Malcolm Conn
AUSTRALIA has been strangled by a disciplined England.
And the Test team faces an uncertain future as its leaders fail to lead from the front and the next generation fails to adapt.
With all hope of regaining the Ashes quickly evaporating following a disastrous opening day of the fourth Test in Melbourne, mediocrity threatens to become the norm.
Suffering stage fright on the biggest day of the cricketing calendar, Australia succumbed to a challenging pitch and collective ineptitude in front of 84,345 largely stunned cricket followers, crumbling for just 98. England went to stumps completely in control at 0-157 in reply, already a lead of 59.
England captain Andrew Strauss (64 not out) and prolific partner Alastair Cook (80 not out) further embarrassed the Australians. Considered England’s weak link at the start of the series, Cook now has 575 runs at 144 in this series with seemingly more to come today.
Australia must win the series to regain the Ashes, but looks set to go 2-1 down in Melbourne with only the New Year’s Test in Sydney remaining.
The bowlers papered over the cracks with a stirring third Test victory in Perth a week or so ago to level the series, but those cracks are now gaping canyons.
Ricky Ponting, 36, may have received a belter of a ball that lifted and left him to be caught at second slip for 10, but the bottom line is he failed again and is averaging 15.5 for the series.
Michael Clarke may have top-scored but he made just 20 and, like too many of his teammates, went to an airy shot outside off-stump. His move up to number four continues to be a failure.
“Obviously our shot selection wasn’t great, no doubt,” Clarke said. “All of our wickets were caught behind the wicket so there was enough in the wicket there but we certainly had no excuses, we played some poor shots.
“We obviously didn’t show enough discipline because as we’ve seen the sun’s come out and it’s a really nice wicket to bat on now.”
The ugliest piece of history confronts Ponting the captain. He looks set to become just the second Australian skipper and first in well over a century to lose three series against England. No runs and no Ashes would be a troubling combination which in normal circumstances would threaten his career, but there appears to be no one capable of walking in his shoes. If Clarke can’t make runs at number four, he won’t at number three.
The two newcomers, Phil Hughes and Steve Smith, look out of their depth and Hughes has much work to do if he is to become a permanent Test opener.
Hughes is temporary at the moment in every sense.
However Australia must persist with Smith, a raw if special talent. Even more so if the Ashes are lost.
Flat track bullies abound in Australia.
No one is prepared to make the ugly hundred, to tough out the inevitably difficult early sessions. Hughes (16), Clarke, Smith (6) and Brad Haddin (5), all went to injudicious shots outside the off stump.
A first-day wicket should always offer bowlers something, and so it did. But only Shane Watson (5), Ponting and Mike Hussey (8) can take any solace from that.
And Watson was on his third life, having been dropped twice before he had scored.
Jimmy Anderson was the pick of England’s bowlers in ideal conditions for his swing and seam, claiming 4-44.
“I thought it was brilliant bowling,” Anderson said of Australia’s capitulation. “Throughout the series I thought we’ve bowled really well. We’ve beaten the bat quite a lot, had lbws turned down and created chances. Today, all those bits of luck came together and we got the nicks we’ve missed in the past.”
Anderson claimed he could not remember a better day of Test cricket. “In an Ashes series to bowl out Australia for less than a hundred and then be 150 for nought at the end of the first day, it’s just unheard-of really.”
This was Australia’s fourth successive first innings collapse following 5-143 in Brisbane, 3-2 in Adelaide and 5-69 in Perth. Hussey and Haddin saved the side in Brisbane and Perth and tried in Adelaide but a fourth rescue mission was beyond them. Neither the wicket nor the bowling was unplayable. England simply bowled tight lines and waited for something to happen. England choked the Australians, who increasingly thrashed about gasping for air.
For all the footage all the coaches show at all the team meetings and one-on-one sessions, drag out some of Mark Taylor playing Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis) or Steve Waugh playing the West Indies in the second half of his career.
It doesn’t matter how you look, it’s what you score and once again there were too many soft dismissals yesterday.
Figures tell the depth of the ineptitude. Only once in 103 Tests at the MCG has Australia managed less, making just 83 against India when the ball rolled along the ground during the last innings of a series in 1980-81.
Never against England has Australia batted so badly in Melbourne. Its previous worst was 104. That was the second innings of its first Test, when Australia went on to win by 45 runs.
At least in those more leisurely times, playing in worse conditions, Australia found someone who could hang around. Charles Bannerman batted for almost five hours, scoring 165 (retired hurt) to set up that famous first victory. There was no such stoicism yesterday.
From:The Australian
