Aussie batsmen face test of character as England applies Ashes pressure

AUSTRALIA'S Test cricketers used to be the masters of mental disintegration. The next two days will establish whether they have  become its slaves.

Australians flounder

AUSTRALIA'S Test cricketers used to be the masters of mental disintegration. The next two days at Lord's will establish whether they have now become its slaves.

It seems not that long ago that Steve Waugh used to speak so cold-bloodedly about grinding opposing sides, England most especially, into the turf, first breaking them physically, then mentally so that eventually they lost their will to resist.

Yesterday those same tactics were turned back on Australia as England slowly, oh so slowly, built on its first innings lead of 233 so that by stumps even fanciful talk of a world record run chase sold short how dire the situation has become for Australia. The greatest, successful run chase of all time was the West Indies’ 418 against Australia in St John’s, Antigua, in 2003. Already the England lead is a crushing 566 and indications are Alastair Cook will bat on tomorrow, not because he is the sentimental type and wants to see his opening partner Joe Root score the 22 runs he needs for his maiden Test double century, but because he doesn’t believe either the Australians or the Lord’s wicket has quite been baked long enough. Another hour or so, he hopes, and both will start to crack.

Peter Siddle isn’t entirely sure whether the wicket will hold together, especially on day five, but he is adamant that the Australians won’t fall apart, won’t drop their bundle.

“However long we’ve got to bat for, that’s what it’s got to be, that’s what we’ve got to do,” Siddle said. “We all have to be accountable. We have to stand up for the rest of the match and try to take something out of it. There is still a lot at stake.”

Even coming from a man who conclusively demonstrated from the way he has bowled in this match that he never, ever accepts defeat, it seemed remotely believable, but then it would have to be said he gave encouragement to those Englishmen who feel Australia’s mental disintegration is already well advanced.

“If we play good, patient cricket out in the middle then I think we could draw this match or maybe even win it. You never know, it is only four and a half runs an over. It’s doable.”

Miracles should never be sneered at. If it weren’t for miracles sport would lose its magic. But for the moment, Australia’s cricketers need to take a good hard look at how England batted today and then take a good hard look at themselves.

In the first session, resuming at 3-31, Root and nightwatchman Tim Bresnan painstakingly put on 83 runs without loss. In the second session, as Australian captain Michael Clarke tried to turn the screws by setting defensive fields, England scored only 57 for the loss of only Bresnan’s wicket, caught at mid-wicket by Phil Hughes pulling a half-tracker from James Pattinson that he could have hit virtually anywhere.

The Australians should have had the new batsman Ian Bell on three, cleanly caught low down by Steve Smith in the gully off Ryan Harris.

Bell stood his ground, querying whether the catch had carried. Umpire Marais Erasmus, not wanting to make another blunder, referred the catch to the third umpire, New Zealander Tony Hill. Australian heads didn’t drop at any stage of the day while England was amassing 5-333 but they dropped now, knowing that television replays of low catches always complicate the situation. Sure enough, Hill decided it wasn’t conclusive and ruled in Bell’s favour. He went on to make another 71 runs.

“He (Smith) wasn't quite sure, so as anyone does, you leave it to the umpires.” Siddle said. “He wasn't 100 per cent sure so that's all he did. Went upstairs and obviously it's not out.”

Well, obviously it was but Australia is getting the worse of the appalling umpiring in this series and clearly doesn’t want to compound its problems by criticising anyone.

But, back to the scoring rates - 83 in the first two hours, 57 in hours three and four and 162 in the final two hours.

The mountain of late runs suggests that by now mental disintegration was well advanced. The fact that Clarke declined to take the second new ball and bowled rookie spinners Ashton Agar and Smith in tandem for the final 23 overs shouts at the very least of Australia abandoning all pretence of trying to win this Test to level the series.

“I think it was pretty obviously you've got a bloke in there on 150 (Root), you take the new ball and he can get the 200 very quickly,” Siddle explained. “It could go either way, we might have been able to get him out straight away but it might have been disaster on the other hand so I think it was just if we could have got a couple of quick wickets at the end with the old ball and then taken the new ball with a couple of new batters in it could have obviously been a little bit better for us. But we couldn't get those wickets.”

Runs might have come in a flood from the new ball but certainly the soft old ball didn’t slow England at all, with the all-spin overs conceding 123 runs at 5.3 per over.

Clarke the realist would have known that the game was gone, whether the victory target was 443 – which it was when Pattinson bowled the last over of pace for the day – or 560-plus. In those circumstances, why bowl his pacemen, particularly Siddle and Pattinson, who have played both Tests so far, into the ground? Besides, what better time to discover whether Agar and Smith can cut it as Test bowlers.

It didn’t seem to matter one whit to Root who bowled. In fact, so much in the zone was he that he said he never noticed whether Australia’s morale dropped over the course of the day. For the best part of eight hours he defied everything Australia could throw at him. Technically he hasn’t even given a chance, edging between keeper Brad Haddin and first slip Shane Watson late on day two without either of them reacting.

But of all the many stats about England’s batting that damn the spinelessness of the Australians the previous days perhaps this is the most pertinent: Root has faced 334 deliveries and is still there. Australia’s 10 batsmen combined only faced 321. So much for occupying the crease. So much for application.