Where was this at Trent Bridge? Australia’s batsmen continued a belated show of steel before their English counterparts bottled it on a dramatic second day of the fifth Ashes Test.
Steve Smith added 65 runs to his overnight score at The Oval, a mature captain-elect’s knock of 143 powering Australia to a commendable total of 481 after being sent in.
England were 8-107 in response at stumps on Friday, having suffered a collapse of 7-46.
They need a further 175 runs to avoid the follow-on mark.
Peter Siddle, returning after almost nine months in the Test wilderness, grabbed two wickets while Joe Root was out for six on review.
Mitch Marsh ran through the middle order, snaring 3-4 in 14 balls including the prized scalp of Root.
The allrounder should have had a fourth wicket and England should have been 9-96, with Mark Wood edging straight to first slip Adam Voges.
However, Mark Wood was recalled after replays revealed it was a no-ball.
Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers are nonetheless perfectly placed to retire on a high note, provided rain does not ruin the dead rubber.
However, there will be a sense of what-if for the tourists if they end up losing the five-Test series 3-2 as expected.
Clarke’s men ceded the urn by losing the fourth Test in Nottingham, where they were rolled for 60 after being asked to bat first on a green deck.
If they had of exercised the same patience with bat and ball that was on display in London, it may well have been Australia’s first UK Ashes win since 2001.
“That’s the best we’ve bowled all series,” Smith said, deflecting praise.
“They created a lot of pressure.
“We didn’t give them runs, we made them earn their runs.”
Smith put the game on Australia’s terms, playing conservatively for the majority of his 394 minutes at the crease.
He shared a partnership of 146 runs with Adam Voges then a 91-run stand with Mitchell Starc.
Smith became the leading run-scorer of the series plus the first Australian since Matthew Elliott in 1997 to score 500 runs in an away Ashes.
The 26-year-old remained obstinate as the hosts bowled well wide of his off stump to dry up the runs,
The glaring exception was in the 94th over, when the 26-year-old was on 92 and fished at a wide ball from Steve Finn.
Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler gleefully accepted the edge, but replays showed Finn clearly overstepped.
Marsh was guilty of the same sin, but the punishment is unlikely to be as severe.
Nathan Lyon started the rot when he ended the second session with a magnificent delivery that turned sharply and kissed the top of Alastair Cook’s off stump.
Siddle created the next two breakthroughs, Adam Lyth mistiming a pull shot and Ian Bell clean bowled by a beautiful delivery.
Score: Australia 481, England 8-107
Man of the moment: Steve Smith. Despite becoming the first Australian since Matthew Elliott in 1997 to pass 500 runs in an Ashes series in England, it has been a tough series for Smith. Which is why his impressive 143 will do plenty to ensure he finishes on a high.Key moment: Joe Root’s dismissal gave Australia a big boost near the end of day two. The world’s No.1 batsman tickled the finest of edges to wicketkeeper Peter Nevill off Mitch Marsh, but Australia required the decision review system to have it overturned.
Stat of the day: 5. Mitchell Starc, following his lively 58, is now Australia’s fifth-highest runscorer this series. Never a good sign from your frontline paceman and No.9 batsman.
Summary: Another terrific day for Australia, with Smith’s knock supported by strong half centuries to Adam Voges and Mitchell Starc as the tourists built their second-biggest total of the series. And just as at Lord’s, where they plundered 8(dec)-566, they had England’s batsmen on the ropes before the end of play on day two. Mitch Marsh grabbed three wickets, while Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon took two each as England struggled to 8-107 by stumps.
Quote of the day: “That’s the best we’ve bowled all series,” STEVE SMITH was keen to deflect all the praise after his impressive knock.
TheCunningLinguistic
Guest
As a fellow Dutch-born Sandgroper, I can comfortably say I've been on the Mitch Marsh wagon for some time. But welcome aboard, everybody else!
Don Freo
Guest
Welcome aboard, folk.
