Ashes 2011 (11 page)

Early losses are one thing; self-inflicted wounds another. Katich's was the sort of death by misadventure that rocks a dressing room, still to seat itself comfortably, still to obtain the day's first cups of tea or sports drinks, maybe still straining to detect early movement on television. Passing a batsman yet to face a ball was certainly not the manner in which Ponting would have imagined batting in his 150th Test.

In the recent stages of his career, Ponting has sometimes looked overanxious to make early contact with the ball. The South Africans two years ago worked on the theory that the right avenue to Ponting in his first half-dozen deliveries was just outside his eyeline, where his tendency was to push with hard hands: they had him caught in the cordon first ball at Perth and Sydney. Ponting's first ball from Anderson was even better, tight on off stump, compelling a stroke and eliciting an edge. Both captains on winning the toss this series have now been out within five minutes of the start.

Over the last couple of days, Michael Clarke has been a model of fastidious professionalism, undertaking lengthy net sessions, tiring out arms with his avidity for throwdowns, talking about his technique in a press conference, generally announcing himself ready for a big one. Last out of the practice area yesterday, he chirpily thanked the net bowlers whom he'd politely enslaved. His hundred here was instrumental in Australia's Ashes triumph four years ago and he has added two more since.

Again, though, Anderson found close to the ideal length, Clarke rather sauntered into his drive, and Swann collected a second catch. To think that there had been so much learned debate before the series about Anderson's ability to swing the Kookaburra: here he was making it laugh. His bowling coach David Saker has described him as a potential challenger to Dale Steyn as the world's number one quick bowler. On the evidence of today, he might soon be more than a challenger.

The match was ten minutes old, and three batsmen with a total average at Adelaide of 234 had been removed. Two for three was the worst start to a Test by Australia against anybody. The Adelaide Oval's defiantly analogue 1912 scoreboard was somehow apposite for the scoreline: this was no time for a noisy advertisement or a pop video. It brought to mind the famous photograph of Australia's second-innings nought for three at the Gabba sixty years ago. That, though, was in the middle of a match on a mudheap; here we were on the first morning of a Test on reputedly Australia's most benign cricket surface; here the Australian contingent on the hill cheered the first boundary as though Mafeking had been relieved.

Australia would have been 12 for four had Anderson held a return catch low to his left when Hussey (3) chipped one back. But it was blindingly hot, Broad and Finn struggled with their lengths, and Hussey and Watson put the pitch in truer perspective by scoring with impressive fluency, even panache; indeed, with the bowlers pitching up in search of swing, and fields configured to attack, there were ample scoring opportunities.

Hussey looked at his compact, industrious best, turning the strike over busily, while Watson drove five boundaries in his first 30 with that confident two-stage front-foot stride, then sent Australia to lunch in good heart by pulling Finn off the front foot for four to reach his half-century. But, as here last year, he drove carelessly at Anderson soon after resuming, a shot as arrogant and foolhardy as lighting a cigar with a $100 note, and Australia were almost back where they started. For although Hussey was by now deeply entrenched, his state colleague North is taking baby steps towards form. The run rate dwindled, as Swann was treated with caution and Anderson with downright suspicion; the wicket fell, as it sometimes does, to the bowler least fancied, Finn, who drew from North a shot without a name, a poke very nearly an afterthought, followed instantly by a pang of regret.

As at the Gabba, Hussey looked to Haddin to help him pick up the pieces. There were now rather too many. Hussey used his feet vivaciously to Swann, but fell after five hours' hard graft, and Haddin provided some delectable shots, then was perplexed how to operate in the company of Australia's elongated tail – Johnson's batting, or at least the promise of it, had provided some lower-order ballast. Haddin reached a fluent fifty by hoisting Anderson over fine leg but was bounced out soon after by Broad.

Late in the day, Xavier Doherty drove Anderson through the covers on the up for four. Nice shot for Doherty, but not a bad indication for England: if Doherty is confident enough to have such a dart, then there is nothing much amiss with this pitch. Australians will need a lot to go right for the general national sporting outlook to improve in the next week.

