Time to stop relying on lower-order rescues

THE last five wickets outscored the top five by 307 runs to 269.

Ed Cowan and James Anderson

IT'S all very well saving the best to last, as Australia twice did in the Trent Bridge Test where 10th wicket partnerships yielded 40 per cent of all its runs, but Darren Lehmann has declared it is time for the top order to take ownership of the batting.

Two enthralling last-wicket stands - Phil Hughes and Ashton Agar in the first innings, Brad Haddin and James Pattinson in the second - were responsible for 228 of the 576 runs Australia compiled and in the process propelled Michael Clarke's side to within 15 runs of a historic victory.

Overall the last five wickets outscored the top five by 307 runs to 269.

If that was merely a quirk of the Nottingham Test, it would be of no more than nominal significance, but the fact is the Australian cricket team has become utterly dependent on its lower order restoring some respectability to its batting.

Through the campaign in India in March, the top order was only marginally more productive than the lower half of the batting, by a margin of just 1395 runs to 1227 across the four Tests. Small wonder Australia lost the series 4-0.

Lower-order rescue missions might be exciting, never more so than when Agar cut loose in the first innings to score 98 on debut, but the repeated failures of the top order mean Australia rarely is able to dictate terms. Going into the Lord's Test starting on Thursday, already 1-0 down and needing to win at least two of the remaining four Tests if it is to regain the Ashes, the moment has arrived for Australia's recognised batsmen to get the team on to the front foot.

Indeed, Lehmann, the newly installed Australia coach, made it brutally clear he expects far more from them.

"I think if you look back on the game, we've certainly got to bat better as a top order," Lehmann said. "That's probably the key. We're going to bowl very well and we know we can control their batters. It's a matter of making more runs.

"We've got a lot of work to do, full stop. The thing for us is getting our batting right, our top order right and making runs. Our tail has done really well over a long period of time now but it's time for the batters to make sure they're making the runs and giving the tail a bit more time. I think we only batted for 63 overs in the first innings and 110 today. We've got to be reversing that about, batting for 120 overs plus in the first innings and making our runs then."

Regular opener Ed Cowan, whose feel for the history of the game is unmatched in the side, would have dreamed his whole career of batting at Lord's, cricket's spiritual home, but whether he now gets the chance to do so is problematic.

Batting at number three for the first time in a Test he was dismissed for a first-ball duck and 14 at Trent Bridge, both times surrendering his wicket with windy cover drives, and, without Usman Khawaja having done much on tour aside from his 73 against Somerset, the case is building for the talented left-hander to be given another chance in the Test arena.

If Cowan was left feeling vulnerable after the first Test, Lehmann certainly wasn't giving him much comfort to cling to yesterday. "He had a tough game," Lehmann said. "We'll sit down as a selection panel over the next couple of days and work out what we think is the best XI to play the next Test match and work from there. Like everyone, you've got to make runs.

"We've told Ed how we want him to play and how we want him to bat. That certainly hasn't changed from when he first came into the side. We picked him to do a role.

"He'll be disappointed with the shots. So are we. That's just part and parcel of what we're about. We're trying to learn and get better. I'm sure he'll get better at that as well."

That's a trait Lehmann expects the entire Australian side to take into the Lord's Test, which he predicted would be another epic Ashes encounter.

"I think they (Australia and England) are quite close, a lot closer than people give them credit for. So the key for us is to make sure we're playing better. I still don't think we performed (to) the level we want to perform at. If we do that then we'll be good enough. We're ready to push them each and every Test match and win some.

"We're going to keep punching, aren't we?" he said.

At this point Lehmann paused as it struck him - so to speak - that he might have chosen his words somewhat more carefully in light of David Warner's well-publicised nocturnal fisticuffs. "I do apologise for that. That slipped out."

Warner, meanwhile, will slip out of England early tomorrow morning to join the Australia A team in Harare, where he will make up for lost playing time following his suspension by turning out in a three-day match against Zimbabwe before travelling to Pretoria for a four-dayer against South Africa A.