Loose, tired, sloppy and so impatient
AUSTRalIa opened the door for England on the first day of the final Test with dropped catches and a wicket off a no-ball, but they just could not force their way through.
This was a sloppy, error-ridden day for both sides with an end-of-term feel about it — even though it is very much a live ashes Test.
It was a missed opportunity for England because they were inserted by Tim Paine on what was probably a bat-first pitch and the ball did nothing until it started swinging either side of tea.
But it was not just England who made mistakes and I couldn’t understand why australia picked Peter Siddle over Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson when they had Mitchell Marsh in the side as a control bowler to ease the load.
There were some good balls in there but when you look at the dismissals of Rory Burns and Ben Stokes — who played a very tiredlooking shot — in particular, you appreciate what a waste this was.
and how about Joe denly? leave the ball. Just leave it. Has he not been watching Marnus labuschagne since he came into the australian side at lord’s?
Throughout this series australia have gone back of a length to denly before providing a tempter outside off-stump.
and he had already squirted a couple through third man yesterday before he just threw the kitchen sink at it again.
at least Joe Root is battling. He was trying to get forward and work on his movement yesterday where he has been a little out of sync and keeps getting trapped in the crease.
He had his good fortune, too, but then Pat Cummins trapped him on the crease with a pearler and he is getting bowled too often for such a quality batsman.
What australia did particularly well after tea was dry England up by bowling tight, joining the dots and notching up maidens, with Jonny Bairstow going a long time without scoring.
and Marsh’s set up to Bairstow — going outswing, outswing and then inswing — was brilliant.
australia clearly feel that if they dry up England they will keep on feeling for the ball. There is so little patience. Compare it to certain cricketers around the world.
If you dry up labuschagne, it will not bother him one bit. The same, of course, with Steve Smith. and Cheteshwar Pujara of India. and South africa’s dean Elgar.
But australia know full well that if you bowl a few maidens at England they will start to go after the ball and play a big drive or a waft rather than just saying: ‘We’ll give you half an hour and then we’ll cash in when the bowlers start to tire.’
I want to see some ruthlessness in this England Test side but at the moment it just isn’t happening and that will be what they have to address moving forward.
Only when Jos Buttler batted really well with the tail and Jack leach again showed some character with the bat did England display the fight they needed to produce here.
This England side still lack frontline Test batsmen with a lot of all-rounders in there. It is loose and carefree.
and that led to an error- strewn day which should make every batsman ask — did I do enough to contribute to the team today?
They will have to have a good look at themselves because the answer in most cases was no.
England wanted to use an old batch of dukes balls in this series because they expected them to swing and that’s what happened here after tea.
So they can only hope they will get the same degree of movement when australia bat today and if there is, this score might still be enough from England — particularly if Buttler can carry on for a while.
But they should have been in a much better position by the end of the first day.