2017-18 Root’s men
‘We need hundreds in the next four Tests’
THREE days of evenlymatched combat from England and Australia made way for a sucker punch on day four of the opening Ashes Test and it was England not Australia who walked on to it.
Joe Root’s men were left clinging to the hope of miracles or tropical storms having just about steadied their legs enough to drag the contest into a fifth day. Yet defeat will surely come and it will be heavy with the home side needing just 55 runs to wrap up victory with 10 wickets remaining.
Quite how this Test, which had ebbed and flowed so absorbingly for three gripping days, disappeared in a fizzle should concern England with the second Test to come, starting on Saturday in Adelaide.
A combination of bad luck, a lack of skill against a shortpitched attack and some poor judgment saw England release their grip on the contest.
But they need to turn things round this week and win the day-nighter in Adelaide if they are to check momentum and stop this tour from turning nasty.
From a position effectively 7-2 overnight, England wobbled, then steadied, then were blown away.
There were moments when they rattled Australia, when Joe Root reached a half-century with Moeen Ali for company, then again when Moeen and Jonny Bairstow were moving along with increasingly sure steps at 155-5.
Yet Root fell leg-before for the second time in the match once he had reached his half-century – another addition to his ‘failure to convert’ statistics which now show 13 centuries from 46 fifties or five from his last 25. And Moeen and Bairstow were undone by a combination of bad luck and judgment.
The former’s dismissal, stumped by a smart piece of wicketkeeping from Tim Paine just as England were heading towards a total that might have tested Australia’s self-belief, was the pivotal moment in England’s second innings.
Reaching forward and missing a turning delivery from offspinner Nathan Lyon, Moeen was adjudged to have none of IN BRISBANE his foot behind the line after Paine reacted smartly and whipped off the bails. That in itself was controversial enough, given it took third umpire Chris Gaffaney well over a minute and painstaking, multiple replays to decide whether he had anything behind the line.
More frustrating was the width of the line itself, which had been repainted several times throughout the contest at drinks breaks and session ends and had ended significantly OVER AND OUT: Moeen departs after his controversial dismissal wider on the cut strip than outside the return creases. It was a paint job which effectively robbed Moeen of the millimetre he was adjudged short. If his exit hurt, it was the dismissal of Bairstow to leave just the tail standing that proved the killer blow, the batsman uppercutting a rising ball from Mitchell Starc down the throat of Peter Handscomb at third man. His rash shot exposed a tail MOEEN ALI said England batsmen have to weigh in with centuries in each of the next four Tests if they are to avoid another Ashes drubbing.
The all-rounder, who fell controversially for 40 on Sunday at the Gabba as England were nudged to the brink of defeat, laid the blame for England’s failure squarely at the feet of the top order.
“A few got in and then we couldn’t get that big hundred,” he said. “It was a good pitch to bat on and we haven’t got a hundred. Coming to the Gabba,