Roebuck on Ashes Test 2: Beaten in mind as much as by ball (29 November 1998)

29 November 1998

Roebuck on Ashes Test 2: Beaten in mind as much as by ball

By Peter Roebuck

SOMETIMES the story is easily told. Sometimes a fellow does not need a degree or years of cricketing experience to pinpoint the truth. Australia's bowlers were in top form and disposed of their opponents in three hours. Australia's slip catching was terrific, with the men placed first and second in the spread taking neat catches. The pitch was a beauty, giving the pacemen some help in the morning and afterwards playing fast and true. And England's batting was awful.

No excuses can be made for the visitors. They were beaten as much in the mind as by pitch or bowling. Non-plussed at losing the toss, the batsmen did not move their feet, played away from their bodies and regularly edged deliveries best left alone. And the edges kept carrying to the waiting gallery. In Brisbane, they had dived into the turf and sped to the boundary at third man.

Bad technique brought England down. Only Alex Tudor, a young man whose dad went to England and fed his family by working on the buses, a boy who sang in the choir at his local church, offered a consistently straight bat. Tudor used his height, moved his feet and gave an exhibition to put his seniors to shame.

England's other batsmen wafted. They were particularly weak on the front foot. The notion that hard pitches encourage back-foot play is nonsense. By and large, the Western Australian batsmen are strong drivers of the ball, stepping forward fearlessly and hitting through the line. England's vaunted batsmen were contrastingly tentative. Mark Butcher did not leave his crease as he drove, giving the ball time to cut across him. After a robust innings, Alec Stewart left the sort of gap between bat and pad that generally attracts the attention of alert bowlers. Dominic Cork edged to slip a delivery that moved back. The batsmen's feet let them down. Their brains were not giving the appropriate instructions. Nor did the replacements distinguish themselves. John Crawley had been at home against spin bowling on plumb English pitches but seemed out of his depth here, fishing outside off stump and giving a catch. Cricket strokes must be played with the feet apart. Crawley kept his pins together and was in a poor position to execute a safe shot.

Graeme Hick did not last long. He went back to his first ball and played a defensive stroke a long way from his body. His second found him too slowly into position and a catch resulted. Admittedly, it was a tough time to bat, a few minutes before lunch, the innings in disarray and with little time to practise. But top cricketers are made of sterner stuff.

Mark Ramprakash did show some resistance before he, too, fiddled outside off stump. As Mark Taylor showed later in the day, there is an art to leaving the ball on these snooker-table surfaces. England's batsmen played at lots of wide deliveries and did not present the full face of the bat. Hard pitches encourage straight driving, cutting and pulling, and punish angled bats. Only Nasser Hussain could claim to have fallen to a snorter.

Apart from Tudor, the tail went feebly to their fate, Alan Mullally throwing away his wicket with a carelessness unimaginable among his opponents, however incompetent.

Australia bowled with superb control. Glenn McGrath again proved his greatness with a long spell that contained subtle changes of pace and cut. Jason Gillespie improved as he went along and Damien Fleming bowled some frisky overs into the wind after lunch. But they were helped by batting mistakes as the Englishmen repeatedly stepped a long way back before the ball had been bowled.

At least England's bowlers made a fight of it. None the less, the Ashes are slipping away. Part of the reason behind Australia's supremacy is that their leading cricketers are playing longer. Years ago, Australians retired at 30 and started climbing the economic ladder. This Australian team include five men over 32.

In bygone days, Taylor, the Waughs and Ian Healy would have already become surveyors, horse trainers and businessmen.

Tudor alone gave hope to the touring team. He also bowled some impressive overs and England must encourage him and try to find more like him from the West Indian community that has contributed so much to athletics and football. Most of these England players were raised in families with an immigrant influence or else at Manchester Grammar. This was a bad day for England and it is a long way back.

Shane Warne today faces the biggest test yet of his comeback from shoulder surgery as he attempts to bowl Victoria to victory in their Sheffield Shield match against South Australia in Melbourne. Warne took two for 88 but conceded nearly six runs an over as Darren Lehmann struck him to all parts of the ground during his first-innings 171 off 152 balls. South Australia were bowled out for 350 in reply to Victoria's 373 for five, who were 156 for four overnight.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)