by Gideon Haigh
2
0
3
0
1.50
GP Swann
16
0
52
2
3.25
ENGLAND 1st innings
R
M
B
4
6
SR
*AJ Strauss
c †Haddin
b Harris
52
125
102
8
0
50.98
AN Cook
c Hussey
b Johnson
32
96
63
3
1
50.79
IJL Trott
lbw
b Johnson
4
7
8
1
0
50.00
KP Pietersen
lbw
b Johnson
0
2
3
0
0
0.00
PD Collingwood
lbw
b Johnson
5
25
17
0
0
29.41
IR Bell
c Ponting
b Harris
53
133
90
6
0
58.88
†MJ Prior
b Siddle
12
62
42
1
0
28.57
GP Swann
c †Haddin
b Harris
11
45
31
1
0
35.48
CT Tremlett
b Johnson
2
21
14
0
0
14.28
JM Anderson
c Watson
b Johnson
0
7
6
0
0
0.00
ST Finn
not out
1
2
1
0
0
100.00
EXTRAS
(b 8, lb 4, w 1, nb 2)
15
TOTAL
(all out; 62.3 overs; 267 mins)
187
(2.99 runs per over)
FoW
1-78
(Cook, 24.1 ov),
2-82
(Trott, 26.3 ov),
3-82
(Pietersen, 26.6 ov),
4-94
(Strauss, 31.3 ov),
5-98
(Collingwood, 32.3 ov),
6-145
(Prior, 46.4 ov),
7-181
(Swann, 57.1 ov),
8-186
(Bell, 61.1 ov),
9-186
(Tremlett, 62.1 ov),
10-187
(Anderson, 62.3 ov)
BOWLING
O
M
R
W
ECON
BW Hilfenhaus
21
6
53
0
2.52
(1nb)
RJ Harris
15
4
59
3
3.93
(1w)
PM Siddle
9
2
25
1
2.77
(1nb)
MG Johnson
17.3
5
38
6
2.17
AUSTRALIA 2nd innings
R
M
B
4
6
SR
SR Watson
lbw
b Tremlett
95
221
174
11
0
54.59
PJ Hughes
c Collingwood b Finn
12
51
31
1
0
38.70
*RT Ponting
c †Prior
b Finn
1
17
9
0
0
11.11
MJ Clarke
b Tremlett
20
21
18
4
0
111.11
MEK Hussey
c Swann
b Tremlett
116
296
172
15
0
67.44
SPD Smith
c †Prior
b Tremlett
36
83
62
2
0
58.06
†BJ Haddin
b Tremlett
7
17
10
0
1
70.00
MG Johnson
c Bell
b Collingwood
1
5
4
0
0
25.00
RJ Harris
c Bell
b Finn
1
14
7
0
0
14.28
PM Siddle
c Collingwood
b Anderson
8
33
26
1
0
30.76
BW Hilfenhaus
not out
0
8
5
0
0
0.00
EXTRAS
(lb 6, w 4, nb 2)
12
TOTAL
(all out; 86 overs; 390 mins)
309
(3.59 runs per over)
FoW
1-31
(Hughes, 12.2 ov),
2-34
(Ponting, 16.1 ov),
3-64
(Clarke, 20.4 ov),
4-177
(Watson, 50.2 ov),
5-252
(Smith, 68.4 ov),
6-271
(Haddin, 72.3 ov),
7-276
(Johnson, 73.3 ov),
8-284
(Harris, 76.2 ov),
9-308
(Siddle, 84.1 ov),
10-309
(Hussey, 85.6 ov)
BOWLING
O
M
R
W
ECON
JM Anderson
26
7
65
1
2.50
(1w)
CT Tremlett
24
4
87
5
3.62
(1nb,2w)
ST Finn
21
4
97
3
4.61
(1nb)
GP Swann
9
0
51
0
5.66
PD Collingwood
6
3
3
1
0.50
(1w)
ENGLAND 2nd innings
R
M
B
4
6
SR
*AJ Strauss
c Ponting
b Johnson
15
39
35
&n
bsp; 3
0
42.85
AN Cook
lbw
b Harris
13
23
16
1
0
81.25
IJL Trott
c †Haddin
b Johnson
31
85
61
3
0
50.81
KP Pietersen
c Watson
b Hilfenhaus
3
36
23
0
0
13.04
PD Collingwood
c Smith
b Harris
11
38
27
1
0
40.74
JM Anderson
b Harris
3
22
14
0
0
21.42
IR Bell
lbw
b Harris
16
32
23
3
0
69.56
†MJ Prior
c Hussey
b Harris
10
19
9
0
1
111.11
GP Swann
b Johnson
9
8
5
1
0
180.00
CT Tremlett
not out
1
12
3
0
0
33.33
ST Finn
c Smith
b Harris
2
6
7
0
0
28.57
EXTRAS
(lb 8, nb 1)
9
TOTAL
(all out; 37 overs; 167 mins)
123
(3.32 runs per over)
FoW
1-23
(Cook, 6.1 ov),
2-37
(Strauss, 9.5 ov),
3-55
(Pietersen, 18.1 ov),
4-81
(Trott, 25.5 ov),
5-81
(Collingwood, 26.6 ov),
6-94
(Anderson, 30.5 ov),
7-111
(Bell, 34.1 ov),
8-114
(Prior, 34.4 ov),
9-120
(Swann, 35.4 ov),
10-123
(Finn, 36.6 ov)
BOWLING
O
M
R
W
ECON
BW Hilfenhaus
10
4
16
1
1.60
RJ Harris
11
1
47
6
4.27
MG Johnson
12
3
44
3
3.66
PM Siddle
4
1
8
0
2.00
(1nb)
Part V
Fourth Test
Melbourne Cricket Ground
26–29 December 2010
England won by an innings and 157 runs
25 DECEMBER 2010
FOURTH TEST
G Whiz
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.