Don Freo
Guest
There is no such policy, Alex L. It is press rubbish. The selection of Siddle, Hazlewood and Harris...all under 140km bowlers would signify that. Sandhu and Abbott in India....Behrendorff this coming season. Its a myth.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"Bowled well in the tour match last weekend." Siddle took 0-58 in that match, so regardless of how "well" he bowled he didn't take wickets which has been the issue for Siddle playing for Australia the past two years or so. On this Ashes tour, from 4 tour games he took just 4 wickets at an average of 56. In his previous 12 Tests he took just 26 wickets at an average of 46. Absolutely he bowled well yesterday but let's not pretend he had been putting forth an overwhelming case for Test selection.
Tin Man
Guest
Personally I still think they should of picked Cummins. Give experience in English conditions to someone who is still going to be playing when Australia next tours England rather than the guy who may not be playing when Australia next tours Bangladesh. That being said I think lack of balance of Johnson-Starc-Cummins attack is probably what put them off it. It is better balanced with the workhorse (and I mean that as a compliment) in the team.
TheCunningLinguistic
Guest
I heard differently, BHT. They said he bowled beautifully and was seaming it left and right off a good length. Can't ask any more of a bowler than that, and goes to show that the 140+ philosophy for all pace bowlers is ridiculous. Sure, you should have one or two, but give me a 130+ km/hr swing/seam bowler any day of the week! Bowling like McGrath gets wickets!
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
And not helped by the bowlers only having one warm-up game in England prior to Cardiff. The selections on this tour have been a bit daft.
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
You sure about that? The commentators weren't that impressed with his bowling. Mitch Marsh was the pick of the attack by some way from the sounds of it. As he has been in most tour games he's played.
Arthur Pagonis
Roar Guru
• 50 ways to forget the Ashes loss • Pretend you are a Pom • Pretend you are Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann and you know what you are doing is correct • Pretend that you knew Australia was going to play Peter Siddle and beat England outright in 3 days • Pretend that you always knew that Peter Siddle and Mitch Marsh would look like the best bowlers in England on the Australian team and that you didn’t select them for every Test because you forgot which hotel room they were in and couldn’t contact them. • Pretend that you didn’t actually pick Haddin, Watson, Voges, Harris for this tour….they just stowed away and 3 of them treated it like a farewell tour of Europe. • Pretend that you actually invested in youth in the Australian Programme all along because Mitch Marsh and Josh Hazelwood are 22-25 and make the team average age closer to 30. • Claim that you always were going to drop Brad Haddin after the Cardiff Test and that Pete Nevill would just make it under the 30 years team average age and you always knew he was always going to succeed. • Take Fawad Ahmed on all future tours to remind Australians what a leg spinner looks like. • Never bowl when you win the toss at Edgbaston because you might win the Test…and we wouldn’t want to offend the Poms now would we? • Find as many old Cricket Axioms as you can in your Cricket Almanac and chant them mantra-like every morning to forget that cricket has actually changed. • Pretend you always knew Pat Cummins was never going to play in England and that he was just there for “the drinks waiter and gloves carrying experience”. • Pretend that Australian batsmen were in the capable hands of Mike Di Venuto and that they would be technically equipped to handle swing and seam by the Gang of 5 English bowlers. • Pretend that Craig McDermott was the best bowling coach to show Australians speedsters how to swing and seam the ball both ways in England, and that he had the strategy to coral the English batsmen with competent field settings and bowling plans. • Pretend that the ODI team you picked was better off with Shane Watson and George Bailey in it because they are the future of cricket in Australia. • Pretend that players such as Maxwell, Burns, Bancroft, Khawaja, Lynn, Maddinson, Zampa, Agar were not ready for the Ashes Tour when Mitch Marsh and Pete Nevill were. • Pretend Andrew Strauss would never be able to pull together a coach and team which would lead the Ashes 3-1 going into a dead Rubber. • Pretend that Test Cricket is a game solely for “old blokes” when Ali, Root, Stokes, Broad and Wood, who are all under 30, were the “finds” of the English summer. • Pretend you are Cricket