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It spoke volumes of the Australian Cricket Board’s priorities when they sent Mitchell Johnson home with the one day series against India tied at 2-2 and all to play for in the final ODI.
They wanted him to prepare for the Ashes much to the despair of those wanting to see a real contest in that particular one-dayer. But that, or any other ODI will have no choice but to drop down humbly at the feet of a Test, so rich in intensity and bursting at the seams with the promise of competitiveness that makes the Old School proud.
Australia won the toss and chose to bat on a perfect sunny summer morning. Stuart Broad caused the top order all sorts of problems as he extracted extra bounce off the wicket and sent the top four batsmen packing.
Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson came together with their team in trouble at 6-132. Haddin tends to do well with the bat in the initial stages of Ashes series’. They shared a 114 run partnership which lent some respectability to their team’s total. Day One clearly belonged to England, with the Aussies reeling at 8-273.
Haddin batted into the next day and got himself run out on 94, much to the fans’ disappointment. Australia folded up at 295.
England opened with Captain Cook (no pun intended) and debutant Michael Carberry, who top scored with 40 runs for his team. They might have been forgiven for thinking that they had seen off the new ball, sharing a partnership of more than ten overs. Turns out, they hadn’t. That red ball just does things the white one can’t.
Ryan Harris dismissed Cook after a tricky spell of out-swing bowling that was well worthy of such a big wicket. The English middle order batsmen fell like dominoes, unable to handle the fiery Mitchell Johnson produced. The promising score of 2-82 was promptly reduced to all out for 136 by some hostile short and sharp bowling from Siddle, Harris and Johnson.
Australia came back out to bat on Day 2 and ended the day 224 runs ahead with 10 wickets in hand, seemingly having devised a way to better cope with Broad’s threat. Day Two clearly belonged to the Aussies.
Two quick wickets the next morning got the visitors back in the game but Michael Clark and David Warner came together for a 158 run stand at almost 5 and a half runs per over to took the game away from the English.
Brad Haddin made another half-century batting with the tail and looks set to win his battle for wicket-keeper bragging rights against Matt Prior who batted poorly in both innings.
James Anderson failed to pick up any wickets in the second innings and Australia declared at 401/7, setting an impossible target of 561 runs and giving England 16 overs of predictable hostility to see out the day.
Michael Carberry played a forward defensive shot with the textbook grip of soft hands. The ball, so often accused of having a mind of its own, bewilderingly dropped between his feet and took the bails off the top of his stumps. This has to go down as one of the most unlucky dismissals in the history of the game.
Jonathan Trott continued well in his quest to emerge as the best patsy in the land by shuffling across his crease and exposing his leg stump to Johnson’s bowling. He got out cheaply playing identical shots in both innings, once caught by the wicket-keeper and the other, by Nathan Lyon at deep square leg.The sheer stupidity of the batting made Australia’s tactics for that particular wicket look better than they actually were.
Alastair Cook and Kevin Pieterson played out the rest of the day which clearly belong to Australia.
Day Four brought much more of the same as the Aussies set fields that brought back memories of the days of Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee, with the entire eleven member fielding unit all captured in the straight TV camera frame. They had runs to play with, and play they did.
Pieterson fell pray to his compulsive urge to dominate bowlers as he misjudged the bounce on a waist-high Johnson delivery, top-edging to deep square leg.
Ian Bell, Australia’a tormentor-in-chief in the previous series, showed signs of resilience, but fell to Peter Siddle’s extra bounce just when he looked set to go on to get a big score yet again.Peter Siddle, who eats 15 bananas a day, seemed to generate that extra bounce by just putting more back into it.
Cook played very well for his 65 but was beaten yet again by extra bounce, this time from Lyon, who was almost exclusively used only when the quicks needed a rest.
Joe Root played two glorious straight drives off the bowling of Ryan Harris and and kept his concentration despite two long rain delays, Johnson’s increasingly venomous bowling and snarls from the entire Australian team. His parents probably still tell him not to use those words. The 22-year old remained not out as his team crumbled to 179 and lost the match by almost 400 runs.
Mitchell Johnson deservedly got the man of the match award for his nine wickets, while Brad Haddin was a close second. Australia were much the better team and England faced many of the same problems tourists face in that country. They will need to draw on typical English bottle and devise a way to counter Mitchell Johnson, hopefully in better ways that shuffling across the crease like it’s a limited overs game.
Either way, the series is poised yet again, to be a beauty.
