Ashes 2017/18: 3rd Test Day 5 - 5-0 Coming

 

Ashes 2017/18: 3^rd Test Day 5

5-0 Coming

December 19^th 2017

So, despite a lot of help from the rain, England were a full session from saving the Test and keeping the series alive. Two Tests still to go and the inquests are starting. And, Nathan Lyon’s comment about ending careers is looking to be increasingly self-fulfilling: Broad, Cook, Moeen and Anderson’s futures are all under the microscope, with it being a 50-50 bet, no more, that all four will see out the series in the side. All four have had their career ups and downs, with Cook and Moeen’s careers looking like roller-coaster rides. What is undisputable is that with four young and/or inexperienced players in the side in Stoneman, Vince, Malan and Overton, England can scarcely afford to see so little return from Cook, Moeen and Broad, while the contributions of Root and Anderson have been reasonable, but not match-winning.

We always knew that it would be tough at Perth but, as the match degenerated from England’s initial position of total ascendancy, three players fought, all marginal choices, with just twenty Tests between them. First, despite the pain of a cracked rib, Craig Overton got through 24 overs. He did not threaten but, at very least, he eased the pressure on Anderson, Broad and Woakes, none of whom none the less bowled fewer than 35 overs in the innings. Then, as Cook, Stoneman and Root all walked back, leaving England 60-3, Vince and Malan stood firm. Malan, with a big hundred and a fifty in the Test knows that his place is safe for the foreseeable future. Vince, whose returns had fallen since his initial 83, managed another skilful half century. With the two together, you could hope. Vince though continues to frustrate and show why he looks like being a temporary incumbent: he got to a fighting 50 and was out soon out, even if it took a special delivery to defeat him. After ten Tests and seventeen innings, Vince has just 2x50 and a Test average of 23. He has reached double figures in eleven of his seventeen innings and passed 30 on six occasions, but has reached fifty just twice and on neither occasion converted. In contrast, Malan is growing into the #5 position in a way that Middlesex supporters could never have imagined. Scores of 56, 4, 19, 29, 140 & 54 have shown his appetite for this game, added to 1x100 and 2x50 in the warm-ups.

A three hour rain delay and two set batsmen at the crease in Malan and Bairstow set England up nicely for the great escape. First session lost. See out the first hour and, by then, the 259 that England needed to eat-up time would be coming ever-closer: 10 minutes, or 2 overs lost to the change of innings and then whatever token chase would eat-up some more overs. That was the plan. What happened was just the reverse. Four balls. A single. Bairstow gets a straight one that keeps rather low and that, ladies and gentlemen, was that.

Moeen started the series well, but his confidence looks completely shot now and he is reading Nathan Lyon as well as I read Linear-B. Not the man you want striding out for the sixth ball of the day when you desperately need a hundred partnership. Moeen is such a wonderful counter-attacking batsmen when he feels confident. Here though, injury and the resulting lack of rhythm and confidence have sapped him and his bowling difficulties have just made things worse. When Moeen gets an early wicket he grows visibly. In Australia though the side injury reduced his bowling to minimal before the Tests and that contributed to the soft skin that saw him ripping open his spinning finger early in the match at Brisbane. When it has started to heal it has broken-open again and that has stopped him bowling and hardening the finger. The whole matter has snowballed and the consequence is that Moeen is a shadow of the player who started last winter in such fine form before unsympathetic handling totally neutered him by the end of the Indian series.

Rather than the long partnership that England so desperately needed, the innings just became a procession and the match and the series were over by Tea.

Telling is the statistic that six batsmen apart from Vince and Malan got into double figures, but Woakes’s 22 when last out was the highest score among them: had each of those six doubled his score, England would most likely have saved the match.

Now, England have two dead rubbers to play, with cauliflower ears the most likely result, even if this series does not match the desperation of 2013/14. Then, it was hard to find any positive. Here, Stoneman, Vince, Malan, Bairstow and Overton have all shown that they are up for it.

Overton wants to play at Melbourne but the reports that he could have punctured his lung by insisting on bowling will probably see Mark Wood elevated, subject to fitness. Two failures for Cook at Melbourne could see him rested for the final Test, while Tom Curran for Stuart Broad is a tempting change to add variety to the attack. As England re-commission Haseeb Hameed in the Lions and continue to invest in Keaton Jennings – again named Lions captain – Cook may be looking uncomfortably over his shoulder. Again, it may be tempting to play Jennings in the 5^th Test and see if his form and confidence are back to the level of his early Test innings.