ASHES: Talking points from Day 3 in Adelaide

Australia loves cricket again! The Mitchell Johnson Show rolls on; England’s number three puzzle far from solved. Carnage in Brisbane, carnage in Adelaide; what’s going to happen in Perth?!?

What a day to be filling the talking points gap in Ronan’s absence!

Australia finished Day 3 of the second Test in Adelaide in a commanding position, and went to Stumps at 3/132 and with a staggering overall lead of 530 runs. David Warner was unbeaten on 83, and Steven Smith remained after a DRS LBW life on 23.

England were rolled for just 172 in their first innings, and trailed Australia’s mammoth 9/570 (dec) by 398 runs.

60 from opener Michael Carberry and a classy counter-attacking 72 not out from Ian Bell were the only highlights in an England innings where Joe Root’s 15 was the next best score, and no other English batsmen could break double figures.

Once again, the resurgent Mitchell Johnson did the damage, taking 7/40, while Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, and Shane Watson all took one each. Ryan Harris went wicketless for the first time in 2013.

Australia loves cricket again!
After a year of Test cricket that has tested even the very best of Australian cricket fans, it’s quite amazing to feel the complete 180 that has occurred within the ‘cricket family’ over the past two-and-a-half weeks.

Hope has now been replaced by belief. And where previously we scoffed at comments such as Darren Lehmann’s, “We’ll be more stable at home”, and suggestion from the players on return from the 3-0 series loss in July and August that “we know we can beat England”, we’d have to concede the squad was perhaps in a better place than we realised.

A mate of mine sent me a text just after the start of play today, saying, “I really don’t care if we win or lose this series. It’s just so good to see the Aussie team playing with some fire in the belly and giving it back to the old enemy in spades…”

And it’s hard to argue with this sentiment, which represents a massive shift in perceptions even since the last Test at The Oval in August.

But that was before the carnage! At 3.52pm, I finally got a chance to reply, “Completely agree. But I want to win the series now too!”

The Mitchell Johnson Show rolls on
He bowled Alistair Cook last night by somehow getting the English Captain to think he was facing a right-arm quick, and on Day 3, Mitchell Johnson again tore the heart out of the English first innings with a superb spell after lunch.

Roar colleague Ryan O’Connell suggested via Twitter at the time that tearing the heart out of England was some achievement:

Ye-ouch! But English broadcaster Piers Morgan went further than that again:

Taking three wickets with the first, fifth, and sixth ball of his second over after lunch, and then two more with the fifth and sixth balls of his fourth over, Johnson was scintillating as he surged past Clarrie Grimmett into tenth on the all-time Australian wicket-takers list.

On current form, you couldn’t rule out Johnson moving past Ray Lindwall’s 228 Test wickets in Perth.

When Peter Siddle replaced him after lunch, Johnson’s post-lunch spell returned 5-2-16-5, his ninth career Test five-for.

He returned in the 69th over of the England innings, and bowled Monty Panesar with his second ball back, finishing a superb bowling display with 7/40 from 17.2 overs.

He now has 16 wickets for the series at an extraordinary average of 8.93, and since he was recalled to play South Africa in Perth last year, he’s taken 31 wickets at 17.35 in six Tests.

I will very happily admit that when I wrote that “What if Mitchell Johnson bowls well?” column four weeks ago in response to the nay-sayers, I certainly wasn’t thinking he’d bowl this well.

England’s number three puzzle far from solved
There was much debate in the lead-up to the Second Test as to who should replace Jonathan Trott and No.3 for England, and it’s fair to say that Joe Root’s dismissal in the ninth over of Day 3 will do little to quell that debate.

With Cook gone, England really needed Root and Carberry to dig in, make it to Drinks at least, and start building the partnership they needed to get even remotely close to Australia’s substantial first innings total.

Instead, with 15 from 78 balls to his name, Root played an ambitious, unconvincing, and poorly attempted sweep shot off Nathan Lyon’s twelfth ball of the day, sending a top edge flying down to Chris Rogers at deep backward square, who did very well to cover the ground he did.

Root’s shot has been described in various online ball-by-ball commentaries as “a very weak dismissal, that is a cheap surrender”, and “a brainless shot to get out to, given the task facing England”, while our own Suneer Chowdhary in his beautifully understated ways said simply, “Oh my, Root’s holed out to an aggressive stroke!”

On the BBC’s Test Match Special, meanwhile, Sir Geoffrey Boycott was scathing of a player he’s previously been very supportive;

“There’s more brains in a chocolate mouse. I said to bat with care and attention, a bit of common sense. You’re trying to make runs, but you’re trying to bat through the day,” he said.

“If they don’t bat well today, they can kiss the Ashes goodbye. That’s as stupid a shot as you could ever see. Unbelievable.”

Furthermore, the way Ian Bell came out and just played his shots from ball one only give even more impetus to the train of thought that says you put your most technically gifted batsman at first drop.

The way he kept his head scoring another Test fifty while other teammates lost theirs will only fuel the fire for the Ian Chappells of the world.

Carnage in Brisbane. Carnage in Adelaide. What’s going to happen in Perth?!?
The biggest question now would seem to be how England can possibly turn their fortunes around in just a few days before the Third Test starting on Friday.

Factor in the mere detail that the third Test is to be played on arguably the fastest wicket in world cricket, the WACA Ground in Perth, and it’s very easy to reach the conclusion that even a fortnight ago didn’t even cross the mind of the average Australian cricket fan: we could hold the Ashes by Christmas!

Of course, the Perth Test is no fait accompli, and indeed, Australia will have a battle on their hands to ensure their fast bowling trio are well rested and free of niggles.

If they can manage that – and it would be a brave medico to tell and Australian quick he shouldn’t play in Perth – Australia can simply follow the same script that has worked so well for them in Brisbane and Adelaide.

It’s foot-on-the-throat time.