Intensity of Australia exposes England’s lame tactics

Steve Smith’s bucket hands take care of English batter Dawid Malan

One of the most famous quotes in cricket came on this ground nearly 90 years ago, when Bill Woodfull chastised England’s Bodyline tactics by stating that there was only one team playing cricket out there. Given the marked contrast between Australia’s out-cricket in the middle session of play on the third day and England’s during the first two days, it is too tempting not to recall it.

Where England were aimless and lacking direction, Australia’s tactics were sharply defined; where England’s fielding was lacklustre, Australia were full of intensity; where Joe Root lacked options and variety in the attack, Steve Smith was spoilt for choice. The second session was a terrible one for England, but Australia were outstanding, squeezing and smothering in even the friendliest batting conditions.

The first session had belonged resoundingly to England, with Root and Dawid Malan combining impressively, as they had at the Gabba in the first Test. No wickets had fallen, the run-rate was a healthy 3.80 per over and both batsmen lunched happily with fifties to their name. The grisly events of the previous evening, when Australia’s tail had wagged merrily and England’s openers had fallen, faded from memory. This was a batting day, no excuses to be had.

When he was not out overnight at the Gabba, Malan had revealed a little of his inner self: “I’ve really missed this, someone trying to blow my head off, and the adrenaline going, playing against the best bowlers,” he said.

He sounded very much like a man who enjoyed being in the arena, striving valiantly, rather than with the cold and timid souls watching on.

So far, he is the only one to have given Root able support. It was a gorgeous afternoon; cloudless skies, the merest hint of a breeze, the patrons unresponsive and nothing in the pitch to cause concern. The ball, by lunch, was 41 overs old; conditions for batting were perfect. In this situation, based on the evidence of the first two days, it was not hard to imagine the lame tactics to which England would have resorted: bowling short and hoping for — but not expecting — mistakes.

Redoubling their efforts, Australia thought differently. They aimed for disciplined and focused bowling, to hit the pitch hard on a good length, to bring the batsmen forward without offering easy drives, all backed up by energetic fielding, giving the impression of a team who expected to take wickets. The basics done well, and a refusal to accept that the stand between Malan and Root, worth 138, was anything other than there to be broken.

The deadly combination — one that was not available to Root given the diet of right-arm medium pace — came between the left-arm quick, Mitchell Starc, and the off spinner, Nathan Lyon. Before that, Smith allowed Cameron Green to finish a spell started before lunch.

Green had dismissed Root at the Gabba and troubled him here with bounce and late movement away from the bat, and it was in the fifth over after lunch that Root nibbled at one and edged to slip, where Smith’s bucket hands did the rest.

Green gave way to Starc. The squeeze was on — reminiscent for an hour or more of the dread Test match in 2006, when Shane Warne mesmerised England to defeat. England’s batsmen, of course, do not have a left-arm fast bowler in the ranks to practise against, but Ant Botha, the assistant coach at Nottinghamshire, who throws a mean ball left-handed with the sidearm, is employed to do just that. Before play, Botha was in the nets putting, among others, Ollie Pope through his paces.

Having bowled nine wicketless overs in the morning for 28 runs from the river end, Lyon switched to the cathedral end after lunch, and began a beautiful spell (15-9-17-1) that would take him unchanged through the session. He had something to work with — the odd ball spun quite sharply — but mainly it was the bounce, encouraged from the height from which he delivers and the overspin he puts on the ball, that was his chief weapon. His fielders had energy where England’s had none.

Lyon bowled maiden after maiden, nine in all. Starc’s spell was equally mean (7-2-12-2). After Malan cut to slip, it was Pope’s turn to wriggle in Lyon’s web. Pope had played a poor shot against the off spinner at the Gabba, attempting to cut a ball too close to his body, and Smith crowded the bat when he came in. Pope faced nine balls from Lyon and was given out to two of them — overturning one on review. His downfall came when he skipped down the pitch and, attempting to turn the ball into the leg side, turned it only as far as Marnus Labuschagne at short leg. A frenetic end to a frenetic innings.

It is said of a good team that an observer should be able to recognise how that team is trying to get a wicket. When Jos Buttler faced Starc, it was obvious: from a full length on the angle and with two slips, a fine gully and a short extra cover waiting, an edge from a drive was the aim, and Buttler duly obliged. When David Warner took the catch, it was Australia’s 24th of the series without error. England, at a conservative estimate, have dropped at least eight.

England had lost four wickets for 19 runs in 16 overs, on the best batting pitch imaginable. A first session that produced 123 for none gave way to a second session of 57 for four. Australia’s out-cricket had been sharp and hungry; their bowling disciplined and imaginative. What a contrast to England. One team playing good cricket; the other not.