Oh Dear! Faint Hopes Sprout Unwisely Again!

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Going! Going! But not quite gone

 

December 16^th 2013

 

 

Barring a small number of romantics who think that some miracle will save England, the Ashes will be formally lost, probably before lunch tomorrow. Three years ago, England managed just 310 in two innings as they were blown away. If you want a positive, you will see a total of 502 between England’s two innings, with five wickets left and feel that this is an advance over 2010 and might be right, but then, in 2010, England were not chasing 504 to win (at Perth, in 2010, Ricky Ponting set England a mere 390 and still won by 267 runs).

However, with Matt Prior in such dire form that, despite his current red-inker, if you take out his 69 at Adelaide, his other five innings in the series have garnered just 19 and Stuart Broad only planning to bat in an emergency *AND* the new ball due in thirteen overs, it will take divine intervention to push the match past lunch on Day 5.

So far in this series, Alistair Cook, Ian Bell, Joe Root and now Ben Stokes have reached 72. Only Joe Root though has pushed past 72 and then, only to 87. For their own self-esteem, England desperately need Ben Stokes to continue his gusty batting and push well past a century tomorrow morning. Even if the match is lost and the Ashes with them, England really need someone to score a big hundred to show the rest that it can be done.

The mood was so downbeat in the TMS commentary box that, even late in the evening session, most of the team really expected the extra half hour to be taken and for the match to end today. After Australia scored 134 runs in 102 balls in the morning, including 28 off the final over of the innings from Jimmy Anderson and 22 off Swann’s last over before the new ball was taken and Alistair Cook went first ball, the end could have been mercifully swift. Many England fans will regret that it was not because it means that, once again, they will go to bed tonight with that tiny fragment of hope that will swiftly and painfully be atomised when they check the score in the morning.

One small piece of good news for England is the way that Tim Bresnan has knuckled down, despite being far from match fit. He is the only bowler, apart from Joe Root, who the Australians did not get after and even though his match figures of 3-134 are not stunning, he did the job that he was picked for by bowling plenty of overs and keeping the scoring rate down, as well as managing a run out into the bargin (he conceded just a fraction more than 3.5 an over, far superior to Jimmy Anderson, Ben Stokes, or Stuart Broad).

Once again, batsmen got starts. Michael Carberry added another start to his growing list (his scores in his four Tests are annoyingly consistent: 30, 34, 40, 0, 60, 14, 43, 31 – eight innings, seven starts), without going on to make a major score. He has shown enough that you believe that a century has to come soon, but he just cannot make that breakthrough, can he?

KP had the TMS team after his blood by playing sensibly, getting to 45, starting to break loose and then falling to an obvious trap. The situation was made for him. Lost cause. Chance to make some runs without pressure. A KP special century and suddenly, with Ian Bell digging in, England could be pressing for an unlikely draw. Now, even staid comentators such as Jonathon Agnew and Geoff Boycott are suggesting that his place in the side should be questioned on the grounds that he did not play for the team.

Afterwards we were treated to perhaps the best period of play of the series for England. Ben Stokes and Ian Bell launched a glorious counter-attack and 99 runs came in 20 overs. At 220-4, with only seven overs to go in the day you could start to dream: if they see it through to the Close and if they get back in tomorrow morning… Ian Bell was a tad unlucky, because he almost got away with the ball that dismissed him. There was no question that he knew that he had feathered it, but the umpire said no, HotSpot showed nothing and the TV images seemed not to indicate an edge. Joe Root knows that lack of evidence of an edge is not enough to save you from being fired-out caught but, last summer, Bell would undoubtedly have been reprieved. Sadly, for him, RealTime Snicko showed a small signal, which the TV umpire was prepared to accept as good enough grounds to overturn the on-field decision, just when it seemed that the decision would stand. Unlike for Joe Root, justice was seen to be done and any faint hopes of a miracle were snuffed out. This time DRS got it right, but the application of DRS by the TV umpire remains sadly inconsistent and that is its biggest flaw.

Although 31 came off the final six overs of the day, it is only the most temporary of reprieves. Stokes and Prior would have to bat past Tea tomorrow for England to have a real chance of the draw and that is not going to happen. Stuart Broad’s toe is not broken, but he is sore and on crutches and will not have the benefit of a runner due to the rather idiotic rule change that forbids them. Even if the tail were to hang around for a long time, England are, effectively, a batsman short anyway.