I’m so sorry, I’ve been travelling blind
High time you rest your weary eyes, it’s been a long, strange ride.
– The Audreys
Australian cricket was in crisis. The nation was in crisis. Fans around the country watched The Vicar of Dibley instead of the miserable second Test defeat in Adelaide. In the build up to Perth, captain Ricky Ponting promised a fight. The words, given Australia’s ordinary form, sounded like tapping a rotten pumpkin, firm on the outside, soft on the inside.
Following day one in Perth, the Australian team adhered to its abysmal form, another batting collapse, leaving the team teetering at 5-69 until Mike Hussey, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson added respectability to the score. After getting bowled out in the last session for 268, the Aussies insipid fielding was a feature. Ricky Ponting misjudged a simple, lobbed catch at second slip. Hussey forgot to keep his eyes open in the gully as a catch flew past.
Mid-morning, day two, England was 0-78 and cruising. Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook were on top. Skill, it seemed, would suffice, mental aptitude an unnecessary aside. An hour later, ravaged by Johnson, the score was 5-98 and the momentum had swung madly in favour of the Australians. Ponting promised a fight. Four of his men delivered, carrying the rest to victory.
Form is fickle. Everyone who has ever played sport will understand it takes one kick, mark, wicket or boundary to regain form. A poor piece of play is often enough to squander it. Mitchell Johnson, dumped following a disastrous first Test, came in with Australia struggling at 6-137. From the slips, Kevin Pietersen asked to be Johnson’s friend. Instead, Johnson made enemies, 62 runs, dragging his team back into the match. Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus added 35 for the last wicket.
Johnson claimed Cook first, caught by Hussey, then ruined any semblance of friendship by claiming Pietersen, LBW for a duck. Johnson, on a fast wicket, took 6-38, uprooting England’s victory amble and denting excessive egos. The English team has been stunned by Johnson’s vigour. Australian fans were stunned by the dramatic shift in form and fortune. The nation loves cricket again. All eyes turn to Melbourne.
The remarkable comeback in Perth highlights the unpredictable nature of sport. The cliché, cricket is a funny game, has generated many lines in interviews and in the media. Only the Australian’s are laughing. The English players, so completely defeated, must be shattered. Victory was theirs, all agree, to be taken during the first session on day two.
The Perth Test became a rout, as Ponting suggested it would. Hussey hit a century, becoming the first batsmen in Ashes history to score six consecutive half centuries. England’s second innings was meek, much worse than the first, as Ryan Harris barrelled through the line-up, taking 6-47, getting the ball in the right area, generating pace and swing. What promised to be another abysmal Ashes mismatch became one, and by the inverse, the series remains alive, one all with two to play.
Across three Tests, Australia has been traumatised by England – England has been traumatised by Australia. This is Test cricket as it should be, a fluid game with extreme mood swings, where each minute, each run and ball in each session could decide the result.
In the build up to the third Test, the media took ownership of the Australian team, the selectors and the likely result. The team was critiqued with great accuracy, the selectors lambasted and the result a foregone conclusion. The media was wrong, a low happening most will readily admit to, given part of their job is forecasting, summating and analysing.
If the words of journalists could swing the momentum of a Test or game of football, then they’d have real credibility. As it is, a journalist is as good as their last story, so there are journalists in hiding right now, particularly some from Perth, hacks who superimposed eggs onto the faces of Australia’s selectors following the first day.
The Ramble is guilty of muckraking too, questioning the merit of captain-in-waiting Michael Clarke, suggesting it could be years before Australia return to dominance and imploring the public not to abandon the team. The Ramble predicted calamity. One win renders those views and warnings obsolete.
Fresh warnings, despite the acclaim bestowed on the Aussies, must be heeded.
For the past two years Australia has been inconsistent, woeful one match, exceptional the next, a common feature of ageing and inexperienced teams. England was humbled by four players, Hussey, Johnston, Harris and Watson. The rest, aside from small bit-parts, hardly dictated the pace. Some, like Ponting and Clarke, are horribly out of form.
To succeed in Melbourne’s Boxing Day Test, the Aussies will have to perform as a team. While Johnson and Harris bowled superbly in Perth, it is a stretch to believe they will claim 18 wickets between them at the MCG. Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle must lift and actually take wickets. It isn’t enough to slow down the scoring and beat the bat occasionally. Similarly, if Hussey, Watson and Haddin fail with the bat, no one else can be trusted to score runs. None of the batsmen, aside from Hussey and Watson, are averaging more than 23 for the series.
Great minds in the England camp are pondering how Australia actually won. The WAGS are being blamed, as is arrogance and an inability to counter a fast, bouncy pitch. Blame isn’t hard to find, particularly if the Poms focus on poor batting, playing across the line and getting out LBW or hanging the bat out and edging.
England’s batsmen tended to get themselves out in Perth, rather than fall victim to an unplayable spell of bowling. For all the joy produced at the WACA, it is premature to write England off. One good spell of bowling, a good session, might be enough to get the confidence back, as Johnson has discovered.
Confidence can’t be stored, replicated or reasoned with. It is temporary and can often seem permanent. Confidence doesn’t necessarily mean good performance, England was confident going into Perth, as were the Australians. Only the Aussies performed, and performance, in sport, is everything.
There is nothing bigger in cricket than the Boxing Day Test, with a full MCG, the crowd clapping, howling and cheering. If you’ve never been, you must go, particularly against a team like England.
Two weeks ago the media were lamenting the end of an era, the first time the Ashes have been lost on Australian soil since 1986/87. The public gave up on the cricket, turning off the radio and switching channels.
Now, everyone wants to be at the MCG. Cricket is getting the attention it deserves. All it took was a convincing win. Amazing how fickle form and focus can be. The Australian public really love winning.
Right now there’s about five million geniuses discussing cricket, second-guessing the selectors and planning Boxing Day around the broadcast. Already there is much to talk about, given claims by English media that the pitch has been changed to suit fast bowlers. Journalists are good at generating distractions, a tangent, something to create a headline and controversy.
The Boxing Day Test won’t need journalists to create headlines or controversy. It will happen naturally. Australia is narrow favourites. They’ve shown their resilience, the ability to fight back when dignity is lost. England must do the same.
This is Test cricket. Those who miss this are travelling blind, needing to rest weary eyes.
