Smith’s double ton puts Australia on top
PERTH: On the grass bank at the western end of the Waca, the Barmy Army had organised an enormous conga line. Stuart Broad, fielding at midoff, was watching with interest. Perhaps he was simply trying to avoid looking at the scoreboard. Australia were 549-4. Mitchell Marsh, 181 not out. It had been 466 balls since England’s last wicket. On a desolate, dispiriting, irredeemable day for English cricket, neither numbers nor interpretative dance could offer the slightest solace.
This was, in theory, the middle day of the series: day three of Test three. In fact, it was probably the day the series died. The day it finally lost its last vestiges of mystery or sporting intrigue. England may yet bat out the four or five sessions they need for a draw (and the weather, with showers forecast tomorrow afternoon and Monday morning, may help them). But it wouldn’t shift the fundamentals of the series, and in any case you would strongly bet against it.
For this was the day when we learned for certain what should probably have been apparent all along: that Eng- land simply lack the ability to take the 20 Australian wickets they will need to win a Test. They couldn’t do it in English-style conditions in Adelaide, and they couldn’t get close here. Instead, as Shaun Marsh and the wonderful Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh batted and batted, as England toiled 90 overs in the heat for just a single wicket, their strength and resolve gradually deserted them. England were not so much deep fried as slow roasted: one of those long, thankless, exhausting days that shortens careers.
Smith progressed imperturbably to his 22nd Test century in the morning and his second double-century in the evening, ending on a career-best 229 not out. The much- maligned Mitchell Marsh, returning to the side on his home ground, could scarcely have dreamed that his maiden Test century would have come as bloodlessly as this. On what was admittedly a beautiful batting wicket, England gave them room, gave them time, gave them space, gave them friendly fields and bowling at a comfortable pace.
After all, when your most threatening bowler by far is Craig Overton, a one-Test rookie playing through a cracked rib, then something has gone wrong somewhere.