The Search for Respectability

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Australia’s Search for Respectability

 

July 21^st

 

[11:50 CEST] I simply cannot understand the nerves about England’s declaration. Cook, as is logical, has not declared and people are talking as if Alistair Cook has just presented Michael Clarke with a gift of a guaranteed draw today. If a side is capable of surviving six sessions to draw a Test having scored just 128 in the first innings, then hats off to them. In six sessions they should score around 600 maybe 650 so, by that reasoning, England are not going to be safe until an hour before lunch at best. So, if you expect England to need the full six sessions to win, you are arguing that England will be unable to bowl Australia out for under 600 on a pitch that has plenty of turn and increasingly variable bounce.

The whole point of today is to inflict mental disintegration on Australia. Their batsmen have been in the field for 110 overs now and know that the target that they will face is around double the one that they failed to make in the 1^st Test. A ruthless captain knows the value of toying with them and making them realise that they are subject to Alistair Cook’s whim.

Australia have learnt that that selection of Ashton Agar may well have been a sentimental mistake – not an accusation often levelled at the Australians in the past. He did a brilliant job with the bat in the 1^st Test and an adequate job with the ball, but in this Test with plenty of turn available, he is impeded by injury and is being taken apart. He has not threatened to take wickets and has conceded one hundred runs with the ball in what is his real job: to counter the threat of Graeme Swann’s spin and to bowl Australia to victory if the pitch takes spin.

Sadly, Jonny Bairstow has not been able to take the chance of a rehabilitating innings without pressure on him, falling early to the persevering Ryan Harris, but not before depositing Ashton Agar over Long On for a run-rate enhancing six. Matt Prior though is also in need of runs and is a quick scorer, so he has the chance to do himself some good with a run transfusion. Michael Clarke though has been setting run-saving fields with the old ball, keeping Root off the strike, trying to deny England runs and slow the two hundred for Root and the declaration: maybe it is something that he could have tried a few hours ago before the match situation got away from him.

[12:15 CEST] Root is out for 180 and the declaration comes. In the end it was all a bit pointless…

[00:15 CEST] All those nerves about the declaration. Australia almost took the match into the fifth day, but only thanks to another 10^th wicket partnership – this time of 43 – that got the margin below 350 runs. The decline from 134-3 to 162-8 after England had made batting look easy, was an indictment of how bad things have become. Whereas the two Australian spinners had not really threatened after Smith’s freak spell on the first evening, Graeme Swann looked very dangerous and even Joe Root nipped out a couple of cheap wickets: you start to think that next time he crosses the English Channel, it will be walking.

It was predictable that the last two wickets would hold England up. If they could all 73 between them, why were the rest so poor? Australia have a crisis of form and confidence in the batting, except for the tail-enders, who have nothing to lose.

Looking at the series statistics so far, four of the top five run scorers in the first two Tests are English: Bell and Root you might have predicted, but Bairstow and Broad, no. Likewise, the only Australian in the top 5 runscorers is Agar. Anderson and Swann are the top wicket-takers in the series. Pattinson, expected to be the scourge of England’s batting, averages 44, Watson 88 and Agar 124. Starc, who averages 27 must be wondering what he did wrong to be dropped. Amid the mayhem, Harris and Siddle have magnificent figures. The top four in England’s bowling averages all average 22 or less, with Root picking up his 3 wickets at 5 each, Tim Bresnan – sparingly used – has 4 at 14.5, Jimmy Anderson has 13 at 18 and Graeme Swann 13 at 22.

If Australia lose at Old Trafford, 5-0 will start to become an all too real possibility. Right now the Australian losing streak is at 6. Surely it will end soon.