Australia and you have the best group of Coaches and Selectors to take Australia forward. Then try to wake up to reality! Footnote: Of course a 2-3 loss in the Ashes is honourable, just like 0-3 was in the last one. It is not easy to win in England. Australia won 2 games this time, and that is a huge positive! But we lost the Ashes for the 5th successive time. If we are to go back in 5 years or less, and play them Down under in less than 2 years, we need far better coaching and strategy and to hone younger players to achieve that. And Justin Langer is the only man I know in Australia capable of that …unless Trevor Bayliss resigns his post in England, which he would be crazy to do. The ECB seems to know better than the CA people what strings to pull to win . The bottom line is there is not much between Australia and England but we had the chance, again, to prepare a team to win…and we flopped in many different areas. Bad things happen to teams who leave too many things to chance, which is what this team led by Marsh and Lehmann did! ARTHUR PAGONIS MANAGING DIRECTOR AUSTRALIA GLOBAL TRADING PTY LTD 10 HERTZ WAY, MORLEY, W.A. 6062 AUSTRALIA PH. 61.8.9377 3833, FAX 61.8.93773877, MOBILE 61. 409918874 SKYPE: apagonis2 WEB: www.ausglobaltrading.com
TheCunningLinguistic
Guest
Within one to two years, I expect Mitch Marsh to be the first genuine all rounder that Australia has produced in a very long time. Able to be selected solely on either aspect of his repertoire, and excelling at both. His bowling is there, his batting will get there, no doubt. We've all seen what he can do in the One Day format, a good season of County cricket will fix his last weakness, which is a weakness all the Aussie bats have suffered from this series!
Alex L
Roar Rookie
I can't recall who it was, but one of the Roar Radio commentators during the Pakistan series in the UAE commented that he's too quick to be considered a medium pacer when he was bowling faster than Siddle was at the time -- he's also a pretty good height to extract bounce at 6'4". Probably not his long term though.
bert
Guest
How important is Mitch Marsh going to be for the future of Australia cricket!! He looks much more than just a handy part timer, l reckon he will be a real weapon. Bowling attack will be so much more potent with 4 quicks.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Both aspects of the Australian side were poor at times; but in Cardiff the bowling was quite poor all round with none of the quicker bowlers able to stabilize and hit line and length for any significant period of time (not helped by Clarke being hyperactive with his field placings).
Alex L
Roar Rookie
He cleaned up a county tail.. I'm not alone in thinking that's not especially impressive. I think most advocating for his selection are doing so based on potential he showed pre-injury rather than looking at the current player; many of the same commentators were arguing for his selection over Hazlewood during the world cup knockout stages even after Hazlewood had done an impressive job on Pakistan.
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
Bugger all experience in England? Sure - so how about we give him some in a dead rubber?
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
Bowled well in the tour match last weekend. And pretty much everyone who is in a position to know says he should have been picked. Are you saying they're all wrong?
matth
Guest
All of this distracts from the fact that our batsmen lost us this series. Our bowling was actually ok. How many times did England pass 400? How any English batsmen hit hundreds or averaged over 35? The complete failure of our batsman to handle the conditions and exert scoreboard pressure, which England are obviously susceptible to, lost us this series. To go on about the bowling is disservice to our guys who took twenty wickets more often than not, if our batsmen gave them more than 60 runs to play with.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
So my question is.. with Siddle and Marsh proving dangerous, will the almost juvenile policy of only selecting bowlers who get upwards of 140km/h cease? It might be valid against weaker sides, or even at some of the bouncier Australian grounds, but at least one bowler besides Nathan Lyon has to be capable of bowling more than 4 overs at a time.
MrKistic
Roar Rookie
No reason? How about the fact he has bugger all experience in England and has played bugger all cricket in the last 2 years? Sorry, that's 2 reasons.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
What has Cummins done since his injury to make you think that? I'm genuinely curious, because all I've seen is a bowler who isn't international standard in shorter forms of the game and has barely touched a red ball.