Too little too late as England refuse to fold

As deserving of a team that coughed up the Ashes in three consecutive Tests while offering only the occasional yelp, England’s suggestions that Australia relies too heavily on a few key players for its success was met with scorn and, on occasions, outright derision.

Sir Ian Botham’s pre-series assertion that, with the exception of skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner, Australia’s top-order batting was as ropey as he could remember forced a very public backdown after England’s bowlers were pasted to all parts of the Gabba, Adelaide Oval and WACA Ground.

Then, with the urn lost and talk of another 0-5 drubbing gathering speed, the man who overtook Botham as England’s greatest Test bowler – James Anderson – dared to suggest Australia’s bowling depth didn’t extend far beyond incumbent trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Patrick Cummins.

A claim that Smith promptly labelled as “rubbish” and led Starc, taking up the role of verbal attack leader when he was ruled out of the fourth Magellan Ashes Test with a bruised heel, to respond by declaring his replacement (Jackson Bird) was quicker than any member of the visitors’ pace attack.

And then goaded Bird to “stick it up them” to prove a point that even England skipper Joe Root indicated might have been made a little more succinctly, if not diplomatically by his famously combative seam bowler.

But in the wake of England’s most competitive day of a series that threatened to freefall into the same tailspin of the 2006-07 and 2013-14 whitewashes, there is perhaps a kernel of prescience in some of those suggestions despite Australia’s thumping wins in the first three Tests.

That’s because England were able to claw their way back into this dead-rubber Test match on the back of a couple of incidental events that loosely subscribe to the basic theory proposed by Botham, Anderson and others.

Even if they did overstate their case, and it remains a difficult one so sustain with a series scoreline that currently reads 3-0 in the home team’s favour and England far from assured a face-saving win in an evenly poised Test that resumes at the MCG tomorrow.

The first suggestion that Australia’s batting can be a touch vulnerable once Smith and (in the wake of his first Test century of the summer yesterday) Warner have been excised came this morning when the hosts collapsed to surrender 7-82 in the space of 30 overs.

On an MCG pitch that offered nothing in the way of conventional swing, seam movement or spin, it was the old ghost of reverse swing – against which Australian teams have succumbed at home and away over decades past – that did the trick along with the sluggish MCG surface.

Without Smith to buttress the bottom half of the innings, after his was the first wicket to fall on the second morning, the middle-order brittleness that has been a cause for concern since the skipper’s appointment in 2015 once more bubbled to the surface.

The absence of Starc and the onset of illness that affected Pat Cummins – promoted to number eight in the batting order – exposed a lengthy tail that in the past has prided itself on being able to collectively add 100 runs or thereabouts to the team total.

But which today contributed just 13 for the final four wickets.

“We missed out a bit in our first innings, especially the tail-end,” Australia spinner and number 11 batter Nathan Lyon acknowledged after play this evening.

“We pride ourselves on our batting and we let the team down today as a batting group and we’ll be better for that experience.”

This morning’s collapse restricted Australia’s first innings to 327 on a pitch that England seamer Stuart Broad claimed par score was more likely “450 to 500” and, in the process, gave the previously overwhelmed tourists a hint of how to get back into the match.

Provided they could produce the sort of first innings that had thus far in the series proved beyond them, which is where the second part of those bold prophecies began to take vague shape.

With Starc, Australia’s leading wicket-taker and foremost strike bowler, missing from action and Cummins so unwell that he was unable to produce top pace and spent the tea break asleep to try and find energy that had been sapped by his undisclosed illness, England’s top-order thrived.

Well, not so much opener Mark Stoneman who bunted back a sharp return catch that took some brilliance from Lyon to snare, or number three James Vince whose lbw dismissal would likely have been overturned had he called for a review given the technology detected the slightest inside edge before ball struck pad.

But with their foes’ firepower reduced and the fit members of the pace battery – Bird and Josh Hazlewood – hamstrung by the lack of meaningful assistance from the Melbourne pitch, England’s two best batters belatedly stood tall.

Most conspicuously Alastair Cook who defied the conditions that were supposed to make strokeplay problematic to post his most fluent Ashes century (from 165 balls faced) with only occasional suggestions of reverse swing from Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh to cause him worry.

England can’t salvage the series, the Ashes are gone and even sneaking a consolation win in this Test will likely require them to bat all day tomorrow and then once again find a path through Australia’s batting, a tough ask without the aid of a potent spinner.

However, confidence is suddenly matching the rhetoric.

“We’re in a fantastic position in this Test match, two down (for 192) on a pitch where you would probably think that days two and three would be the best to bat potentially,” Broad said after play, in assessing the current state of the match.

“But we know that Australia will hit back hard tomorrow morning – that’s something we did as a bowling unit this morning.

“It will take a lot of skill to bat big, but that’s our way of going forward in this Test match is to go and get a lead.

“Because a bowling unit’s biggest attribute on this pitch is going to be scoreboard pressure and reverse swing.”

They are likely to feature as components of the revised day three bowling plans that Lyon foreshadowed will be required by Australia to wrest back the initiative England have seized, and to stymy (or minimise) the tourists’ hopes of taking a lead.

Given that Australia remains 135 runs ahead and there’s hope that Cummins will respond to overnight treatment and add an extra dimension to Australia’s attack come the morning, reverse swing and scoreboard pressure might yet prove to be weapons that work in the hosts’ favour.

But England have at least shown a refusal to roll over and given some credence to the bold prophecies they made about areas where they might exploit Australia.

Even if they have been revealed three Tests and one small terracotta urn too late.

Australia XI: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird.

England XI: Joe Root (c), Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

2017-18 International Fixtures

Magellan Ashes Series

Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird.

England Test squad: Joe Root (c), James Anderson (vc), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Mason Crane, Tom Curran, Ben Foakes, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Chris Woakes.

First Test Australia won by 10 wickets. Scorecard

Second Test Australia won by 120 runs (Day-Night). Scorecard

Third Test Australia won by an innings and 41 runs. Scorecard

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Tickets

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Tickets

Gillette ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14. Tickets

Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Tickets

Third ODI SCG, January 21. Tickets

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Tickets

Fifth ODI Perth Stadium, January 28. Tickets

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Tickets

Gillette T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Tickets

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Tickets

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Tickets

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21