The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 3POPE c LABUSCHAGNE b LYON 164-5
After Malan and Root’s
partnership of 138 runs –
which lasted nearly 40 overs
and gave them a platform –
was ended, the England
attack collapsed, losing four
wickets for just 19 runsPIC CREDITDANIEL KALISZan England mistake to expose their
opponents’ middle order.
On BT Sport, we analysed the key
match-ups that their bowlers were
winning: Starc v Burns, Cameron
Green v Root, Lyon v Pope. In each
instance, the Australian has
dismissed the Englishman two out of
three times. After two Tests of a five-
match series, that becomes an issue.
Just ask David Warner, who fell under
the spell of Stuart Broad early on two
years ago and couldn’t buy a run
after that. England’s problems are
accentuated by the fact that none of
our bowlers hold such sway. Warner
has shaken off the grip of Broad and
the form of Marnus Labuschagne and
Steve Smith is ominous.
My worry for Burns is that he has
been dismissed by a left-arm pace
bowler seven times since the summer
of 2020, and he is up against the best
in the world in Starc. The way his
head, hands and bat move in his
trigger movement means the edge is
more likely to be exposed to the ball
coming into him than going away. In
the middle of a series, and with the
next Test only a week away, he
doesn’t have time to take proper
remedial action. My short-term
advice would be to work on his
alignment, to concentrate on playing
late and out to mid-off rather than
pushing straighter down the pitch.
I don’t think Pope has as many
issues over his technique but I
wonder if he really trusts his defence.
I mentioned on air yesterday a match
against Essex when he had danced
down the wicket to Simon Harmer,
another good spinner. It stuck in my
mind because, although he was in
form at that time, it looked frenetic
and betrayed doubt.
I’m all for trying to put pressure
back on the bowler but you need to
do so on your terms, and against a
bowler with more than 400 Test
wickets, you need to be circumspect.
Pope needs to look at his captain.
Against Lyon, Root trusts his defence
but also has low-risk shots to keep the
scoreboard ticking over. It means
that when he does attack, he does so
on his terms. With the exception of
when Root and Malan are at the
crease, this Ashes is being played on
the home side’s terms.Pope’s frenetic dismissal
betrayed the scrambled
minds of failing batsmen
“No mistakes” was the mantra that
Graham Gooch used to repeat to
himself once he got in, and it’s one he
tried to drill into me. Is it being
drilled into this England team? I ask
because their top order keeps
repeating mistakes — not only from
Brisbane but across the past year. In
20 innings since the first-Test win in
India in February, only four times
have they posted a total in excess of- That might have been excusable
on the pitches in Chennai and
Ahmedabad but not on the surfaces
they faced in the English summer
and, now, down under.
Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon,
who yesterday finished the first
innings of the second Test with seven
wickets between them, are world-
class bowlers but neither is in the
form of his life — as Mitchell Johnson
was in 2013-14 and Shane Warne was
for much of the Nineties. Nor are they
bowling on pitches which look as if
they have been prepared specifically
for their talents. So we come back to
English mistakes.
Haseeb Hameed gifted his wicket
on Friday; Joe Root and Jos Buttler
played at balls they didn’t have to;
Dawid Malan couldn’t bring the same
precision to a shot which a delivery
earlier had brought him four; and
Ollie Pope suddenly came dancing
down the track and gave a gentle
catch to short leg. For those
dismissals to happen in the same
innings in Australia — where batting
becomes considerably easier once
you’ve negotiated the new ball or
your first 20 balls — looks shoddy. For
it to recur after the second-innings
collapse in the previous Test is
unforgivable, though we might be
willing to pardon Root after his
efforts carrying the batting line-up in
these past 12 months.
The template for batting in
Australia was summed up by Malan
in his post-match interview, when
asked why he and Root had thrived in
the morning session. “We defended
late, played our lines and left well,”
he said. It’s easier said than done, of
course, especially against an attack
which boasts the experience and
variation of Starc, Lyon, Pat
Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, but
the latter pair are missing here.
This was England’s chance to put
the pressure back on the Australian
bowlers. Michael Neser is making his
Test debut, Jhye Richardson playing
his third Test. Root and Malan
showed the way. So why did no one
else follow suit? My worry is that with
the exception of Rory Burns, whose
fault looks to be technical, this
weakness is becoming psychological.
Past collective failures are playing
on the minds of our batsmen,
chipping away at their confidence
and authority. And the Australia
bowlers rarely drop their level. They
don’t get concerned if they don’t take
a wicket in a session, as happened in
Brisbane and Adelaide, because they
know they only need one good ball or
Australia pounced on the opening,
instinctively raising their game, starv-
ing the batsmen of width to score runs
and spaces in the field to feel relaxed.
