A rejuvenated England dominated with bat and ball yesterday to inject some interest into this lopsided Ashes.
The tourists had their best day of the series so far, first producing a clinical performance in the field and then finally getting some runs from leaders Joe Root and Alastair Cook, who flopped across the first three Tests.
By stumps England were 2/192, trailing by 132 runs, with Cook and Root unbeaten on 104 and 49 respectively.
Earlier England maintained the impressive discipline with the ball they had shown on Day 1, except this time they got full reward.
At 3/260, with Steve Smith on 76 and Shaun Marsh 35, Australia had negotiated the second new ball and looked set for a total of well over 400. Instead England hauled themselves back into the Test by grabbing 7/67. They had a bit of luck, with Smith, Mitch Marsh and Tim Paine all chopping on to their stumps in the first session, but the tourists deserved some fortune after bowling with skill, patience and intensity.
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For the first time in this series Stuart Broad and James Anderson clicked in tandem. Broad in particular looked a different bowler from the moment he broke his long wicket-taking drought by getting Usman Khawaja caught behind after tea on day one.
After ambling to the crease during many uninspired spells in this Ashes Broad began charging towards the batsmen. Anderson, meanwhile, nagged away on a tight line and length, a strategy which did not always work on the truer surfaces at Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, but was effective on this sluggish MCG deck.
How England will wish that their veteran quicks had combined like this a few weeks ago, before the Ashes were lost. Regardless, it was a spirited display, and that determination flowed over into England’s innings. Australia’s quicks have had their way with the English batting line-up this series. The frailty of former skipper Cook has been key to the imbalance in this contest.
Yesterday, however, we saw Cook circa 2010 – a commanding figure rather than the vulnerable 2017 version. It’s often said that you can easily tell when Cook is in form because he starts lacing drives to the boundary. When he’s out of nick Cook barely pierces the field in front of square, looking to slice everything through point and gully or nurdle it off his hip or pads through backward square leg.
This is the way he batted across the first three Tests as he averaged just 13. Then all of a sudden yesterday Cook went from camping deep in his crease to striding confidently towards the ball. Down the ground, through wide on, past cover – he started timing his drives beautifully.
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It wasn’t until he was on 66 that Cook made his first real mistake, trying to hammer a drive off the bowling of Mitch Marsh only to edge to first slip, where Steve Smith turfed a sharp chance. Root, meanwhile, looked equally as comfortable at the crease.
This pair was helped, no doubt, by the absence of the leading wicket-taker in the series, Mitchell Starc, who is nursing a bruised heel.
With Pat Cummins suffering from an illness and well down pace, and with Starc’s replacement, Jackson Bird, struggling for rhythm, the Australian attack was tame. Bird’s strength as a bowler is his precision, yet he was the least accurate of the Australian bowlers.
He and Josh Hazlewood also bowled too short, particularly with the new ball. A graphic by cricket analytics company Cricviz showed that in the first ten overs of England’s innings Cook did not face a single delivery that would have struck his stumps
On a pitch offering variable pace, Australia will need to improve their accuracy greatly today if they are to keep England from building a decent lead.
Tez
Guest
Am wondering when Kwaja might score some runs ..... he looks badly out of form. Wonder who could replace him? Tis a bit tough for Handscombe to get dropped but Uzzy is still there.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I saw the pitch on day one and basically tuned out to most of the test. It did turn out to be a closer test than I expected.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Pink ball tests might be funky for the crowds at night under lights but it can be a lucky dip as to who gains the most from the night session conditions. Purists will have to adjust to that, as will some test captains. For example, Smith might not want to bat again at night when the ball is moving about, when he has the option of sending the opposition in to follow on. The SA batting order looks more capable against the moving ball than the Aussies but it will be an interesting examination of both sides. Fingers crossed all key players are fit and in form for both sides.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Smith bowling himself for that last over of the day, to a player in the nineties, was a complete brain fail. The one time in the innings when Cook might have been a little nervous was wasted with an over of crap from the captain. Dumb, dumb cricket!