Adelaide is burdened with a reputation – unfortunate, unfair but also kind of fun – as the serial-killer capital of Australia, the 'City of Churches' doubling as the 'City of Corpses'. Bowlers would probably agree. The average first innings of the last fifteen Tests here is a bloodstained 517; four sadistic double hundreds have been committed since 2003.

Which doesn't mean it is impossible to claim twenty wickets. But it does mean you must seize every opportunity, lest batsmen dash you against its short square boundaries, and cook you in its enervating heat. England's accomplishment today was not necessarily to generate more wicket opportunities than usual, but to accept all but one very difficult chance, and between times to keep the game fantastically tight.

The first thirteen deliveries of the Second Test, as will long be remembered, especially by those who arrived a little late, presented three chances: a run-out and two nicks to second slip. Most England sides in Australia in my lifetime would have missed one at least; a few would have missed the lot, and spent the rest of the day kicking the ground, cursing the gods and mentally preparing excuses for their ghosted columns. Today you could call to mind that worn-out word of modern coaching, 'execution', because it could also be applied in a colloquial sense. Katich, Ponting and Clarke could not have been despatched more peremptorily had they been lined up against a wall and shot.

As the day unfolded, England were hardly less impressive in the field. Chases were full tilt. Diving saves were routine. Bell, despite glasses that look less suitable for fielding than for watching
Avatar
in 3D, made one electric interception at point; even Finn threw himself around, looking like a frisky antelope.

There was some sloppiness in Brisbane, Anderson's drop in the first innings and Pietersen's all-too-casual four overthrows in the second innings the most heinous lapses. Today, both were on top of their form. When Strauss called Anderson in from deep backward square leg to a close-to-the-wicket on the on side, he fairly sprinted in, despite the heat, despite his overs. Pietersen also took a smart catch, only his fifth against Australia, and used his huge reach at gully effectively.

Shane Watson endured through the early chaos. Sometimes against Swann he was stretching so far forward as to touch the knee roll of his right pad on the ground, as though he was proposing marriage, or maybe genuflecting to Warnie. As Swann approached, too, Watson looked to be shuffling his feet in the crease, as if to disrupt the spinner's length; he undertook this challenge still more decisively ten minutes from lunch when he slog-swept in the direction of the statue of Adelaide's founder, Colonel Light, atop the hill overlooking the ground. It testified to the power of modern bats that Watson imparted the force of a flail without significant wind-up or follow-through. But England were ready for Watson, posting two gullies in anticipation of his hard hands and poor concentration around breaks.

Again, the go-to guy Hussey was gone-to. His shouldering arms no longer sends a tremor down Australian spines, as it did in England last year, and his defensive bat now seems to descend in ample time, and almost to be waiting for the ball. As at his zenith, he is acquiring busily, advancing a few paces with every nudge and nurdle, as though a single is his default setting. Shortly before tea, he worked Finn to leg and set off at such a gallop that he almost lapped his partner in completing three.

Yet England's bowlers, commendably full, made Hussey work for every run. Adelaide's boundaries beckoned, shaved still further by a boundary rope for the sake of additional advertising, but there was little on offer to cut or pull. Having made the pull shot his signature in Brisbane, Hussey played it today just once, for a single off Finn.

It is in the final sessions of hot days in Australia that attentions often stray and fielding teams unravel. England remained on the qui vive. Collingwood had stood at slip to Swann for twenty-six overs when he finally received a nick from Hussey; he caught it. Strauss was at short mid-wicket for the low-flying catch when he sprawled to make a save, and took advantage of Doherty's double hesitation to run him out from the prone position; short-leg Cook rugby-passed the return to Prior even though he had his back turned on the runners.

The Australia of old made a leitmotif of such quicksilver routines. The Australia of new dropped five catches in England's second innings in Brisbane, and it is England that are becoming the streamlined and efficient unit, performing their tasks not just well but easily, as if it were second nature. Despite the city's reputation, this bore no resemblance to the work of a serial killer. It was, instead, that of the most clinical and cold-blooded assassin.

