Australia just too good

Australia has raised its standard another notch. England has utterly failed to respond to the challenge of playing a difficult game against a hard team on firm surfaces. A wounded side has been broken. Notwithstanding fitful resistance and occasional sprinklings of rain, the last rites did not take long. Alec Stewart contributed a typically brisk effort in a losing cause but the tail lasted as long as the Maginot Line. Apart from The Barmy Army, the Poms went quietly to their fate.

Glenn McGrath's catch pinpointed the continuing strength of this Australian outfit. England's fifth-wicket pair had been mounting the sort of defiance expected from determined men with their backs to the wall. After taking an early wicket, Steve Waugh's team had been frustrated for 100 minutes as the clouds grew more threatening. Shane Warne had been bowling around the wicket to Michael Vaughan, a mark of respect for an accomplished opponent. Clearly the leg-spinner and vintner remembered the punishment he had taken from this batsman in the first innings and wanted to hold him in check.

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After an hour or so of stalemate, Warne went over the wicket and the Yorkshireman seized his chance with a sweep, placed into the region forward of square. Hitherto, McGrath had been patrolling the area behind the umpire, a tranquil location where a man might graze without fear of interruption. Had the lofty paceman fallen asleep he might have been forgiven. Had he missed the start even harsher critics would have understood. Instead, McGrath sniffed an opportunity and set off like a giraffe. He does not so much run as gallop. Arms and legs fly in all directions. The operation takes more organising than a child's party.

Meanwhile, time stood still in the stands as the parabola of the ball was followed as if it were a golf ball approaching a green. Warne stood in position, his hopes fading as the distance between ball and pursuer and the identity of the fieldsman became apparent. None of the news was encouraging.

McGrath was not so easily deterred. Upon reflection it is hard to recall him grassing a catch, but he gets lumbered with the image of the big-booted paceman dropping catches. Certainly the pessimists were predominant as the fateful moment approached. Long odds were being offered against the ball being reached let alone held. Then came a blur, a dive, a long man stretching to grab a ball an inch from the turf, a landing, a slide and then astonishment in the stands and delight on the ground. McGrath rose, grinned and dusted himself off with the air of a man offended that his prospects had been doubted.

It was only a moment but it told a story of one team rising and another overwhelmed. An important wicket had been taken. Australia had not needed a second invitation. It was not the only telling moment in a match that owed its brief competitiveness to Vaughan's impressive effort.

As significant was the sight of Andrew Bichel twice striking in the final over of a day, removing Vaughan and the visiting captain no less with thrusts that did terrible damage to English morale.

Bichel is not the best bowler ever to wear a green cap but he played his part with bat and ball and will remember those wickets till his dying day.

Players improve in this Australian team. Limited cricketers start to resemble Popeye after a helping of spinach.

Although unloved by the romantics, these Australians are fun to watch. McGrath, Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Waugh and, latterly, Matthew Hayden are players of the highest class. Nowadays, though, the team is powerful in almost every position. Indeed, the side has more pillars than St Paul's cathedral, and these reach to the top.

Ricky Ponting has become a fine batsmen, capable of heavy scoring even when his feet are not working properly. Brilliant at The Gabba, he was subdued in Adelaide and still scored a big hundred.

Jason Gillespie has also become a magnificent cricketer. Indeed he has provided the cutting edge in these first Tests and might have taken even more wickets. Gillespie and McGrath are far and away the best fast bowlers around. Not that the competition is hot. Few teams in the history of the game have had at their disposal three bowlers of this calibre.

Waugh's captaincy also deserves recognition. Actually he was not at his sharpest on a fourth day, played in the sort of atmosphere favoured for dramatic purposes by the Bronte sisters. Australia might have made better use of its pace bowlers in the morning. Otherwise, he deserves credit for maintaining the ambition of his team. After many hard years on the road the Australians remain hungry. None of them needs the money, though Mrs Lehmann and Mrs Bichel might not concede the point.

This has been a victory for a broad and well-managed outfit. These Australians are more civilised than has been supposed. Their hotel resembled a creche this week and early risers were in danger of bumping into a celebrated wicketkeeper in hot pursuit of a baby cheerfully exploring the corridors. Waugh has played an enormous part in the development of this side and its players and should not lightly be cast aside. By trying to become multi-layered he has taken his players on a journey that has brought many rewards.

Happily there has been no hint of sledging in either of the Tests. Obviously, the Australians have not suddenly become Trappist monks but neither did anyone overstep the mark. In the light of bad-tempered exchanges in South Africa last week, this point is worth making. Australia won fair and square. Waugh's team played superb cricket and crushed an opponent unable to provide strong opposition on or off the field.

Also read: England must drop the aged and ordinary

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