Ashes 2011 (21 page)

Melbourne Cricket Ground
26–29 December 2010
England won by an innings and 157 runs

A little over a month ago, England would probably have settled for arriving at Boxing Day at one-all; a little over a week ago, Australia would certainly have been content with the same. Welcome to the Ashes of 2010-11, in which expectations are in a state of constant revision, and to the Fourth Test, where the balanced scenario may flush out a record Test crowd tomorrow on Boxing Day.

The last time cricket's oldest rivals met here four years ago, Australia had already regained the Ashes, and were incinerating England for the sake of it. Under mackerel skies, the Australian stars were Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Stuart Clark and Shane Warne, who claimed his 700th Test wicket. None form part of this team; only three of that XI do, and captain Ricky Ponting will be playing with a sore left pinky.

This summer's cricket has been more like 2009 redux: a series in which the rivals have taken turns royally stuffing one another, because neither is quite good enough to dominate throughout, and in which they have seemed incapable of parrying the other's attacking thrusts. Both teams this season have at times been reduced to near helplessness, Australia by Cook, Trott and Pietersen, England by Johnson, Hussey and Haddin; it has looked like a clash of first against tenth rather than fourth against fifth, albeit with the upper hand alternating.

For the Fourth Test, Australia may even repeat their gamble of last year, when after their conclusive victory at Headingley they took an unchanged side into the Oval, sans a specialist spinner – with, on that occasion, disastrous consequences, as its pacemen were ineffectual on a dry pitch that turned sharply on the last couple of days. 'The four quicks complemented each other well in Perth and they all played the role I wanted them to play,' Ponting mused aloud yesterday. 'So if they can do a similar job here, the England batsmen will find it difficult.'

But inside the giant crucible of the MCG, winds swirl; there will be no stiff easterly to help Johnson's inswing. Balls arriving throat high at Perth, too, tend from the same length to arrive at waist height in Melbourne, as the MCG's curator Cameron Hodgkins warned yesterday: 'I would think on the WACA's worst day they would still be faster and bouncier than anything we normally turn out. We're quite slow on the first day normally and it probably causes the most difficulty for batsmen who want to get on with it, so patience is normally a fairly key ingredient here.'

After his success in arguing for Johnson at Perth, it is likely that Ponting will get what he wants, balance or no. Yet if we have learned anything in these Ashes, it is that conditions count in cricket as perhaps in no other sport. Three Tests played with near-identical personnel could hardly have been more different. On Brisbane's slow pitch, stubborn batsmen became almost immovable; on Adelaide's flat wicket, swing and finally spin prevailed; on Perth's bouncy tarmac, pace obtained its reward, although it was bowlers of fuller lengths who did best as batsmen were pushed back on their stumps. Batting might be hardest of all in Melbourne on the first day, and the captain winning the toss will be tempted to insert.

For their part, England are also making noises of resistance to change. Strauss insisted yesterday that Ian Bell would remain grooved at number six, even as the batsman himself was brooding on a record without an Ashes hundred for sixteen appearances: 'I'm happy with the way I'm playing but I want an Ashes hundred, and a few of them to be honest.' He won't get them in the company of the tail, and England's tail in Perth especially, which didn't so much wag as writhe in agony.