The Ashes: A Crucial Day in Adelaide

As both sides walked out at the start of today’s play, they both knew it was a crucial day in this Ashes series. England knew they needed to score some quick runs and declare as soon as possible in order to give themselves enough time to bowl Australia out in the face of some dodgy weather forecasts. Australia on the other hand had to prepare themselves to bat for the best part of two days on a wearing Adelaide pitch in order to save the game and go to Perth all square at 0-0.

Kevin Pietersen hit a few lusty blows early on to take him to his highest ever Test score before departing. Xavier Doherty found a touch of turn from the rough and found the edge of Pietersen’s bat as he attempted to slog-sweep the under pressure spinner into the next stratosphere. As the Aussies allowed themselves a faint smile (fair enough since Doherty had executed Australia’s plan perfectly by dismissing England’s main man, albeit 227 runs too late), Pietersen walked off the ground to a well deserved standing ovation after one of his best Test innings to date.

It got better for Australia when they had Matt Prior LBW for 1. This was quite important for Australia as Prior is a dangerous batsmen and could have added some very quick runs. Unfortunately for Australia however… Prior decided to review the decision, successfully. As I said, Prior is a dangerous batsman and did add some very quick runs with Ian Bell. 52 runs in 5.4 overs to be precise. At this point Andrew Strauss decided to end Australia’s torture by declaring with a lead of 375.

With 5 and a bit sessions to bat, Shane Watson and Simon Katich had a monumental task ahead of them. To make things even worse for Australia, Katich was clearly struggling with a heel injury. The Australian openers were clearly unfazed by this however as they got off to a rapid start. Some of the shots they played were unconvincing, with quite a few boundaries down to third man. Without doing a disservice the pair, there was also a large collection of very good shots. Crunching drives through the covers from Watson and a couple of straight drives, if you can call them that, from Katich were the best of the lot. Anderson in particular was quite wayward, he struggled to find the length that made him such a handful in the first innings.

England did recover relatively quickly. The introduction of Graeme Swann providing the catalyst for the momentum swing as he probed away at the rough areas outside off-stump and gave nothing away.

It was Swann who eventually got the vital breakthrough as he induced the finest of edges from Katich. At this point Swann had found his rhythm and was bowling quite brilliantly. He had the batsmen tied down and was also threatening to take wickets with plenty of men around the bat. Ponting seemed eager to not let Swann settle, he was quick to get on the front foot (exactly what Swann would have wanted). He was almost out when he defended the ball with hard hands, the ball caught the edge after spinning sharply and could have easily ended up in the hands of a close catcher. Ponting proceeded to play a very uncharacteristic yet very effective slog sweep off Swann.

Could this be the day that Ponting announced himself in this series? No, is the answer, as from the very next ball Swann had his man. It was a very clever piece of bowling from Swann. It was delivered with over-spin rather than side-spin and the ball went straight on which was enough to find an edge, brilliantly taken by Collingwood at slip. Ponting simply could not believe it. He stood at the crease for quite a long time, so long that I thought he was going to refer the decision. But no, it was just pure disbelief that he had failed in his quest to save his team from an embarrassing defeat. And an embarrassing defeat is what looked very much on the horizon as the out of form Michael Clarke strode to the wicket.

Thankfully for Australia, their vice-captain and heir apparent to Ponting finally found some form with some classic drives (the very same ones that were getting him out only days earlier) and pulls in front of square. England kept plugging away and whilst both Watson and Clarke were batting well, you could sense that the English bowlers were never far away from getting a wicket. And so it proved as the impressive Steven Finn found some extra movement to get rid of Watson. It was a defensive prod that took the edge and was expertly taken by Strauss at slip.

England’s catching typifies how the team is playing. They are catching everything in the slips (a trademark of great teams) whilst Australia have made plenty of blunders with both their catching and ground fielding. England seem to be on top in every department currently.

Finn had started to find some reverse-swing and was bowling better than he had at any point in the previous 8 days. He beat Hussey’s outside edge on a few occasions from around the wicket and looked quite threatening. At the other end Swann was twirling away, getting the odd ball to really spit out of the rough. Despite the threatening bowling, Clarke and the re-born Mike Hussey looked relatively at ease and brought up their hundred partnership near the end of the day. It looked for all money that Australia would be ending the day 3 wickets down and quite content about their days work.

However since it is the Ashes, obviously it was not going to be this simple. Andrew Strauss tossed the ball to Kevin Pietersen for a couple of experimental overs which turned out to be a masterstroke. KP’s Test was going well and it got a hell of a lot better when he got a ball to turn sharply, it found the edge of Michael Clarke’s bat and landed safely in the hands of Alastair Cook. Clarke seems to have a nasty habit of getting out right at the end of a crucial day in an Ashes series (think of Edgbaston 2005 and a Steve Harmison slower ball, that dismissal proved extremely costly as I’m sure you all remember what happened the following day…). Australia will pray that this dismissal will not prove quite as costly although it was definitely a massive blow to Australia which gave England a huge advantage going into the final day (surely only the rain, or another monumental Hussey/Haddin partnership can save Australia now).

Personally I cannot see any other outcome but an England win. With Graeme Swann operating from one end throughout the day, the seamers will be rotated around at the other end. KP might even get a few more overs since there is some lavish spin to be found on this wearing surface. Swann will be a real handful on this last day pitch, there will definitely be the odd ball which does something spectacular so the batsmen will have a real task on their hands.

What is for sure is that it will be an enthralling day of cricket tomorrow, whatever happens. Australia will want to get in front of England as soon as possible then bat for as long as they can, there might even be a tense run chase at the end of the day. I cannot wait to see how this vital day will unfold.

Now can we all bow our heads in prayer. Please God, don’t let it rain, just don’t let it rain.