It is fair to say that the England cricket team came back down to Earth with a rather painful bump in Brisbane last week. Apart from Stuart Broad’s crowd-defying heroics on the first day, Australia bossed this Test Match.
As a spectator, it was almost as if we had taken a trip back in time to 2006/07, or even the Dark Ages of the 1990s; our batsmen succumbed weakly to Australia’s pace attack, and our bowlers – Broad aside – could not match their Australian counterparts. What’s more, coming out of the Test Match, it seems as if the Australian side have rediscovered their snarl.
Throughout the Test, England’s batsmen were peppered with short-pitched bowling from Johnson, Harris and Siddle. Johnson, in particular, proved to the doubters just what a threat he is on his day. Though his low-arm, slingy action can go horribly wrong, when everything clicks – as it did last week – the constant barrage of extreme pace becomes a nightmare for the batsman.
The aggression shown by Australia’s bowlers, in turn, gives greater weight to the verbals deployed by the men in the field; when Michael Clarke told the incoming batsman James Anderson to “get ready for a broken f***ing arm”, he knew he genuinely had the firepower in his bowling attack to inflict this.
Australia’s aggression has already claimed one victim for good; Lehman and Clarke would consider the return home of Jonathan Trott with a ‘stress related illness’ as a wicket for their tactics of ‘mental disintegration’.
This first Test has reminded the cricket world just what an asset to any side raw pace is. This is particularly the case in Australia, where, on their fast, bouncy wickets, there is no substitute for an accurate 90mph plus bowler. In the 1932/33 Ashes, England were lucky enough to have one of these in Harold Larwood. Bowling ‘bodyline’ with relentless accuracy to a packed leg side field, he proved to be too hot to handle for the Australian batsmen, who simply could not take the sustained barrage.
He even managed to contain the greatest batsmen of them all, Don Bradman, whose average for that series was a mere mortal 56.57 (as opposed to his extraordinary career average of 99.94), which proved to be the deciding factor in England’s victory.
Since then, England have been given a taste of their own medicine on several tours Down Under, most notably in 1974/75, when Australia had two of the quickest bowlers ever at their disposal, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. England lost this series 4-1; if Lillee or ‘Tommo’ didn’t get you out, they would knock you out.
It might be hyperbolic to compare England’s current challenge with these events of the past (Johnson is, as we know, a hugely inconsistent bowler), but no one can deny that England are going to have to find a way to face the pace if they are to come back in this series. Nobody would doubt that England have the talent in their top six to do so; Cook, Pietersen and Bell are universally regarded as some of the best batsmen in the world, and they all thrive on quick bowling.
One suggestion would be that they do not give their wickets away cheaply to the support bowlers; with the Australian pace attack in their current form, we cannot afford to throw away wickets to Nathan Lyon (which happened last week) – they must resist the urge to relax once they have seen off the pace.
The only other thing that can be said is that they simply need to be prepared to grit it out. Whilst it cannot be much fun facing Johnson’s 90 mph thunderbolts, these guys are considered the best batsmen in the country for a reason, and part of the job description of a Test Match batsman is to wear a bit of ‘chin music’.
They should consider themselves lucky; Bradman and co. faced Larwood’s assault without helmets, and without rules limiting the amount of short balls bowled per over. So man up England – or be prepared to lose again!
Ben Pullan, Sports Team
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