It has taken ten of them, but finally Australia has won a day of Test cricket – and with the bat, no less.
Yes, Ashton Agar’s day at Trent Bridge was magnificent, but his efforts were needed to restore Australia to parity from a parlous position.
In a way, too, the magic of his effort belonged to all fans, not just those of a southern hemispherical bent. The number of English supporters who praised him afterward was testament to that.
Aside from Agar and his fellow tailenders, Australia’s team batting performances have been woeful. All four Ashes innings to this Test had yielded less than 300 runs, including a skittling on a Lord’s pitch that could not have been more accommodating if it had come with a concierge.
With the ball, Peter Siddle has striven, Mitchell Starc has struck occasional gold, Ryan Harris has bashed his crumbling body into the turf. But for all the hard work the bowlers have done, the batting has let them down.
We always knew that was likely to be the case, predicting pre-series that Australia’s bowling attack would be competitive while their batting was weak.
And yet this day of dominance – three wickets falling for a tick over 300 runs in glorious sunshine – did not come as unexpectedly as a bolt of lightning from the strangely clear blue Manchester sky.
No, even having considered Australia’s 128 at the home of the bacon-and-egg tie, and the desperate calls to SOS in anyone from Simon Katich to Captain Janeway to Saint Francis of Assisi, the signs for revival were there.
It just takes a little patience and technique to pan gold from the silt.
With the frequency of calls to replace the entire top order, it was easy to forget that six of the top seven had made one half century in those four innings.
Phil Hughes played one of the knocks of his career for 81 not out at Trent Bridge, expertly guiding Agar to the brink of a century. Steve Smith scored 53 that same innings.
Brad Haddin’s 71 almost took Australia home in the second innings, while Chris Rogers’ 52 set up the chase.
Then in the second innings resistance at Lord’s, Usman Khawaja produced a solid and reassuring 54, with Michael Clarke scoring 51.
The odd man out was Shane Watson, but even he’d scored 46, and his personal version of milestones always involves falling one boundary short.
The only problem was, not enough batsmen were producing these innings at the same time, and not enough were pushing on with them.
With the talent and application at their disposal, Australia needed several of these scores to be made at once. They needed someone to push on to a hundred and beyond. They needed the non-milestone batsmen to at least chip in with 20s and 30s, building some partnerships, rather than single-figure falls.
Today, finally, was the day.
With all their top six in some semblance of form, it was up to the selectors to stick with the same side. Hughes was extremely harshly dealt with, getting just one poor Test after such a fine hand.
The man has been shunted up and down the order ever since that decent showing at No. 6. It’s no wonder he’s confused when he can’t find his home. He and E.T. have more in common than an awkward gait.
Hughes’ replacement, David Warner, has not yet faced a ball, and we’ll see tomorrow whether his recall was a stroke of madness.
But it doesn’t matter. Today the top five did it all, notwithstanding Khawaja’s dismissal as a contender for the worst two decisions ever made.
Rogers, Clarke and Smith all pushed on, the captain to a century that already impresses with its scope, the others to half-centuries on the larger end of the scale.
An imposing total awaits. Mind you, given Australia’s batting this series, 3/303 could turn into 9/340 in the space of about 20 minutes.
But the alternative is that Smith and Clarke bat on, and on, and on. The pitch will be wonderful for Day 2 as it was the day before, and if they select their shots carefully, they might occupy it for a long time.
It is a welcome reminder that Australian cricket will turn out alright. Now is not the time for rashness. The batsmen aside from Watson and Clarke have been selected as much on potential as on prior deeds. The experience will only aid them.
All of these players have the individual ability. Now they just have to keep pooling their resources.
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