Roy Hobbs in The Natural, Curt Schilling in baseball’s World Series, or women in countless sporting contests everywhere for decades.
Shedding some blood in the sporting arena is not exactly a unique concept, but it is one that tends to stay in the collective memory.
Mitchell Starc’s willingness to do so for his teammates to help Australia seal a first home series victory over South Africa in 17 years was certainly one of the most visually arresting moments of a yawning innings win at the MCG inside four days.
Mitchell Starc embraced by his teammates after dismissing Sarel Erwee.Credit:AP
And it was just one of a host of examples that demonstrated how the XI led by Pat Cummins is assembling a set of achievements in the very front rank of teams in Australian cricket history.
Like Cameron Green batting with a badly broken finger, Starc could easily have put his hand up to say his tendon injury was too severe to countenance bowling. Even more so when he spiked the same finger with his bowling boot – an injury that caused Starc to miss numerous white-ball games in Sri Lanka earlier this year.
Instead, perhaps also driven by the knowledge that recovery may take some time with the finger in a splint, Starc took the new ball on the third afternoon and again on the fourth morning of the match.
Nevertheless, his pain was as obvious as the blood-flecked trousers and rag Starc used to daub the finger between balls. And a couple of angry rejoinders warning Theunis De Bruyn not to back up too far provided a reminder that Starc was channelling that pain into a hunt for wickets.
In fact, with the ball after Starc’s first such warning, he took advantage of the fact the exchange may have diverted the attention of Sarel Erwee by firing in a surprise, swerving yorker that reached the opener’s boot well ahead of his schedule.
The calm, clear deliberation that brought a decision referral and Paul Reiffel’s raised finger was another interlude to show the team’s progression in 2022. Cummins, Starc, Alex Carey and Nathan Lyon conferred on height, line and the chances of the ball hitting boot before bat, all in time to beat the 15-second deadline.
It’s that kind of clarity and team-first thinking that was in evidence from the moment, late on Christmas Eve, when Josh Hazlewood magnanimously admitted he was not yet fit enough to be considered ahead of Scott Boland.
When the Test match began, Marnus Labuschagne’s split-second decision to accept his likely runout in the company of David Warner, rather than camping down the same end, was another such instance.
Later on, after Warner had graced his 100th Test match with a superlative 200, Green shrugged off a badly fractured index finger to play the supporting role while Carey strode to his first Test century, and then celebrated that milestone with as much enthusiasm as if he had done it himself.
On the final day, a pair of runouts provided still more evidence of a team straining every sinew to win, particularly in contrast to a South African side that, despite a lofty world ranking before this series, has proven to be deeply flawed.
Khaya Zondo left his innings up to fate well before Travis Head’s accurate underarm had struck the stumps, and the indolence with which Keshav Maharaj approached his running allowed a desperate Labuschagne and dead-eye Starc to throw him out.
These moments caught the eyes of Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer, former Test players, close friends and pillars of the team that has stood like a shadow over subsequent Australian sides. It has been customary of their generation to stop short of using the “great team” phrase unless it was preceded by “not a”.
Langer’s assessment of the team’s togetherness, decision-making and courage sounded for all the world like the descriptor of a great team. But he still could not quite bring himself to say it.
“Just the evolution and how closely knit this team is, it’s a great sign of a very good cricket team,” Langer said on Seven.
“With closely knit teams, you’ll tend to do little things for your mates and get out there when you’re a bit sore and maybe could have some time away. But they’re getting out there, looking after each other, working their great partnerships, it’s just an evolution that could turn this into a great cricket team.”
At game’s end, Ponting added that Australia were now a “very, very good Test team”. Series in India and England next year, either side of the World Championship final, might eventually force that “g” word to be spoken by the old guard.
But it brooked little argument elsewhere that Australia, virtually two players down at times, still defeated the Proteas by the biggest margin between these two teams since 2002.
Most pleasingly, it was all done without anything like the snarl that accompanied the teams of Ponting and Langer, nor the one once led by Steve Smith that fell over spectacularly in 2018 while trying to mimic them.
