Bad light saves Michael Clarke from 4-0 Ashes loss

WHAT a waste of one of the most extraordinary days of cricket in the history of the Ashes!

Ryan Harris

WHAT a waste of one of the most extraordinary days of cricket in the history of the Ashes!

On a day when Australia and England combined to score more runs than in any other day in Ashes history, 429 for the loss of 17 wickets, the fifth and final Test lamely was abandoned because of bad light with England poised to make history by winning the series 4-0.

With still four overs to be bowled, England, chasing 227 for victory, had just lost its fifth wicket at 206 when umpires Aleem Dar and Kumar Dhaermasena pulled out their light meters and determined that conditions no longer were fit to play.

Audacious captaincy by Michael Clarke to risk defeat in a bid for an extraordinary victory had brought a comatose match back to life but, with his bold bid to salvage a victory from the summer fading faster than the light, he was happy to lead his side from the field.

The near-capacity crowd launched in a jeering chant of “Same old Aussies, always cheating”, completely neglecting that England had done its absolute best to kill off this match over the previous three days on which play was possible and that it was only the Australians who had kept it alive.

After the entire fourth day’s play was lost to rain, this Test looked destined to fizzle to the most doleful of draws if Australia wasn’t able to wrap up England’s last six wickets for less than 46 runs when the match finally resumed this morning.

As it happened, the task was beyond the Australian bowlers as England pushed past the 293 target to avoid the follow-on for the loss of only Chris Woakes’ wicket only to lose its last five wickets for 78 to be all out for 377.

Debutant all-rounder James Faulkner had started the day without a Test wicket to his credit but he finished with four, for 51, and in the process presented Brad Haddin with two catches to enable him to equal Rod Marsh’s world wicketkeeping record for a five-Test series of 28 dismissals.

Australia’s lead of 115, while respectable, looked too modest for Clarke to get adventurous with, but the Australian captain has always had a gambler’s instinct in situations like this and with his side already 0-3 down but in danger of becoming the first Australian team ever to lose an Ashes series 4-0, he decided to roll the dice.

The England players would have seen Shane Watson and Dave Warner walk through the gate to open the second innings and realised something was afoot. Watson batted at No 3 in the first innings and scored a masterly 176 but his promotion to opener sent a clear signal to England that they were in for a helter-skelter session.

So it proved as Warner cracked the first ball of the innings from James Anderson through the covers for four. The England bowlers instantly rose to the challenge and for the next 23 overs until tea, the fortunes of the battle between bat and ball ebbed and flowed.

Warner fell for 12, brilliantly caught and bowled by Anderson for 12; Watson plundered 26 off 32 before his attempt to hit Graeme Swann out of the ground held up in the wind to allow Kevin Pietersen to get under the catch. Faulkner, the man with the hot hand with the ball, was sent in at No.3 to see if the same applied with the bat. It did. He scored a run a ball 22 before stepping away to leg and late-cutting Stuart Broad into the gloves of Matt Prior, a fate that was also to befall Haddin off the first ball he faced – and almost certainly the last he will ever face in England.

Steve Smith, another first innings century-maker, attempted to emulate his method of bringing up the ton three days earlier when he tried to smash Broad for six, only to hole out to Swann on the long-on boundary.

Ryan Harris came out and immediately put his excellent tailender’s series average of 24.5 on the line by unfortunately swinging across it and was bowled for one but even at 6-85 the Australians still kept swinging, with Clarke (28 off 28) and Mitchell Starc (13 off 13) pushing the total up to 6-111 at tea.

At that point Clarke declared, setting England the more than generous task of scoring 227 off 44 overs, a run rate of only 5.15 per over.

All eyes were on England captain Alastair Cook as he opened the innings with Joe Root. It would be Cook, who has come under fire throughout this series for his negative captaincy, who would determine the fate of this Test match but the initial signs were promising as he and Root put 18 off the first four overs.

But with the fifth ball of the fifth over, Harris struck, having Root caught behind for 11 off 17 balls as England faltered at 1-22. And in all the excitement it almost escaped attention that Haddin had just claimed the world wicketkeeping series record in his own right.

Marsh couldn’t have been happier to surrender his record. “I’m delighted for Brad,” Marsh said. “I just wish he had have broken it by plenty more which probably would have meant we also won the series.”

Cook continued to play the sheet anchor role, scoring 34 from 53, before he crossed too far in front of his stumps and was trapped lbw. That wasn’t necessarily the best result for Australia because it brought Pietersen to the wicket and for the next hour the Australians were in damage control before Harris, who curiously was kept out of the attack until only 10 overs remained, came back on and instantly had his man, with Pietersen not quite getting hold of a lofted on-drive and landing the catch in the hands of a sprinting Warner.

From 3-163, England slid to 4-170 when Trott followed his captain’s example, shuffled across his crease and was given out lbw for 59. Not surprisingly, he reviewed the decision only for Hawkeye to confirm his dismissal.

Woakes and England’s Man of the Series Ian Bell methodically worked their way into a position of requiring less than a run a ball, but with victory in sight, Bell straight drove Starc, so straight in fact that the ball ended back into the hands of the bowler, who pivoted and in one motion threw down the stumps as the batsman desperately tried to backtrack.

Even as he was trudging off, to be replaced by Matt Prior, the light meters were coming out and one of the most eventful days of Ashes cricket in history was about to come to a controversial end.

The Australians might have averted a 4-0 series defeat but even at 3-0, Clarke’s side looked to have been on the receiving end of an overwhelming defeat. The actual cricket was much closer than those numbers indicate but if Australia is to win back the Ashes on their home soil next summer, they will have to learn to win the big moments. They won a few of them today, but not enough.