Australia, Hayden just too good

Daniel Laidlaw

At the end of one Test, the stark reality is that England are not much closer to cracking Australia than they have ever been these past seven series. For interest's sake, it would be convenient to believe that England have improved to such an extent that the outcome is in some doubt, and one senses that for the sake of the series there are more than a few people willing it to be so. But it simply isn't true, and there do not appear to be any exciting revelations to make in this regard either in the immediate or foreseeable future.

As Nasser Hussain said, it's still a contest of basic skills, and Australia's are plainly far better. They are so well-practiced, match-proven and time-tested that the disparity can often seem greater than it actually is, like on day four when they had unstoppable momentum. It wouldn't have been immediately credible that it was the same contest Vaughan, Trescothick and Butcher took up so well on day two, but that's the benefit of confidence, position and experience. Australia have won innumerable times in the fashion they did on the fourth afternoon that they expect it, and their opponents know they expect it. It is a matter of self-belief, allied to magnificent skill and execution.

England actually won day two, comfortably, but were so comprehensively beaten on the other three days it did not matter. Playing from so far behind, too, meant they would have needed more of the same for the rest of the match.

In any away series you've got to start well, particularly in Australia, otherwise the confident, optimistic pre-series words soon become hopeless platitudes. Shaun Pollock provided a glaring example of that last season. Fortunately, Hussain is nothing if not gritty and combative, never appearing to get too far ahead of himself in his team's aims and objectives, so England should stay relatively grounded. But their task just got immeasurably harder, and observers will now be less inclined to take any positive emphasis seriously.

England's challenge centred on Vaughan and Trescothick and to a lesser extent Butcher and Hussain himself, the top four. It's old ground now, but they needed to stamp themselves on the series first. Hussain had the courage to admit he read the wicket wrong and that his decision to bowl first was a poor one, though he could hardly have said otherwise without being lambasted. A bad error of judgement before play even starts is not the way to start a winning series.

Anyway, Vaughan and Trescothick showed in the first innings that they have the attitude and approach to have productive series, but that England will likely rely heavily on them. After McGrath broke through on day two, Gillespie shook up England with the second new ball, and it's difficult to see anyone from Stewart downwards lasting a degree of time against any combination of McGrath, Gillespie and Warne unless the top order has done the major share of the work.

Michael Vaughan embraced his role as McGrath's target for the series and decisively lost the first contest. In the first innings he nicked one that seamed back dramatically and in the second was trapped in front in the first over by one that also came back appreciably, albeit likely passing over the stumps. With Trescothick edging Gillespie's angled delivery across him, the openers were dismissed for just one run between them and two hours later England were all out. One way or another, it seems that England's fortunes revolve around them.

Gillespie, after an apparent recurrence of his calf complaint, performed like a quintessential strike bowler, and was worth more than his three wickets for the game. Hussain and Crawley added 97 for the fourth wicket on day three, and England had reached 268/3 in the second session when Australia took the second new ball. With McGrath below his peak, Gillespie shook off the concerns over his fitness to generate good pace and bounce in a hostile spell that saw him blast out Hussain and Stewart in the space of two overs, opening up the lower order for the others. Then in the second innings, he found Trescothick's edge in his first over and would have had Hussain caught behind as well but for an umpiring mistake. He maintains the sharp edge of Australia's attack.

Hussain must have been watching his New Zealand tapes, for he tried to leave as much as he could on Sunday. Eventually, though, he was forced into fending one from McGrath, after which England veritably hurtled to defeat. In a near-instant, they were a catastrophic 5/35 - Crawley, run out by an ecstatic Gilchrist after Langer's diving stop and relay; and Stewart, furthering his poor record against Australia, top-edging a cut off Warne into a blessed Hayden at second slip, who held the rebound. Compounding the ignominy of a pair, Stewart was struck on the shoulder as the exultantly-flung ball came down to earth.

England were never going to survive four days then, for once Australia had the momentum, it was impossible to check. Before they began trampling some teams in three days, this was the way Australia used to win Tests.

The first Test also saw Matthew Hayden, who Steve Waugh claims is "batting as well as anyone has ever batted in the history of the game", do his best to live up to his captain's bold remarks. In near-unstoppable form, Hayden's judgement remained impeccable as he continued to feed his voracious appetite for runs, totalling 300 on his home ground while becoming the fourth Australian to score a hundred in each innings of an Ashes Test. For an opening batsmen, Hayden rarely seems to get caught behind the wicket or even beaten outside off, and his dismissals are invariably a case of getting himself out. No batsman has been more imposing at Test level in the past 12 months and with 11 hundreds in 34 Tests, including eight in his last 13, he's on the way to greatness.

PS: Bowling the first over after lunch on day three, Darren Lehmann was caught on camera running his fingernail around the seam of the ball, apparently in near-identical fashion to Tendulkar in the second Test against South Africa last year. It drew brief comment from Messrs Benaud and Greig in the Channel 9 commentary box and at the start of the following over umpire Steve Bucknor appeared to address Lehmann about his actions, with no immediate consequences. Whether match referee Wasim Raja takes any action, or it was deemed to be legitimate, remains to be seen.

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