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
All i see here is blah, blah, blah... Professional cricketers would never be so weak as to use a Christmas meal as an excuse for a poor test performance. Neither should their fans. Its actually insulting to the players. The Aussie team would have prepared well for this test. Lyon has even stated as much. Perhaps our players have just responded to this uninspiring, lifeless and crap test wicket with an equally uninspiring, lifeless and crap performance.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Old enough to remember watching batsmen score hundreds on lively pitches that had plenty of green grass. Old enough to remember the WACA when it actually had pace and bounce. Old enough to remember Michael Holding starting his bowling run up leaning on the dog track fence at the Gabba. Old enough to remember when 30 wasn' t considered a good test average for a top order batsman and old enough to remember when the number six spot was a batting position and filled with a quality batsman like Doug Walters, not a bits and pieces player.
Ben Brown
Guest
Don't worry mate, Don Freo is a delusional fanboy that will berate anyone that questions the Marsh Brothers
Bakkies
Guest
Dav Zim are reacting the wrong way by saying that they are uncompetitive so will focus on one day Cricket. They bowled better than most recent touring teams to SA.
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
With Green-top on Day-1, Australia would not had reached 250 even.
dave
Guest
Not an excuse because the Aussies will produce something special as they always do in the MCG test and the poms will collapse. Nowdays in professional sports every meal is documented every training session documented all looking for that extra one percent.These guys are on big money. Playing the day after xmass is a tradition that will never change. Do you think that all 11 players will go to their family xmass parties and choose to eat only the healthy options and refuse to drink any alcohol? Or do you think that cricket is the kind of sport even at international level that you can binge as much as you want without having any effect on your performance.?
DavSA
Guest
The reality Ronan is that Australia have so dominated this series and frankly have been terrific. I would right now put them at the very top of test cricket . I have here in SA spent quite a bit of time watching SA vs Zimbabwe and have some major concerns., namely the moment the lights came on at St Georges Park and with the pink ball the wicket became massively unplayable . ...Zim are not a bad cricket team at all but it was simply the conditions that led to their humiliating defeat...they absolutely had the worst of it . I am taking zip away from the SA bowlers at all. .....however Kudos to SA cricket for giving them this game and I believe they have a one off test coming up next year against Aus....Zimbabwe have the makings of a fantastic cricketing nation.
Don Freo
Guest
Still young! You're actually old when you can't remember that stuff any more.
Bakkies
Guest
A late birthday and Christmas present from Smith to Cook. Drops a dolly that he should have gobbled up on the second attempt (dropped a similar catch in Adelaide which gave England a strong platform for the next day) and another chance came up on when Cook was in his 80s. He was too leaden footed and hands not in the right position to move forward to try and catch the chance off Lyon. Then he compounds it by bowling rubbish and handing him a ton with a full toss and rank long hop. Smith needs to get himself out of first slip when a spinner or medium pacer is on and put in someone who has better reactions and isn't sloppy.
Rebellion
Guest
Omg How old are you guys !!!! ??♀️??
Bakkies
Guest
He has been told to bowl short. Starc bowled too short against Pakistan last year so must have been playing that role.
Rebellion
Guest
Jackson Bird should be given a standing farewell and a gold watch after this test He’ll never wear the baggy green again after producing such limp and pedestrian spells We really needed Pattinson back for this test, especially with Cummins out of sorts
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
That's a poor excuse for an excuse.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Was Gilmour injured during that series? I remember watching him at the Gabba test that series. I do also remember the following 6 - 11 which could be even weaker 6. Gary Cosier 7. John Maclean (average 11 compared to Marsh's 26) 8. Bruce Yardley (ave 19) 9. Rodney Hogg (ave 9.7) 10. Geoff Dymock (ave 9.4) 11. Alan Hurst (ave 6) I remember Cosier having a very impressive start to his test career before normal programming resumed and that he hit the ball a long way for someone who barely had a back lift. Thanks for the reminder.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Or against a real strike bowler, which we don't have without Starc.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
I expect, after last summers Hobart debacle, Cricket Australia wont want grassy pitches with signs of life prepared for our tests. They can't afford for test matches to be over by early day three.