Root’s wicket fell in the second of six
successive maidens from Green and
Lyon, and two overs after this
sequence Malan on 80 followed,
buoyed by having just carved Starc
through backward point for four and
eager for a repeat. This time the edge
flew to slip, where Steve Smith took a
sharp, spinning catch.
Jhye Richardson allowed the tour-
niquet to slip with three loose overs
shortly before the second interval,
but the session as a whole was bril-
liant for Australia as England shed
four wickets and all momentum, with
their score advancing by only 57 in 30
overs. Shades here of the fifth morn-
ing on this ground in 2006, when
England’s seeming cruise to a draw
came to an abrupt halt against Shane
Warne as 28 overs yielded only 30
runs and four wickets.
During the first session, Root and
Malan had done a superb job of negat-
ing Lyon, who after the first ball of the
day sidled over from point to drop a
few words in Root’s ear, but he man-
aged only one maiden in nine overs.
Malan gave a technical chance to
Labuschagne at silly mid-off on 33 and
in the same over Root on 19 slog-swept
near to the man at deep square leg,
but they quickly got back on top.
With England 169 for six, not much
could be expected of the lower order,
although Ben Stokes, focused solely
on defence, remained. Chris Woakes
owed his selection to the runs he
might contribute at No 8 and he actu-
ally fared well for 50 minutes, cashing
in against Richardson, off whom he
took all his five boundaries (this was
one match-up that worked in
England’s favour), but eventually two
sharply spun deliveries from Lyon
undid him.
Lyon then quickly accounted for
Ollie Robinson to take England’s duck
tally for the year to an eye-watering
48, which left Stokes, in one of his
most battling efforts, to manufacture
what runs he might. He dispatched
Lyon over mid-wicket for six and
cover for four but with eight men on
the rope Green cleaned him up.
To complete a sense of a day gone
awry, Stuart Broad and James Ander-
son found themselves peppered by
the second new ball under the lights.
Broad took a blow to the grille from
Richardson but bounced back to hook
him for six before slicing to cover to
give Starc a fourth wicket.
Australia, with a lead of 237, pre-
dictably opted to bat again. They
increased their advantage by 45 for
the loss of David Warner, run out in a
mix-up with Marcus Harris.
They have time aplenty to
orchestrate the kill.frustrating that we got ourselves Alastair Cook
back into the fight, but we lost too
many wickets in clusters.”
Having lost the first Test in
Brisbane by nine wickets, England
are in danger of going 2-0 down in
the five-match series which
Australia, as the holders, need only
draw to retain the urn.
To compound England’s misery,
they will face stricter Covid
protocols when they move on to
Melbourne and Sydney because of
rising infection numbers. Although
Cricket Australia has stopped shortof introducing biosecure bubbles
in the wake of their captain, Pat
Cummins, having to miss this Test
after being a close contact of a
positive case, players from both
sides will be banned from mixing in
crowded public places, will not be
able to go for haircuts and can only
eat outside restaurants in groups of
four.
They will also not be allowed to
see extended family or friends
indoors without undergoing
testing first and have been told not
to sign autographs or have selfies
with fans in the stadiums.SCOREBOARD
Second Test
Australia v England
Adelaide (third day of five): Australia,
with nine second-innings wickets in
hand, are 282 runs ahead of England
Australia First Innings 473-9 dec
(M Labuschagne 103, D A Warner 95,
S P D Smith 93, A T Carey 51)
Second Innings
D A J Warner run out 13
M S Harris not out 21
M G Neser not out 2
Extras (lb 8, nb 1) 9
Total (1 wkt, 17 overs) 45Fall: 1-41.
Bowling: Anderson 4-3-2-0; Broad
3-0-9-0; Robinson 4-1-12-0; Woakes
4-2-13-0; Root 2-1-1-0.
England First Innings (overnight 17-2)
D J Malan c Smith b Starc 80
*J E Root c Smith b Green 62
B A Stokes b Green 34
O J D Pope c Labuschagne b Lyon 5
@J C Buttler c Warner b Starc 0
C R Woakes b Lyon 24
O E Robinson lbw b Lyon 0
S C J Broad c Head b Starc 9
J M Anderson not out 5
Extras (lb 6, nb 1) 7
Total (84.1 overs) 236
Fall: 1-7, 2-12, 3-150, 4-157, 5-164, 6-169,
7-202, 8-204, 9-220.
Bowling: Starc 16.1-6-37-4; Richardson
19-4-78-0; Neser 11-0-33-1; Lyon
28-11-58-3; Green 10-3-24-2.
Umpires P Wilson and R Tucker.
TV umpire P Reiffel. Reserve umpire
S Nogajski. Match referee D Boon.BUTTLER c WARNER b
STARC 169-6Pope got into a tangle against Lyon→Continued from page 1ON TV TODAY
Day four, Australia v England
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