It was all too good to be true. England seemed set to sweep the series after their performance in Adelaide and yet the batting which had served them so well in the first two matches failed to appear at the WACA, in the face of a spirited Australian fightback with ball in hand. Having reviewed my work on the last two matches, I've realised that a day-by-day account descends too much into a match report, rather than the opinion and analysis, which is after all the raison d'etre here at BtC, where we alone believe that our opinions and analyses mean something. So here's the score and some expert views from Game 3 in the 2010-11 Ashes:
3rd Test (Perth) - Australia 268 (Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53) and 309 (Hussey 116, Watson 95, Tremlett 5-87) beat England 187 (Bell 53, Strauss 52, Johnson 6-38) and 123 (Harris 6-47) by 267 runs
By all accounts, it's a bit of a pasting. The first thing you may be wondering is this: Mitchell Johnson? Wasn't he rubbish about two weeks ago? The answer to this is yes. And I believe he will remain one of the most enigmatic figures in world cricket for the forseeable future - this match was no permanent renaissance. The pitch at the WACA has always favoured the quick men, and Johnson is about as quick as they come. Add in the Fremantle Doctor, and you have a swinging ball at 90+mph. When you have players like Cook, Collingwood, Strauss and Bell who all favour playing off the backfoot, all you have to do is pitch the ball up and watch it hoop around. Buoyed by his lower order batting effort (see ball, hit ball, as per usual - great to watch but as a bowler you always fancy your chances), Johnson steamed in and did just that. And by not overthinking and overcomplicating his technique, success came far easier than it did at the Gabba.
Speaking of the lower order batting, is this the point at which the momentum slipped from England, however happy they would have felt with the state of affairs after day 1. From 69-5, 268 is a let-off. And the main culprits in this game were Steven Finn and Graeme Swann. Finn, to his credit, took 5 wickets in the match, and is the leading wicket-taker in the series. However, he leaks boundaries like they're going out of fashion and looked pretty exhausted after the heavy demands which have been placed on him. I expect he'll miss the MCG game, allowing Ajmal Shahzad the opportunity to reverse the ball and trouble the left-handers, in particular Michael Hussey. The case of Swann is more difficult. He is the leading spinner in the world and Australia know that, and, owing to their own lack of spin and the helpful pitch at Adelaide, are preparing green-tops in Melbourne and Sydney to negate his influence, thus limiting an already stretched four-man attack. But he should be perservered with. Both men dropped too short far too often and were punished accordingly. Chris Tremlett, however, bowled magnificently, both at a suitable and varied length and in a dangerous channel, which had the batsmen in two minds whether to play the ball. A maiden five-for was thoroughly merited.
And what of the batsmen? A reluctance to get forward has already been identified as a problem and is an issue in particular with Paul Collingwood. Contrast his style with that of Shane Watson, an old-style foot planter and then contrast their averages in this series. Collingwood must adapt or face being dropped. Personally, I would give him one more chance at No.6 where he can scrap all he wants with the tail, and allow Ian Bell to move up and play more fluently while his form is hot. Australia still have frailties, but these were papered over by another magnificent innings by Hussey. A man who knows the Perth pitch better than anyone, he pulled England to shreds and has basically abandoned the blocking mentality that saw his Test career almost come to an end before this series. How foolish that notion seems now. The only change I can see is if Ricky Ponting fails to recover from a broken finger sustained by shelling Jonathan Trott at slip (although such was Australia's turnaround in fortune that Haddin snaffled the rebound). If Ricky does miss out at the MCG, and he definitely won't want to, Usman Khawaja should make his Test bow, in a situation similar to that in which Trott made his debut at the Oval last year.
The series is back on the line. Which means that cricket fans have something to look forward to over Christmas, outwith the usual festivities of enjoying far too much food and watching far too much television!
RM
3rd Test (Perth) - Australia 268 (Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53) and 309 (Hussey 116, Watson 95, Tremlett 5-87) beat England 187 (Bell 53, Strauss 52, Johnson 6-38) and 123 (Harris 6-47) by 267 runs
By all accounts, it's a bit of a pasting. The first thing you may be wondering is this: Mitchell Johnson? Wasn't he rubbish about two weeks ago? The answer to this is yes. And I believe he will remain one of the most enigmatic figures in world cricket for the forseeable future - this match was no permanent renaissance. The pitch at the WACA has always favoured the quick men, and Johnson is about as quick as they come. Add in the Fremantle Doctor, and you have a swinging ball at 90+mph. When you have players like Cook, Collingwood, Strauss and Bell who all favour playing off the backfoot, all you have to do is pitch the ball up and watch it hoop around. Buoyed by his lower order batting effort (see ball, hit ball, as per usual - great to watch but as a bowler you always fancy your chances), Johnson steamed in and did just that. And by not overthinking and overcomplicating his technique, success came far easier than it did at the Gabba.
Speaking of the lower order batting, is this the point at which the momentum slipped from England, however happy they would have felt with the state of affairs after day 1. From 69-5, 268 is a let-off. And the main culprits in this game were Steven Finn and Graeme Swann. Finn, to his credit, took 5 wickets in the match, and is the leading wicket-taker in the series. However, he leaks boundaries like they're going out of fashion and looked pretty exhausted after the heavy demands which have been placed on him. I expect he'll miss the MCG game, allowing Ajmal Shahzad the opportunity to reverse the ball and trouble the left-handers, in particular Michael Hussey. The case of Swann is more difficult. He is the leading spinner in the world and Australia know that, and, owing to their own lack of spin and the helpful pitch at Adelaide, are preparing green-tops in Melbourne and Sydney to negate his influence, thus limiting an already stretched four-man attack. But he should be perservered with. Both men dropped too short far too often and were punished accordingly. Chris Tremlett, however, bowled magnificently, both at a suitable and varied length and in a dangerous channel, which had the batsmen in two minds whether to play the ball. A maiden five-for was thoroughly merited.
And what of the batsmen? A reluctance to get forward has already been identified as a problem and is an issue in particular with Paul Collingwood. Contrast his style with that of Shane Watson, an old-style foot planter and then contrast their averages in this series. Collingwood must adapt or face being dropped. Personally, I would give him one more chance at No.6 where he can scrap all he wants with the tail, and allow Ian Bell to move up and play more fluently while his form is hot. Australia still have frailties, but these were papered over by another magnificent innings by Hussey. A man who knows the Perth pitch better than anyone, he pulled England to shreds and has basically abandoned the blocking mentality that saw his Test career almost come to an end before this series. How foolish that notion seems now. The only change I can see is if Ricky Ponting fails to recover from a broken finger sustained by shelling Jonathan Trott at slip (although such was Australia's turnaround in fortune that Haddin snaffled the rebound). If Ricky does miss out at the MCG, and he definitely won't want to, Usman Khawaja should make his Test bow, in a situation similar to that in which Trott made his debut at the Oval last year.
The series is back on the line. Which means that cricket fans have something to look forward to over Christmas, outwith the usual festivities of enjoying far too much food and watching far too much television!
RM
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