A TURN FOR THE WORSE
England facing monumental fight for survival as Moeen’s failure to deliver lets flawless Smith cash in again
The ball pitched outside off stump, spat off the worn and ultra- dry edgbaston surface and turned sharply to bowl Tim Paine through the gate. It was the perfect off- spinner’s dismissal, but it was the moment that summed up england’s desperate first Test plight.
even Moeen Ali could barely summon up the energy to celebrate a classic example of his art to dismiss the Australia captain because it was far too little and far too late to stop england facing nothing but a monumental fight for survival at their Birmingham fortress.
If only Moeen had been able to conjure up something similar much, much earlier to the man who has produced one of the great Ashes performances here in Steve Smith, then perhaps this year’s first episode of cricket’s oldest drama might have been following a very different script.
Instead england’s premier spinner, bereft of all confidence with the bat, was similarly abject with the ball on a fourth day pitch in his home city that could have been made for him as Australia seized the initiative after three compelling, up and down days.
And while the extraordinary Smith, becoming the first Australian to make two centuries in an Ashes Test since Matthew hayden 16 years ago, has been comfortably the difference between these sides, england’s bowling yesterday hardly helped.
Any plan for england to capitalise on green pitches in this Ashes with last year’s batch of seaming Dukes balls, just as they did in the 2015 series, has gone up in a puff of dust from an edgbaston surface that instead has been tailor-made for spin.
It has hardly helped that england have been a bowler down since Jimmy Anderson limped off on the first morning, while Chris Woakes was mysteriously restricted to just seven overs yesterday as Australia piled on the misery and runs.
But cometh the hour, england hoped, cometh the spinner who has been exceptional with the ball since returning to the side against India last summer, in direct contrast to his everdiminishing returns with the ball. Sadly, Moeen simply could not deliver.
he had made a reasonable enough start on Saturday night by sending back Cameron Bancroft, but from the moment he bowled a looping moon ‘no ball’ over Smith’s head in his first over yesterday it was clear this would not be his day.
By the time Moeen finally produced that pearler to bowl Paine he had disappeared for more than a hundred runs at close to five an over and Australia were perfectly positioned to push today for their first victory at england’s favourite ground since 2001.
And the worst indictment of Moeen’s display is that he was outbowled by Joe Root and even Joe Denly when the captain turned in desperation to the Kent man’s leg-breaks.
It would, of course, be a completely different story if it were not for the quite remarkable comeback of Smith, clearly still the best batsman in the world in his first Test since his own world fell apart in Cape Town 16 months ago.
Australia had started only 34 ahead and with the balance still slightly in england’s favour, but by the end of day four Root’s side had been completely batted out of it and left with no greater idea how to get Smith out than they had when last these sides met.
Then, Smith scored 687 runs in the series and he is already up to 286 in this one after another superb display of his very individual style had driven england to distraction and had done as much as humanly possible to quieten the most raucous crowd in english cricket.
Smith was almost flawless. he did flick Ben Stokes just wide of leg gully on 74 and would have been run out on 133 had Root got behind the stumps to collect Denly’s exceptional throw from the deep. Otherwise there was not a sniff of a chance.
It says everything for the redemption of Smith that even the majority of this crowd, who have been loudly, but never too nastily, reminding the disgraced former captain of his balltampering past throughout this Test, rose to him when he again reached three figures.
And it says everything about Smith’s hunger for runs that he looked devastated to be dismissed wafting at a wide one from Woakes for ‘just’ 142 before he acknowledged the whole of the ground, even raising his bat to the hollies Stand who had taunted him.
This time Smith, who had, remember, rescued Australia from the depths of 122 for eight in the first innings, had the support firstly of Travis head and then spectacularly in a stand of 126 from Australia’s keeper turned specialist batsman in Matthew Wade.
Wade rushed along to his third Test century and hit more boundaries than Smith, surviving the latest howler from umpire Joel Wilson who wrongly and woefully adjudged him lbw to Stuart Broad with the new ball, before becoming a third victim for Stokes.
James Pattinson and Pat Cummins swung productively until Paine handed england a surely hypothetical 398 to win but surprisingly only seven overs to survive on day four.
It was a display of conservatism from Paine that helped england get through without loss, but with Nathan Lyon already gaining turn and bounce they have a mighty task today to come through this first Test unscathed.
And whatever happens they will have much to ponder before these teams reconvene at Lord’s in 10 days’ time. Not least Moeen’s position.