England can do something similar now in the Ashes. They can bat their way to a draw today in the first npower Test — the pitch remains basically good and is hardly of threatening pace — and in more favourable bowling conditions demonstrate that Australian batsmanship is not always as pleasing on the eye as Silvio Berlusconi’s Cabinet. But it will take immense character. Four days into the series, Ricky Ponting’s side have struck several telling blows.
England’s novel plan of beating Australia with a pair of spinners lies in tatters. On a pitch offering turn, the combined figures of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar read 73-12-246-1. Instructions have already gone out for pitches later in the series to assist spin but it will be a brave man who reunites this pair.
Two bowlers harmed and two batsmen, too. If England’s fragile batting is to prosper, the top order must function well, but Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara have failed twice here in favourable conditions and with Brett Lee absent.
Cook’s two dismissals were sadly predictable, caught off an open face and leg-before falling over. “Seen it all before, Chef,” the Aussies will say. And they will like what they see in Bopara, frozen by Peter Siddle bouncers and yesterday playing across the line to his third ball. It was a poor decision from umpire Billy Doctrove — the ball was high — but there is enough to suggest Bopara is batting too high for his, or our, comfort.
The Australians also returned to what are clearly well-laid plans for Kevin Pietersen, bowling full and straight at him early on when he, like Bopara, tends to play cross-batted shots. Already, Andrew Strauss and Pietersen are under pressure to holds things together.
Going into the game, England had spoken of hitting the Australians hard, but where, when it came to it, was the aggression? Over the Caerphilly mountains and far away. England have batted positively, but this isn’t calculated aggression, more a dangerous cocktail of agitation and adrenalin. Again, they have begun a series nervily on the back foot.
Yesterday provided pitiful fare for English supporters. Their team’s time-wasting was blatant, ambitions limited to delaying Australia’s declaration, preferably until the rain arrived. But the expected deluge failed to make an appearance until tea, by which time England were tottering at 20 for two. The darkest clouds kept skirting the ground.
Marcus North and Brad Haddin helped themselves to some of the easier Test runs they will make. As a declaration of intent, Strauss’s decision to start with Stuart Broad rather than Andrew Flintoff had all the punch of a powder-puff and after leaking 16 runs in two overs Broad was in danger of being withdrawn. But he recovered his poise, as did Swann and Panesar, who, with the pressure off, turned the ball more.
Despite the spinners bowling 10 overs, England delivered just 27 in the session, which ended with North reaching a composed century, his second in three Test appearances, and Haddin his fifty. By batting until mid-afternoon, Ponting was giving Haddin a chance of a hundred and making the kind of brutal statement of intent loved by Aussie captains in opening Ashes Tests.
Strauss, his field settings bedraggled, must have felt the humiliation long before Australia closed on 674 for six or Haddin became the fourth man to reach a century, the first time the feat had been accomplished against England in 887 Tests. It was, indeed, only the second time the feat had been achieved in Ashes Tests. The previous occasion was by England at Trent Bridge in 1938. North and Haddin added 200 before Haddin holed out off the part-time medium pace of Paul Collingwood.
Batting again, England were footsore and weary and no doubt fighting off the here-we-go-again feeling. They had been under pressure for much of the game and Ponting would have sensed that even with his inexperienced attack — the four frontline bowlers boasted just 35 caps before this game — he had a good chance of going one up.
Whatever the outcome today, England must not panic. When they lost the first Test in 2005, they kept faith with the XI; this time one change, jettisoning a spinner for a seamer, might be as far as they should go. Despite his most erratic bowling to date, Swann must be retained ahead of Panesar. His batting is required, so too his unquenchable chirpiness. Graham Onions will surely play at Lord’s.
A change might be enforced if say, Stuart Broad is struggling with his calf problem. There is a temptation to cast past performances aside and recall Steve Harmison, who was among the wickets for Durham yesterday, or Ryan Sidebottom. There may also be concerns, if minor ones, about the fitness of Andrew Flintoff, who had running repairs to his left foot yesterday, and Pietersen, nursing a sore Achilles.
Already, Cardiff confirms the truth established in the Caribbean that England will struggle to take 20 wickets in good batting conditions. To win a match they will need the ball to swing and that, to a degree, depends on overhead conditions. Whether Australian techniques might then be exposed remains to be seen. It is England’s only hope.
What England must address is their own batting frailties. For all the bold talk, they lack hunger. They were content with batting four sessions when six should have been a bare minimum.
The game can be saved but already Australian confidence is soaring and once the Baggy Greens get on a roll they are rarely stopped. Nathan Hauritz is hardly an in-your-face character — he once admitted that there are times, when things go badly, “when you want to crawl under a rock” — but one suspects he won’t be crawling under any rocks today, just trying to crawl all over England.
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