It's The Hope That Kills You...

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Better, but not good enough

 

December 8^th 2013

 
 

The good news: England have passed 200 for the first time in the series and look set to pass 250.

The bad news: barring a miracle, the Test will still be lost by a huge margin and, with it, the Ashes in all but name.

Illogical as it might seem, I felt that if one of England’s top three could make a century, England would save the match. I still feel that we could have saved it.

England are still alive – just – with Prior and Broad at the wicket and batting well. And, despite closing in on victory and a seemingly inexpungible 2-0 lead, Australia are getting rattled and handing out some fearsome verbals. It is one of the things that makes you think that Australia could just struggle if faced with some genuine, sustained resistance: when someone is holding them up, even in these Tests that they have dominated so completely, they take it very badly. It is not the behaviour of a confident side: it looks more like a side that fear that, however strong their position, it could all go horribly wrong and who are trying to put on a confident front to hide their insecurity.

It is not the Australia do not count with help. The horror and bewilderment in the voices of the commentators as, with just the ninth ball of the innings, Alistair Cook decided to take on Mitch Johnson and sent a catch down to Fine Leg had to be heard to be believed. It is true that there was an element of bad luck in it because Ryan Harris had to make plenty of ground and took an excellent catch – Alistair Cook could so easily have got away with it – but to see the captain give it away so quickly  was a hammer blow. However, if there is one England batsman apart from Ian Bell who has shown the sort of calm that promised a big score, it was Michael Carberry. Surely he would not do anything daft and would make England’s first century of the series? Would he? Hell! Inoffensive ball from Peter Siddle pulled straight down Nathan Lyon’s throat. 20-2 in 40 minutes of play and England were timidly handing over the Ashes on a silver salver. A million England cricket fans either switched off and went to bed, or reached for the bottle.

Joe Root, Kevin Pietersen and more briefly, Ben Stokes, showed what might have been but, even getting past 50, neither Root nor Pietersen could convert it into the century that could have changed the course of the match. 131-2 and hope, became 171-5 and oblivion within minutes of the re-start after Tea. Another four day finish looked a certainty.

Matt Prior, who has hardly been able to buy a run this year has held out since Joe Root’s dismissal, supported first by Ben Stokes and then, more violently, by Stuart Broad. When Stokes fell half an hour before the Close it was, to all intents and purposes, the extinction of the last remaining hope. For England even to think of survival, this pair must hold out to past lunch and get a lot of help from the rain.

It is not the defeat that kills you, it is the spark of hope that goes before it…

[Ps: Stuart Broad has just one Test fifty in his last 33 innings – the famous one at Nottingham that seriously upset the Australians. Matt Prior last passed 50, eighteen innings ago, with 110* at Auckland. This would be a good moment for both to do something about those sequences.]