Ashes fifth Test: Seven balls make it Australia’s day

In the space of seven balls, England lost their captain, their wicketkeeper and an opening-day advantage.

England captain Joe Root drops to his haunches after losing his wicket very late on the opening day of the fifth Test at the SCG. Picture: Getty Images

Seven balls. The last seven balls. That was all it took for England to lose their captain, their wicketkeeper and the hard-grafted advantage they carved out on the first day at the SCG.

It was just one day in the life of Joe Root, but there have been 20 almost exactly the same and there’s at least four more to come before they are freed from the torturous colonial gulag.

A Test match was clearing its throat as stumps approached. Sure the words had got stuck there for a trio of openers, but with moments left England were on their way to making life very difficult for the Australians at the SCG.

Root’s time was at hand. The England captain said earlier he had watched Steve Smith set the example, leading his side from the front and going on to big scores.

Root pushed on past 50, as he had in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. He had a comfortable looking Dawid Malan at the other end and the visitors were three down as the score passed 200.

Then, as it did on all those previous occasions, it came undone. Australia took the new ball with a few overs left to bowl in the day. Mitchell Starc, who had been cramping in the last overs with the old one, took a pill and summoned his last reserves.

His third delivery was full and shaping down leg, somehow Root conspired to flick it into the waiting hands of Mitchell Marsh at square leg. The captain was out for 83. He bent down at the crease in despair, Starc grinned towards his teammates.

Root had failed to convert a half-century, as he often does. It is the difference between him and Smith and — as he said on the eve of the game — the difference between the two sides.

Seven deliveries later Jonny Bairstow was out, caught chasing a moving delivery from Josh Hazlewood. Closing out the day was a tough ask for the middle-order batsman and in hindsight it was a mistake not to send in a nightwatchman.

England said later that Mason Crane, the young legspinner had been padded up, but Bairstow decided he could handle the heat.

That was the last delivery of the day. England were 5-233 after being 3-228. A day that could have ended so well ended miserably.

“The position we were in before the last two overs we would have been aiming for 450 or 400 at least,” Malan said after play, adding that they could still make a significant score.

The tail now must face Australia with the ball new and the odds against them. Malan is 55 not out and has the potential to shape a more solid fist of his visit down under.

“I have really enjoyed batting out here, I have enjoyed the battles with the Aussies, they come really hard and they are a fantastic bowling team, I have really enjoyed that, really enjoyed the whole Aussie culture and crowd,” he said.

Signs of a pulse after cricket’s near-death experience at the MCG were detected, but for some in the England side it would seem the end of the tour will bring with it a judgment day of sorts.

Winless in the series, England had hopes of salvaging something after winning the toss and opting to bat, but the top-three batsmen all managed to throw away their wicket after making starts.

It may be some reflection on the state of the contest, but the wicket in Melbourne became the big story of the match (Alastair Cook may quibble that his double century was a significant part of the narrative) and so it was that all eyes were on the SCG deck. For the first hours of the morning it was covered against the early rain, and when the groundstaff finally revealed it to the packed house a round of applause rang our around the ground. Nobody will ever know if they were applauding the sight of a strip with a hint of grass and life or the fact the game was about to get underway.

The wicket displayed surprising bounce from the start, which will encourage bowlers left bereft from their exposure to the MCG wicket.

Batsmen, too, were liberated to find shotmaking possible. Opener Mark Stoneman pinned his ears back and pounced on anything in his postcode. He was in his 20s before Alastair Cook had cleared the sleep from his eyes, going at a run a ball when for reasons known only to him he pushed at a back-of -a-length ball from Pat Cummins and edged it through to the keeper.

It was a soft dismissal. Stoneman has shown positive glimpses this series, a pair of 50s suggests that he has something, but it may not be temperament. It is only his eighth Test and England have been through an obscene number of openers in recent times, so may well stick with him for their next series in New Zealand.

Enter James Vince, a man who burned brightly for a while, driving Starc through cover, cutting with a mixture of control and abandonment through and over the slips before the inevitable. If the game doesn’t get him — he’s been done by some good balls and none better than the unplayable delivery from Starc in Perth — he takes care of himself. He too has a pair of 50s from this series, but there is a sense of inevitability about his coming and going that suggests he will be doing more going than coming unless he finds something soon.

He was brougth undone when he slashed at a wide ball and nicked it through to Paine off a delivery that seemed as soft and as lacking in sense as Stoneman’s fall. Vince is playing his 12th Test, he has an average in the low 20s and may have one innings to save his place in the side.

Cook was trapped in front by Hazlewood for 39 after facing 104 balls.