Opinion
Another day, another domination for Australia with both bat and ball.
And perhaps the most encouraging sign of all was the excellent last session with the ball from Michael Neser.
We talked about the West Indies being too short yesterday, and there was talk that maybe the pitch was a bit slow and not as much in it. But when you pitch it up in the danger area – that five-and-a-half to eight-metre zone in the corridor of uncertainty – all of a sudden the ball looks like it’s quicker and the pitch a bit bouncier, and that’s what made the difference.
Neser did that consistently, all the while getting good support from Scott Boland at the other end, and thoroughly deserved his two wickets. He almost got another one with the caught-and-bowled he couldn’t hang on to as well.
He dominates Shield cricket, and it was a handy debut 12 months ago against England. If he can continue to bowl that ideal line and length, with a bit of away movement, he’s going to get a lot of wickets at this level.
Neser and Boland in reserve is just so handy for Australia, especially as it seems Josh Hazlewood will struggle to be right for Brisbane against South Africa in a week’s time. If Pat Cummins comes in, then the selectors have got the luxury of choosing between Boland and Neser.
In the here and now, the other encouraging sign for Australia was how much Roston Chase spun the ball earlier in the day. He doesn’t put a lot on it and yet he was getting some notable turn, and already Nathan Lyon looks like he’s getting about double the spin.
It might be a little bit easier to bat tomorrow against the quicks during the day sessions, but if that proves to be the case, the Aussies will be able to use Lyon throughout and have the quicks rotate in shorter, sharper spells. It all bodes well for Australia.
Batting-wise, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head were excellent for the second day in a row. Marnus couldn’t hope to be in any better form to take on a potent South African attack.
What makes him so good is that he constantly keeps working on his game – he must have amazing fitness and concentration. How much time has he batted this series, and he’s rarely played a false stroke. Then, when he has time off between games, he’s still working on his game, so he leaves little to chance.
Technique-wise, Labuschagne is very quick to get into position, and what that allows him is time and options. I feel like for any given ball, he’s got enough time to hit the ball in front of square, or play it later and hit it down behind square, on both sides of the wicket. Add to that his insatiable hunger for runs, and he’s just amazing.
It was probably the most impressive Test innings I’ve seen from Head, too. Sometimes he can look a little bit jumpy, a little nervous when he starts, but that certainly hasn’t been the case here.
His 99 really progressed the game in Perth, but it was a rushed knock trying to get quick runs. This time, he looked solid and he looked poised.
The thing about someone like Head is, I don’t think he needs to premeditate to score quickly – he’s just a natural fast scorer. Throughout this innings, his strike rate was constantly around 80.
The only disappointing thing was the mode of dismissal – he wasn’t happy after that miscommunication with Cameron Green that saw him run out!
That was just about the only negative of the day – he walks off in front of his home crowd with a big 170, and he’s raised his bat but it wasn’t a real joyful raise of the bat as he was still fuming at the dismissal. He probably deserved to be able to cash in with a big 200 and raise the bat to everyone.
Fast bowling has probably been the strength of the Australian team for close to 30 years now, so it’s not an anomaly to have guys like Boland and Neser come in and perform as well as they have. The anomaly is that 20 years ago and just before that, we had so many more unlucky middle-order players. Back then, we had the likes of Jamie Siddons, Stuart Law, Brad Hodge and Martin Love all play far fewer Tests than they deserved: even Darren Lehmann, who only played 27 Tests, was unlucky not to play more for Australia.
At the moment, there isn’t a lot of pressure on spots for the middle order. That’s why Travis Head’s last 12 months is so important for Australian cricket – he looks like he owns number five now, he believes that’s his spot and he can hold it down for the foreseeable future.
He’s had to wait all series for a bat, and it was pretty apparent when Cam Green came in – he just didn’t look comfortable at all. It reminded me of his first couple of innings against India in his first series a couple of summers ago.
Sometimes he looks a bit rigid in his set-up. I’d like him just to relax, both technically and a bit mentally. Having said that, sitting there for hours waiting for your turn has got to be bloody tough!
Cameron Green of Australia celebrates with teammates. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
In consecutive Tests he’s hardly batted, and if he’s a little nervous and a little uptight, having me say ‘relax a little bit more’ probably doesn’t help much! He must have played the innings numerous times before he got out there.
I’m sure it won’t happen against South Africa – he’ll probably have to be at his best, and should get plenty more chances to get out there and score some runs.
It looked like Green’s batting influenced his bowling too – he didn’t look like he was confident at all. He conceded 17 runs from his first four balls, including a couple of no-balls, but then he got a wicket and he was like a different bowler.
One thing I loved was that the Aussies all got around him, they wanted to support him. That’s what you do as a good team – you want to help younger players like Green find their confidence.
He can still be a major weapon on this pitch, especially if the Aussies continue the short-ball attack against Tagenarine Chanderpaul. He again showed so much patience late in the day and should be a long-term opener for the West Indies, but he’s almost a compulsive hooker-puller, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that leads to his downfall on Saturday.
It’ll be interesting tomorrow what the Aussies do if they, as you’d expect, bowl the West Indies out sometime during the day sessions. They generally are keen to have another bat, but how long do they bat for?
Hopefully, they bat aggressively and get the Windies batting again in another ugly session under the lights.
This series’ twelfth and final team has a distinct West Indian flavour at the top of the order, and a domineering captain.
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