First, some background. Four years ago, England dominated the first two days of the Adelaide Test. Two batsmen made fat hundreds. McGrath and Warne took a solitary wicket between them. The Barmy Army swooned with admiration. Three days later, England lost – worse, they were disgraced.

OK, although it will never be entirely unnecessary where England are concerned, that's the cricket-is-a-funny-game stuff out of the way. England are as far ahead in this Second Test as it is almost possible for a team to be after two days, and Australia will have the devil's own job avoiding defeat – there is, of course, no Warne and McGrath now, nor miracle-working Langer, Hayden and Gilchrist either.

Alastair Cook played in that game four years ago. He made 27 and 9, part of a decidedly modest series for him and rather a lot of his mates. He has so far been on the field for all but sixty-six minutes of this series, faced 842 balls, made 438 runs and been dismissed once – on 25 November, for the record, which if things go on this way might almost be declared a national holiday.

The Cook of today is no more obtrusive than four years ago. He plays plainly, almost politely, refraining from such impertinences as reverse sweeps, ramps and dilscoops, and with a straighter bat than a Foreign Office spokesman. He moved to 47 with three boundaries in four deliveries from Bollinger. He went to 78 by cutting three consecutive boundaries from Doherty, and proceeded to his century with a wristy slash for four from the same bowler. Otherwise he ticks over at one steady, solid, soothing pace – and just doesn't get out.

Actually, he
was
given out today, at 64, by Ray Erasmus, having taken his eye off a Siddle bouncer that had grazed his arm. He sought the referral instantly, even assertively, using the bat as the upright of the 'T' symbol. 'Out? Ump? Come, come. I don't think so. Very well, we shall have to sort this out.' Third umpire Bill Doctrove promptly did so. Cook continued – as, in roasting temperatures, did the cooking.

The first few minutes of the day were almost as eventful as yesterday's, with both captains guilty of misjudgements – small but significant. Just as his rival late in his career has developed the tic of going searching for the ball early, Strauss has become a little cute about letting the ball go, wafting his bat over the ball like a matador caping a bull. It cost him at Lord's last year, when he let the second ball of the second day clip off, and did again today, when he allowed the third ball of the day from Bollinger clear passage, only for it to snip the off bail.

Because it is necessarily exploratory, opening the batting is full of such infinitesimal judgements. Strauss could even claim that his non-shot selection was vindicated by Hawk-Eye, which mysteriously pronounced that the delivery would barely have grazed the target. But leaving on length – as Strauss also did to the first ball of the second innings in Brisbane – is frankly better left until a proper evaluation of bounce is made, particularly when one is unfamiliar with the bowler, as Strauss is with Bollinger. England's captain has missed few tricks in this game, but this was one.

Australia's captain may have missed one soon after, when Trott (6) set off skittishly after thick-edging to square leg, the same environs he had been patrolling yesterday when Watson called Katich through fatally. This time the outcome was different. Cook turned his partner sternly back, and the fielder at mid-wicket was a left-hander, Doherty, who had to run around the ball before collecting it, and whose unavoidably hurried throw missed the stumps. When the ball is new and hard, and the ball is likelier to travel square than straight, mid-wicket should really be right-handed: Trott the fielder would have comfortably run out Trott the batsman.

The morning's other opportunity was not a matter of inches, or even of feet, but of hands, Hussey's, whose failed to close around a thick edge at gully offered by Trott (10) from Bollinger; his legs closed too late to prevent two runs being taken too. Beaten by the ball's slight arc? Defeated by sweaty palms? Whatever the case, Hussey, never po-faced, looked up like he'd seen a ghost. Had Johnson grassed it, he would have been placed on suicide watch.

England would have been, and should have been, 21 for two, with the mercurial Pietersen to follow. As it was, one could feel the hiss of the pressure drop. As numbers two and three at Brisbane, Cook and Trott looked prepared to bat for a week had not Strauss declared. They suggested similar permanence here, and have now added 543 runs for the second wicket from 874 deliveries in the series for twice out.