The other possibility is 21-year-old Steve Finn making way for the older, steadier Tim Bresnan, on the grounds that Finn is too costly, conceding 4.3 an over. It seems like a retrograde step, but teams often make them after a defeat, albeit that it always seems to be bowlers rather than batsmen who are first under the bus. The Australians have attacked Finn this summer, perceiving him as the weakest of England's four bowling links, but his fourteen wickets at 33 are one of the reasons that England in consecutive Tests have taken twenty Australian wickets, something they were expected to struggle to do.
All is set for another new-fashioned arm-wrestle, of tiny differences that may or may not grow large. For England in Perth, the second day dismissal that ramified was Alastair Cook's. England were cruising at 78 for none. Cook had played, for him, expansively, enjoying the bounce. Johnson had bowled 282 deliveries in the series with barely an appeal, let alone a wicket; indeed, he had hardly beaten the bat.
Johnson's 283rd ball did not so much swing as slide away from the lef
t-hander. It was the kind of ball Cook had been safely letting go all summer, but he was a batsman in hot form, England were on top, and Johnson was a negligible quantity. England's vice-captain looked to drive on the up through cover point – the shot of a winner, keen to put away a weakened opponent.
When the thick edge was smoothly taken by Hussey at gully, the predominant Australian emotion was relief rather than relish, marking the end of something rather than the start of something else. Yet for the next half-hour, Johnson was like a fox in a hen run, making a bloody, feathery mess of a middle order hitherto cock of the roost. Without that nanosecond's relaxation by Cook, Johnson would have continued bowling to left-handers, generally good leavers of the ball. As it was, Johnson's bowling exploded like a perfect storm: a succession of right-handers, a helpful wind, a bowler suddenly confident to stretch for a few extra clicks, and a referral system hovering over every lbw.
It is hard to see England relaxing again in the same way. They are the better led, the better drilled and the more even team. Australia have relied on individuals rising above themselves, hitting long-lost straps, rekindling long-doused fires. Duncan Fletcher used to talk about cricketers 'coming to the party'. England's has been a pretty good-humoured one in which nobody has been sick in the punchbowl. Australia's has depended for its good cheer on someone every so often putting a lampshade on their head.
Whatever happens from here, the fortunes of the series have provided (cricket) season's greetings to Cricket Australia. Their slogan all summer has been 'History Will Be Made': there is, on Boxing Day, just the chance it might, with the fifty-year-old Test record attendance of 90,800 set at the same ground under threat. For once in a journalistic lifetime, the expression 'standing room only' will be more than a cliché: the Melbourne Cricket Club have released standing-room tickets, of which 5,000 in total are available. The attendance of members will affect how many of the arena's 95,000 seats are filled. If the record does not fall, the rest of the crowd's practice of booing the members when the Mexican wave reaches their enclosure will be well and truly justified.
