Are England Playing Rope-a-Dope Tactics?

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Universal condemnation hides the story of a successful side

 

August 24^th

 

[10:00 CEST] At the start of the day I suggested that if England finished the day 330-4 a lot of what was written the previous day would have to be re-assessed. A Close score of 247-4 has made the cries of censure even louder.

However, it could be that the critics are selling England short. The weather forecast for today is, frankly, awful. There was little chance that England would have the time to score 650, put Australia back in and attempt to put them under pressure. A lot of critics wanted England to make something happen and have a mighty slog for runs, risking defeat to try to wring a result out of a game in which the only fast scoring has come against rank bad bowling. Of course, when the tactic misfired horribly and England lost by 300 runs, this would be held up as proof that Australia had been, by far, the better side throughout the series. Andy Flower does not work that way!

More likely Andy Flower is thinking of the sort of “rope-a-dope” tactics that could have won England the Old Trafford Test and, famously, in 1968 did win a Test and, with it a series in the Caribbean. It consists of hanging on, refusing to be knocked over in a situation where defeat is possible and, basically, driving the opposition to distraction, until they make a desperate error in an attempt to force a win that just is not possible. Once the follow-on is saved, as it will be should play start today, only a declaration game can bring a result. The danger for Australia, if England are, say 120 behind, is to push too hard for quick runs and collapse horribly – as at Old Trafford – in the process, leaving a gettable target as a result.

All through this series, England’s superiority has been based on sitting back and waiting for the opposition to blink and, consistently, it has blinked first, at which point England have poured through the gap to victory. It has not been pretty to watch at times, but it has been extremely effective. Australia have forgotten how to battle to victory and, at the critical times when some fight was needed, they have been found wanting. England have preyed on that weakness all series.

Despite everything, it is now almost certain that the rain will ensure that the series will end 3-0. The more radical Australian fans would claim that 3-1 to Australia would have been a fairer reflection of the balance of play, but that ignores the fact that at key moments and in key sessions, Australia have just been inferior. However, the gap between the sides has reduced considerably since the start of the series and it is now a more even contest, although we forget how Australia still collapsed horribly a little more than a week ago to throw away a Test that, two hours earlier it seemed that they had won. Flair is great, but when it leads to defeat after defeat, one does just wonder its effectiveness.

Australia have, by luck or by judgement, started to arrive at a decent side. The balance looks better, although the quality of the back-up to Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle still looks deficient and one still wonders, centuries accepted, if Watson and Smith will be a long-term successes. Similarly, Rogers is a short-term solution as an opener and Clarke, like Mike Atherton before him, is finding that a degenerative back injury and the captaincy are a mix that does not work when you are well past thirty, except for a rather short time.

For England yesterday was a day of solid contributions all the way down. For the first time in the series Cook and Root gave England a start with a partnership of 67. Trott, once again, fell in the 40s (the third time in nine innings in the series). Kevin Pietersen made a careful 50, falling immediately afterwards when he tried to cut loose. Bell has started to accumulate… again. And Woakes came in and hammered his first ball for four in a way that reminded one of David Gower back in 1978. A generation of fans will remember John Arlott’s excited description of it as “a princely, princely entry”. Woakes, whose selection was ridiculed by many, came in and wanted to remind everyone, including the Australians, that he is a very fine batsman. If Chris Woakes can keep his nerve today, he knows that a debut 50 is there for the taking. Woakes has a real chance to show that he can be a fourth seamer and score runs at 6 for England. If he can do that, Jonny Bairstow will know that he has to up his game: there is nothing like competition for places to up performances.