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Take away the pace and the Aussies have got no ace. The crumbling effort in Port Elizabeth, in starkly simple terms, was the calamity that had been coming when an inconsistent batting order collided with a negated seam attack.
One misfiring while the other does the opposite can cancel out the shortcoming, as can be the case when the two switch.
If both are in snyc then a formidable side you will have, but if they both falter simultaneously you have what occurred at the weekend.
England were trampled all over because (I’m not uncovering secrets here) the trio of Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle – primarily the former – were allowed to proceed unchecked.
On surfaces that encouraged an aggressive approach which had seemingly become a thing of the past, the English had no answer and 5-0 was the savage outcome.
Fast forward to Centurion, and another 22 yards which must have had Johnson licking his lips in anticipation prior to the first ball being sent down. Even the best side in the world had no answer.
But just as the mighty Clark Kent went fuzzy at the sight of a shiny green otherworldly mineral, Johnson’s neutering on a dead St George’s Park pitch had the effect of nullifying a successful game plan.
But this may be simplifying the defeat to a certain degree.
There can be little argument with the assertion that the Australian attack looked relatively toothless next to their performances of previous months. But that doesn’t, or shouldn’t, mean such a detrimental effect on their batting colleagues.
Yet this could have been on the cards all along.
Australia were carried along in Johnson’s slipstream from Brisbane through to Pretoria, the galvanising factor of a quick bowler who can do no wrong coming to the fore. But that can never last forever.
Top order underachievement in the Ashes did no damage as their English counterparts fared far worse, but that papered-over crack was exposed by Dale Steyn and co once there was scoreboard pressure in the shape of a decent total.
The batsmen, Chris Rogers a notable exception in this instance, don’t want to play the long game that such lifeless surfaces demand.
Starved of the pace and carry that allows the shots to flow more freely, the ability or desire to bat time just isn’t there.
With an emulation of the South Africans’ first innings (which looked overly attritional at times) a necessity, imitation was way beyond them.
What is before you is a team whose output is as contrasting as the spectrum defined by the pitches they are presented with.
Awful at Lord’s, awesome at the WACA. Hideous in Hyderabad, coruscating at Centurion. It shouldn’t be too tricky to spot the trend.
It is nothing like a coincidence, and if a dull Newlands strip is put forward the odds should lengthen on an Australian triumph.
Leaving much grass on, Mr Newlands Groundsman?