Australian Lazarus, Some English Consolation

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Australian Lazarus, English consolation

 

March 6^th 2014

 

Yesterday Australia duly finished-off South Africa to win the 3^rd Test and the series. It has been a series of three incredibly one-sided matches, the smallest margin of victory was the 231 runs of South Africa’s win in the 2^nd Test.

Following on from the pattern last summer, the side that won the toss dominated all three Tests, scoring 397, 423 and 494-7d in the process, while dismissing the opposition for under 300 in every innings of the three Tests. It is a curious statistic, but South Africa’s 287 in the first innings and 265 in the second innings of the deciding Test were by some distance the best efforts in either innings by a side not batting first. In contrast, the side that had batted first declared in the second innings in all three Tests, losing a maximum of 5 wickets in the process.

In the 13 Tests that Australia has played since the start of the English summer the side batting first has taken a first innings lead in all but two games – the 1^st and 4^th Tests in England, both of them still won by the side batting first. In fact. The only time in the 13 Tests that a side batting first lost the match was England in Melbourne, where even a 51 run first innings lead was not enough to conjure a win.

Given this sequence of “bat first and dominate (usually win) the match”, one wonders what would have happened had England won the toss and batted in the first three Tests in Australia, or South Africa had batted first more than just the once in the recently concluded series. Would England have gone 3-down and had the fight knocked out of them? Would South Africa have capitulated so tamely? We will never know… What is clear is that, in all three series, the toss has had a disproportionate influence on the course of the matches.

The South Africa series also confirmed another trend in the 13 matches: despite the heroics of David Warner and Chris Rogers, their starts have frequently been diabolically bad, with the side being rescued time and again by the middle order and the tail.

At Trent Bridge, 117-9

At Lords, 128ao

At Old Trafford, 129-3

At Chester-le-Street, 76-4

At The Oval, 144-3

At Brisbane, 132-6

At Perth, 143-5

At Adelaide, 174-4

At Melbourne, 122-6

At Sydney, 97-5

At Centurion, 98-4

At Port Elizabeth, 128-6

The best start, by far, was in the Cape Town Test, when the third wicket fell at 217 in their first innings. Seven times at least half the side was out for under 150 and nine times the middle order and tail had to orquestrate a recovery from a distinctly unpromising position such as the 132-6 at Brisbane, or the 97-5 at Sydney. That Australia have won seven of eight matches this summer despite a stuttering top order that has only twice delivered a good start (counting the 174-4 at Adelaide as “good”), is a tribute to how well the lower order and the bowlers have rescued situations, leading to frequent jokes that they have followed Bradman’s example of reversing the batting order to confuse the opposition.

The revival of Australian fortunes has been astonishing, having been saved by bad light from losing 4-0 in England after a disastrously misjudged declaration at The Oval, they have roared back in a way that few people anticipated. Many fans were expecting a closer fight in Australia, as the Darren Lehmann regime started to take effect. However, there was an understandable feeling that Plan A was for Mitch Johnson to have one or, just possibly, two good matches and for Michael Clarke to have a couple of big innings and, between them, to win a Test or two. There was though no obvious Plan B. What has happened is that the new ball pairing of Ryan Harris and Mitch Johnson has proved (almost) irresistible. The one occasion that they had an off day – at Port Elizabeth, on what was expected to be a sporty pitch – the side was overwhelmed.

However, the fundamental problems have not been cured. The top order is still very fragile, but being bailed-out constantly by players such as Clarke and Haddin who are close to the end of their careers. One suspects that much of Mitch Johnson’s revival and effectiveness has been very much due to his new ball partner who is now going under the knife and whose career has been extended nervously Test by Test. Will Mitch be as effective without another bowler to support him who can bowl at high pace and with great stamina? Siddle is a good third seamer. Pattinson has promise, but seems not yet to be ready. Others are highly rated in Australia, but are yet to show themselves to be matchwinners. The other side of the coin though is that Brad Haddin has found a formidable lieutenant at marshalling recoveries in Steve Smith who is scoring big runs and starting to develop as a spinner. It will be interesting to see how Australia fare if they have to go into a Test without both Harris and Haddin.

While South Africa and Australia were playing out an extraordinary finish in Cape Town, England and the West Indies were struggling to look the part in the Caribbean. Although England have won the series, mainly thanks to adapting better to the conditions, the level of cricket was often dire. The batting was hit or miss and the death bowling from both sides appalling, to be charitable and describe it with no worse a term than that. South African and Australian fans were united in being dismissive and have every right to be. However, there are some encouraging signs for England: having thrown away the first game, they could have fallen apart as they did in Australia, instead they came back and won two tight finishes with a very young team, despite wobbles that showed just how low their confidence has fallen.

