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Australia’s bowling attack looked set to bulldoze the England batting once more yesterday before a wonderful rearguard stand from Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow hauled the tourists out of trouble.
On a WACA pitch which appears brimful of runs, Malan and Bairstow first withstood the charge of Australia’s in-form pacemen and then turned the pressure back on to the home side.
By stumps their unbroken stand had swollen to 174, with Malan registering his first Test ton and Bairstow cruising to 75 not out from 149 balls. In guiding their side to 4-305, that pair had put England in a commanding position, one which seemed almost unthinkable when they slumped to 4-131 earlier in the day.
At that stage, Australia’s fearsome pace bowlers had clicked at once for the first time this series, harassing and intimidating the English batsmen on a surprisingly fast Perth pitch.
In the hour after lunch the home attack was downright terrifying, led by Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins who got the ball to rear alarmingly at the throats of the English batsmen.
It was the most menacing spell produced by an Australian attack since Mitchell Johnson ran amok in South Africa in early 2014, carrying on from his destructive displays in the 2013-14 Ashes.
The first ball after the main break was a nigh-on half-volley from Hazlewood which English captain Joe Root drove square to the boundary. Root did well to make the most of that opportunity, as he would get precious few more chances to plant his front foot.
Hazlewood and Cummins let rip with some vicious short balls, the most withering of which zeroed in on Mark Stoneman’s helmet. His protective device was rattled by a searing Hazlewood bouncer.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
The very next ball Stoneman was again fending at a lifting delivery, this time it caught the splice of his bat and lobbed towards gully, where Nathan Lyon dived full length but spilled a difficult chance.
By this stage Stoneman had, somehow, managed to make his way to 52. I say somehow because that was the sixth time a delivery had ballooned off his splice or glove near an Australian fieldsman as he struggled badly to counter Australia’s bouncers.
Stoneman also had just been dropped at first slip, with Mitch Marsh turfing the easiest of chances off Hazlewood’s bowling.
Through all this, Stoneman remained resolute. It was an impressively courageous performance from the inexperienced opener, who throughout the series has played with a level of gumption some of his teammates would do well to discover.
Soon after his two reprieves, Stoneman’s luck ended with a caught behind decision which prompted controversy. There was justified criticism of how quickly third umpire Aleem Dar overturned the decision, but subsequent replays and Snicko evidence made it clear a sharp bouncer from Mitchell Starc had indeed kissed Stoneman’s right glove.
Once the clouds of controversy cleared, what was most memorable about the dismissal was the incredible Starc bouncer which produced it and the brilliant catch by Tim Paine which completed it. Paine’s keeping was again outstanding.
Aside from a fairly difficult chance off Nathan Lyon in the first innings of the first Test, his glovework in this series has ranged from neat to sublime. Should Paine make a couple more batting contributions in this series like his first innings half century at Adelaide, he will sew up the position behind the stumps for some time to come.
His catch of Stoneman only increased in value as the last session progressed. While the WACA pitch offered generous pace and bounce, it was also predictable and so lovely for batting, as Malan and Bairstow demonstrated.
Both of these batsmen patently enjoy the ball coming on to the bat. The former was lucky to play in this Ashes having averaged just 24 in his first five Tests, during the English summer.
Like Stoneman, however, Malan has not looked out of his depth against quality bowling amid the heightened pressure of the highest-profile series in the Test format.
A naturally attacking batsman, Malan at times has seemed to doubt this approach. When he has trusted it, like he did yesterday, Malan has prospered. Repeatedly he punished the Australian quicks for overpitching as he drove down the ground and through the covers with authority.
Malan also coped well with a barrage of short deliveries, by turn either ducking, pulling or hooking them. Just as notable was the assured manner in which he tackled Nathan Lyon. The Australian spinner had tied England’s left handers in knots this series, continually trapping them on the crease.
England clearly planned to attack Lyon more often yesterday. James Vince skipped down the wicket at him, Stoneman swept him, and Malan and Bairstow both used their feet to Lyon nicely.
Malan was particularly slick with his footwork, regularly getting to the pitch of Lyon’s deliveries. While he was gifted two opportunities – an easy run out chance missed by David Warner and a regulation edge dropped by Cameron Bancroft – Malan’s knock was imposing.
Bairstow, meanwhile, was rightly elevated to number six in the order yesterday after being wasted at seven and eight across the first two Tests. As veteran opener Alastair Cook has been reduced to a mirage of his former self, Bairstow is now England’s second-best batsman after Root.
(Anthony Devlin/PA via AP)
It is worth England considering Ben Foakes as their wicketkeeper, freeing up Bairstow to become a dominant Test batsman, something he looks capable of achieving.
He and Malan have the opportunity today to bat England into a position from which they can’t lose. Winning won’t be easy, though. I find it hard to see how England’s one-dimensional bowling attack will take 20 wickets on this batting paradise, although the pressure of big runs on the board can do funny things to the mindset of the team batting second.
If England can reach 500 then that total, in itself, could exert as much pressure on the Australian batsmen as the visiting bowlers can.