Ashes 2013
Tenth time lucky
January 24th 2014
Australia’s curious policy of
resting their best batsmen had the effect of giving England a consolation win
and some self-respect, but it was the bowling unit that let Australia down. A
attack with Mitch Johnson breaking the 90mph barrier and James Pattinson and
Nathan Coulter-Nile both a whisker below 90mph, backed up by Faulkner, Maxwell
and Christian is by no stretch of the imagination a second-string attack, yet
England and particularly openers Cook and Bell went after them from the start
and treated Johnson and, especially, Pattinson brutally.
In this series Australia have conceded
the fourth and ninth highest totals that a visiting team has made in 397 ODIs played
in Australia. 102-1 from 14 overs, England were well on course to beat the
343-5 that Sri Lanka managed at Sydney in 2002/03. More importantly though,
they showed that they could handle Mitch Johnson’s high pace, if they wanted
to. Had Johnson been subjected to such a barrage in the Test series Australia’s
entire strategy would have fallen apart. Despite a miserly spell from Glenn
Maxwell, playing a lone hand and, amazingly, not even bowling out his overs, 76
from the last eight overs pushed England well past 300.
For once Chris Jordan looked
off-colour and did not take an early wicket and, with Stuart Broad also
expensive, Australia were well ahead of England after six overs and seemingly
cruising. The introduction of Tim Bresnan in the seventh over, followed shortly
afterwards by James Tredwell changed the complexion of the match. Bresnan
dismissed Marsh in his first over and Matt Wade came in and the scoring rate
plummeted. From being 7 ahead after 6 overs, Australia were 30 behind England’s
score after 15. Wade was horribly, embarrassingly able to find any fluency and,
finally, provided Ravi Bopara, again excellent with the ball, a very rare
mid-innings wicket maiden.
While Finch was causing merry mayhem
at one end, Australia were getting close to parity and had the initiative despite
the lack of any kind of support at the other end. When Finch perished at 189-5,
having score 57% of his side’s runs at that point, it only needed calm bowling
to close out the match.
In the end, Australia subsided
rather meekly, missing the chance to bury England completely and condemn them
to their worst ever sequence of international defeats. With a 5th
ODI and three T20s to come, it also leaves England with the chance to finish
with some momentum: winning the final ODI and the T20 series would at least
allow England to spin that the things had been turned around at the end of the
tour. With a clearer head at the death in the 2nd ODI, the series
might even still have been live at Adelaide.
Apart from the fact that Jordan
came back strongly and comfortably passed 90mph again and that Cook is starting
to re-gain form and fluency with the bat, Buttler, Stokes and Bell all had good
games and, although Ravi Bopara has not scored many runs, his bowling has been
consistently excellent, with good economy and vital wickets through the series.
“All” there is left to do is to
show that this was not just a flash in the pan win against weakened opposition,
by winning a few more matches to end the tour.
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