Ravi Bopara held together a chase to reach a target in a match that appeared to have slipped away in yet another miserable collapse. Joe Root has scored 167 runs in three innings and has centuries in the warm-up and the 3^rd ODI and taken wickets. Moeen Ali has had two useful innings and bowled well. Tredwell has been very economical and Steve Parry a revelation. Michael Lumb also has a century and Jos Buttler should have had one.

On the flip side, Ben Stokes showed that he is far from the finished article with a few, expensive overs and a grand total of 9 runs in three innings. And Luke Wright’s contribution from two matches was one run and not a single delivery.

It is hardly a recovery, but maybe just the beginning of better times to come.

The Unstoppable Mitch & Ryan Show

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Australian Turnaround

 

February 15^th 2014

 

 

So much for Australia having a rude shock in South Africa. Their top order batting remains fragile, but that becomes irrelevant when the middle and lower order triple and quadruple the score and the Australian bowling, led by an unstoppable Mitch Johnson, continues to be devastating. Suddenly, England’s performance in Australia does not look quite so bad.

England’s problems have been well documented. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad were making breakthroughs with the new ball, but Graeme Swann’s problems and the lack of threatening support bowling saw Australia recover time and again and, the England batting failed to give their bowlers time to recover from their efforts. The wise looked at South Africa’s powerful batting line-up and relentless bowling and saw that things would be different. Well, they have not been.

It is like looking at the Ashes again: Australia 24-2, 98-4 and looking in trouble? Trouble? In comes Steve Smith, scores a century, this time it is Shaun Marsh who supports him with another and they put on 233 together. A clatter of wickets and you think that South Africa could just regain the momentum by ripping out the lower order but, no, Johnson and Harris put on valuable runs and see Australia almost up to 400. Poor start for South Africa, who start to recover and back comes Mitch Johnson… It has followed the pattern of the Ashes Tests line by line, right down to the total disintegration of the South African fielding in the second innings.

South Africa have barely managed as many runs in their two innings as Australia managed in their first after being put in on a lively pitch and, suddenly, are full of doubts and being questioned. Sound familiar? You look at how the South Africans have fallen apart and wonder whether or not there is any way that they can avoid a 3-0 whitewash. There are similar questions to the ones England were asked. People are saying that there is no steel to the side without the multi-faceted contribution of Jacques Kallis with bat, ball and in the field. And Graeme Smith looked clueless and unable to stop his side’s slide having given Australia first use of a pitch that deteriorated rapidly, although the South African effort in the field in the second innings was so poor that Australia’s batsmen still racked up the runs almost without being inconvenienced in the slightest.

What is the change? Take a look back to the 4^th Test last summer where, at Chester-le-Street, Australia disintegrated to defeat having looked in the box seat. Ryan Harris was bowling high ‘80s, with the occasional ball close to, or a fraction over 90mph. He was no faster than Stuart Broad and even Jimmy Anderson was matching him on the speed gun in the first innings. Move forward to Centurion: Ryan Harris was ramping it up to over 94mph – Mitch Johnson had a higher average speed, but the fastest ball of the first innings came from Ryan Harris. Having Mitch Johnson at the other end has added 5mph – that is 8km/h) to Ryan Harris – who has gone from a decent quick, to being just as nasty as anyone in world cricket. Last summer England knew that when they saw off Ryan Harris and the new ball what would follow would relieve the pressure. Now, first England’s and then South Africa’s batsmen have discovered that the pressure is relentless from both ends and that, even if they see off Mitch Johnson – which they are not managing – Ryan Harris is a far faster and nastier proposition than before to support him. With Peter Siddle now relegated to first change, where he makes a far greater contribution than he could with the new ball, keeping things tight and maintaining the pressure while Harris and Johnson rest.

The change in Mitch Johnson is even more remarkable than the one in Ryan Harris. He was capable of great spells and great matches, but would always return quickly to bowling with all the control of a spray gun, but none of the threat. After his return in the ODIs in England, the ODIs in India, the Ashes and now the series against South Africa, he has sustained threat, hostility and accuracy for longer than anyone could have imagined possible and has transformed Australia. While he continues to do it and Ryan Harris acts as his sidekick, Australia are proving unstoppable.