Hussain’s commentary – the anguish he would be injected with would make him terrifying to face, it would be a rampage filled with awful rage. This would obviously be an inhumane suggestion, and the ICC probably has legislation that forbids it, not to mention the UN – & Bono would probably organise a concert – but it could be very effective.)