CRICKET:ENGLAND CAPITULATED at the Waca yesterday. Fifty minutes was all it took for Australia to shove aside the remaining five wickets they required to level the series and they met scant resistance, all falling for the addition of 42 runs in 10 overs.
The winning margin was huge, 267 runs, one fewer than Australia made in their first innings: this was an innings defeat in all but name.
To Ryan Harris went the spoils, adding four more wickets to that of Alastair Cook and, with the last ball of the third day, Paul Collingwood. His figures of six for 47 were the best of his career and gave him nine for 106 in the match, to sit alongside Mitchell Johnson’s nine for 82.
All out for 123, only 11 runs more than their worst aggregate on the ground, England had lost all 20 wickets in 75 overs after reaching 78 for no wicket on the second morning. This came after losing only six in the previous 329 overs received.
Tomorrow England will decamp to Melbourne, for Christmas first and then what now promises to be a magnificent St Stephen’s Day spectacle at the MCG.
If they had been anticipating a return to a more gentle pitch, however, or at least one better suited to their skills, then there were rumours they might need to think again, that the surface they will have seen a couple of strips along from the moribund offering used for their match against Victoria has been replaced by something which promises to be altogether livelier and cooked to order.
In other words it will be more of the grassy, pacy same or as near as they can get it. That would be of concern to England’s batsmen who, with the exception of Ian Bell, showed no capacity to cope either with the pace and bounce of the pitch or with the disciplined approach adopted by Australia’s four pacemen.
Every single moment of Mike Hussey’s batting masterclass should be required viewing on that basis. The reality, though, is the MCG groundsman was always preparing two pitches and would choose the better of them for the match.
Australia made changes galore for the Waca but, with the possible but unlikely exception of Ricky Ponting, will take the same bunch to the MCG.
The little finger on Ponting’s left hand may be cracked but he will need no reminding, either from Allan Border or Steve Waugh, they each scored memorable centuries against England while severely incapacitated. Border’s unbeaten 146 at Old Trafford in 1985, with a broken finger, together with Waugh’s twin hundreds at the same ground in 1997, handicapped by a broken thumb, and his up-yours century at The Oval, despite a torn calf muscle, on his last appearance in England four years later, are the stuff of gritty legend.
Instead it is England who must consider their options, both bowling and batting. The qualities displayed by Bell are making a strong case for moving him up the order, certainly to number five and, given his technical excellence against the moving ball, even to number four with Kevin Pietersen dropping a place.
Since his hundred in Chittagong last March, Paul Collingwood has scored 184 runs in 12 innings, with one half-century and an average of 15.3 – England’s troubleshooter at number five is no longer doing that job.
However, his catching is almost irreplaceable, especially at slip to Graeme Swann, and, although England cannot afford a professional fielder offering little else, the only replacement, Eoin Morgan, has had a single match and has a technique that, at this stage, probably would not have withstood the scrutiny of the Waca.
Of the disappointments, though, it was the bowling that hurt most. England’s seam strategy has been built on the fundamentals of rigid line and appropriate length once the new ball has gone and, although Chris Tremlett made an excellent comeback to Test cricket, Jimmy Anderson was poor with the new ball in the first innings – after England had put Australia in – and Steve Finn, despite his wickets, was a disaster. Strauss had nothing with which to control things.
Finn is a serious prospect but to concede almost a run a ball is unacceptable for, as Ponting again succinctly put it: “When the scoreboard is going nowhere, then the pressure on the batsmen increases.”
England, Ponting thought, bowled too short, a consistent failing of visiting teams to the Waca. It will not be for the want of having been told but a coach cannot go on the field. Perhaps they got too embroiled in the sledging and lost discipline, in which case they need telling their fortunes.
The handling of the conditions, by Harris in particular but also Johnson, was exemplary, with judicious use of the short ball to drive the batsman back in the crease and then the full delivery to which they could not get forward.
All England’s wickets which were not bowled or lbw fell to catches behind the wicket. This was classical, simple bowling. It was always felt that Finn might not have the stamina to last a series and surely he cannot play at the MCG, where Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad will come into consideration.
THIRD TEST
at the Waca, Perth
Australia beat England by 267 runs
Overnight: Australia 268 (M Johnson 62, M Hussey 61, B J Haddin 53) and 309 (M Hussey 116, S Watson 95; C Tremlett 5-87). England 187 (I Bell 53, A Strauss 52; M Johnson 6-38) and 81-5.
England – Second Innings
J Anderson b Harris 3
I Bell lbw b Harris 16
M Prior c Hussey b Harris 10
G Swann b Johnson 9
C Tremlett not out 1
S Finn c Smith b Harris 2
Extras (lb8 nb1) 9
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Total (37 overs) 123
Fall of wickets: 1-23 2-37 3-55 4-81 5-81 6-94 7-111 8-114 9-120.
Bowling: Hilfenhaus 10-4-16-1; Harris 11-1-47-6; Johnson 12-3-44-3; Siddle 4-1-8-0.
