Failure and Success: An Anatomy

It took Australia a mere 11 days to officially retain the Ashes, extending their hold on that little urn to at least nine years. The statistics will state 4,719 deliveries, but it was actually much quicker than that. In truth, it was settled in a handful of hours at Perth.

That utter capitulation, where a lead of 99 runs with 9 wickets in hand at lunch, was flipped into an 8-wicket defeat by the end of the day.

In the space of a few hours, a most incredible turnaround snuffed not only the life out of the game, but England as a whole. What unfolded there was not simply just a collapse of technique or temperament, but a display of the two competing instincts.

Australia’s remarkable ability to troubleshoot and have an answer to whatever problem is thrown their way, and England’s inability to withstand a semblance of pressure.

Australia’s campaign has been riddled with disruption. Hazlewood was out for the series. Cummins, their captain, missed the first two Tests. Khawaja’s back gave way in the middle of the first, and Smith struck by vertigo, pulled out before the third. And now Nathan Lyon’s series appears to be over just as it looked to begin.

Perth was a microcosm for what happened in this series. Khawaja’s spasms forced a last-minute reshuffle that sent Travis Head to the top of the order. A move born not from a position of strength, but rather a desperate solution to another question.

The rest, as they say, is history. What followed was a sucker punch of the greatest proportions. In the space of a couple of hours, Head killed off England’s Ashes hopes. Australia was given another problem, and they adapted, not unflinchingly but utterly convincingly. And they won, because that is simply what Australia does.

Before Travis Head’s pyrotechnics, England handed the game to Australia with their stubborn insistence on giving their wickets away. Ben Stokes has said Australia kept on winning the “big” moments. Rather, England was hell-bent on losing them.

Anytime the contest tightened, England, whether it be with the bat, the ball, or in the field, managed to find a way to throw it all away. England scuppered their best chance to win a test in Australia in 15 years, and the method was wholly predictable. Rash shots when the game begged for restraint.

Those few hours in Perth laid bare the anatomy of the series itself; England crumpled under pressure, and Australia repeatedly had answers for any question.

The manner of this defeat and the subsequent one at the Gabba has led to a betrayal of Bazball values. If the ideology was born with their captain, it seems fitting that it dies with him too. Stokes said his team was no place for “weak men”, and that has led to England rediscovering the fundamentals of test cricket.

A concession that perhaps there are lessons to be learnt from cricket’s history.

In Adelaide, a chastened England attempted to apply themselves under their disgruntled skippers’ orders. Asked to bowl first, they did well to hold a Steve Smith-less Australia to 371 in their first innings.

Jofra Archer took five and England were hopeful of posting a first innings lead. It was Australia’s turn to bowl and bake underneath the Adelaide sun, but it was England who wilted yet again.

Despite it being one of the flattest days according to ball-by-ball data for tests played in Australia, England conceded a lead of 85 runs. To their credit, England largely honoured their commitment to rein it in. Crawley and Duckett or Crockett were out defending, not flashing, so was Harry Brook.

Root was undone most predictably, edging behind to Cummins, who has England’s greatest wrapped around his little finger. If not for Stokes and Archer’s late-order resistance, England was staring down the barrel of a deficit of over 150. So, England somewhat attempted to play “proper” test match cricket, but when scrutinized by Australia’s relentless attack, they came undone.

From there, it was South Australia’s favourite sons who took control. The mayor of Adelaide, Travis Head, peeled off 170 whilst Carey backed up his first innings 100 with 72 more. Australia’s makeshift opener averages 71.6 in this series when being the man who walks out first. Alex Carey himself averages 66.75 for this series, and enough lyrical has already been waxed about his keeping up at the stumps.

A target of 435 always seemed a bridge too far, even for an England team that fancies a run chase. Yet there was a moment where the impossible hung there, tantalisingly close yet ultimately out of reach. There was a punter’s chance when the score read 285/6, England needing another 150 runs to pull off a record chase.

Jamie Smith had just belted four consecutive boundaries; perhaps England’s answer to Adam Gilchrist would deliver a Christmas miracle. But no, the score then read 285/7 and Smith was gone. The shot can be dismissed as mad, or ‘dopey’ if one prefers Ponting’s assessment. Yet England was never going to win conventionally.

Only an innings of utter madness could have dragged England over the line, just as Stokes did, 6 years ago.

England has been afforded every conceivable advantage. Australia entered this series having forgotten what an opening partnership was, without the services of their most effective bowler of the past two years, will likely lose their captain for 4 tests in the series, Lyon has been reduced to a cameo, and their best batsmen have missed a match as well. Still, England is marching towards 5-0.

It remains to be seen whether Brendon McCullum’s men will continue their experiment with traditional cricket. What is clear is that England looked their most competitive when the fundamentals are applied, not shunned. Expect to continue to see a more subdued England.

What England will look like come the first test of their home summer against New Zealand is anyone’s guess. Will the Key, McCullum, Stokes triumvirate survive? Do all of them have to go?

Whatever happens to England, you can safely say that Australia, with their “old men,” will continue to answer the questions.

About the Author: Moosa Niazi
Brisbane kid who’s chasing narratives. Cricket, F1, and everywhere in between, trying to justify the hours lost watching them.