Brad Haddin is nothing so much as a loyal soldier. Combative and occasionally prickly both off the field and on it, he was not ready to take a backward step even when confronted by the grim reality of Australia’s horrid position after two days of the Adelaide Ashes Test.
His post-play audience with the assembled press was a masterpiece of defence, adhering to a hymn sheet of fighting words.
In that sense it reflected the kind of performance Australia will need over the next three days to escape from this match.
Whether they are capable of matching actions to words is another matter.
“It was a tough day and England are in a very good position in the game, but the important thing from our point of view is we’ve just got to make sure we’re in with a fight,” he said.
“Test cricket’s not meant to be easy and we’ve got a real fight on our hands. We’ve got to make sure we aim up tomorrow and make sure we’re there for the contest.
“It was a long day, everything seems to be going England’s way at the moment, (Alastair) Cook’s playing extremely well and (Jonathan) Trott and (Kevin) Pietersen contributed well.
“So from our point of view we’ve just got to make sure we stay strong and make sure we keep presenting ourselves in a way that we’re hungry and really want to be in this contest.
“This game does turn and you appreciate those good times after all the time out there, so from that point of view we’ve got to make sure we aim up tomorrow.”
Run outs and collapses with the bat, plus missed run outs, dropped catches and errors in the field, all point to a lack of cohesion and even harmony within the Australian team.
Haddin, as far as he could be expected to in this mood, admitted as much.
“Obviously we’re not at our perky best in there,” he said.
“We haven’t had a couple of great days, but life goes on, we’ve got to freshen ourselves up tonight, get a good rest and come back tomorrow.”
There was grudging respect for Cook, who has now made 438 runs in the series for once out.
“He’s playing extremely well at the moment, he played well at the Gabba and he’s hungry for runs and to occupy the crease,” said Haddin.
“They’re playing some good cricket at the moment and Alastair’s probably at the top of that list. I think he’s just in his own zone at the moment and he’s playing some very good cricket.
“You have those times in your career now and then where your bat’s as wide as a door and he’s got that.”
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