I’M BRACED FOR DEFEAT
Sad England never had a chance admits Paul
IT was hard to escape the feeling that this was the day the Ashes slipped from England’s grasp for all the sentiments of defiance which ended it.
And while there is no reason to question the honesty when Paul Farbrace said they will not give up the fight for the remainder of the series, there is a sense too that the post-mortem into defeat has already started internally.
England’s assistant coach (right) can usually be relied upon to put a positive spin on the worst of days but what panned out in the heat at The WACA tested even his powers of positivity.
Watching Australia pile on 346 runs on day three for the loss of one wicket as English shoulders slumped with bowlers looking, if not broken in spirit, then lacking ideas, does that to a man.
And watching the peerless Steve Smith rack up a double hundred and Mitch Marsh nearly the same as they combined for a 300-plus partnership had evidently been not much fun on the England dressing room balcony.
Farbrace said: “We saw in Adelaide when there was a little bit of swing or movement off the surface, we have high quality bowlers who can exploit those conditions.
“But when it comes to flatter pitches, we don’t have that express pace.
“We knew that coming into the series. I’m not being critical of our bowlers. I’m being honest.
“There’s nothing that’s surprised us during the course of this series and the same in India last winter.
“We have not learned anything from today we didn’t already know. We just don’t have that extra pace and we haven’t got the highest quality of magical spin.”
What England did have was a set of exhausted bowlers with some big numbers in their analyses and one,
Craig Overton, with a cracked rib diagnosed halfway through the day but almost certainly sustained in Adelaide when he was belted by a Josh Hazlewood bouncer.
After Australia closed on 549-4, a lead of 146, Farbrace admitted an inability to get Smith out was an issue.
He added: “We’ve tried all sorts. We’ve thought about the plans to him and we’ve been thinking about them for some time but we’ve come up against a player who is in the form of his life and playing absolutely fantastically.” England look beaten and at some stage on day four Smith will look them in the eye and raise the stakes to critical levels with the Ashes on the line.
At that point just 10 secondinnings wickets will stand between the Aussies and an irreversible 3-0 scoreline.
Asked if the Ashes have gone, Farbrace said: “Absoultely not. “We have got two more days to play and we have got to get stuck in and play exceptionally well. “It’s going to be tough but we had our opportunities in the last game and opportunities in the previous game.
“We just haven’t been good enough, or they have been better in the tough moments and they have taken them away from us.”
RUN AMOK: Australia heroes Mitch Marsh and Steve Smith