Still, it’s
not often England make 400 overseas these days, and the Malan-Bairstow partnership
of 237 had somewhat incredibly broken the national record for the WACA. Good
news, yes? Then you realise that this is Perth. In a recent Sheffield Shield
contest, Western Australia had amassed more than five hundred and still lost! There was still a lot of hard work to
do. Getting Steve Smith out would be a good start.
Oh, dear.
Overton’s early strikes produced a smidgen of optimism but once Steve Smith put
down his roots, normal service was resumed. Day three saw the Aussies pile on
346 runs with Shaun Marsh’s wicket the only loss. His brother Mitchell
proceeded to hit his first Test century at long last, while the skipper cut,
pulled, flicked and drove impeccably to a career-best 239. Even when Smith was
adjudged LBW to Anderson after a review, the eighth and ninth wickets added
more than 100 before a declaration at 662-9. From such early promise, England
now faced a day and a half to bat and save not only the match but the entire
series.
That was
never going to happen, especially when the out-of-sorts Alastair Cook gave Josh
Hazlewood a leading edge caught-and-bowled for just 14. Vince and Malan managed
to make fifties but nobody else passed 22 as the procession duly unfolded. A
mysterious wet patch on the wicket almost succeeded in wiping out the final day’s
play (which member of the England squad sneaked out to the middle with a hose
under cover of night?) but Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon managed to finish things
off with minimum fuss.
I confess I
hadn’t foreseen such a one-sided set of results, although there could yet be
compensatory victories at Melbourne or Sydney. It would seem that, given no
obvious superiority on paper, the planets were perfectly aligned for the Aussies.
The Aussie bowling quartet have performed admirably, the quicks knowing when to
bowl short, especially to the England tail, and Nathan Lyon’s spin option
making Moeen look the part-time county twirler he was only a few years ago.
Pre-series,
much was made of the battle between the world’s best Test batsmen, and opposing
captains, Smith and Root. Well, there has been only one winner in that contest.
Oddly, it has been the Ashes new boys who have been largely free from
criticism. Stoneman, Malan, Vince and Overton have all contributed with a
measure of consistency. However, Root, Cook, Broad and Moeen have so far failed
to find any kind of form when it mattered. Mind you, take out Steve Smith’s 426
runs and the home team’s batting hasn’t been electric either.
While he and
the squad can now celebrate Christmas with the urn already in the bag, what can
Strauss and the coaching team do to prevent a whitewash? Well, you can’t expect
the England fast bowlers to suddenly fire in 90mph bouncers with any
regularity. The only Englishmen capable of doing so are either injured, too
raw, too focussed on T20 riches or have had such strengths eliminated by
coaches placing more emphasis on swing and control. It is also a bit much to
expect things to improve as a result of the tail practising more against the
short ball; the top order need to produce most of the runs. Cook and Root will
surely come good before the series ends next month. There are no better openers
waiting in the wings, either at home or in the Lions. It's also nothing to do with Ben Stokes' absence, Bairstow's butting or Duckett's water throwing. They are minor distractions, surely more in the minds of the media than the players.
The Ashes
have been lost, so perhaps a little experimentation might be attempted. On the
other hand, a more productive option might be to focus on existing strengths,
hope for a bit more luck and prepare to win the trophy back on familiar slow
pitches. I don’t have the answers. However, congratulations to the Aussies and
we should sit back and admire Steve Smith’s superb batting and three fast
bowlers close to the top of their game.
