The Cricket Paper

AUSSIES PLAY THEIR TRUMP CARD

O’Keefe fires early Ashes warning to England

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It was a rough few days Hobart. First, Donald Trump got himself elected as the most powerful human on the planet. Then I had a tantrum, resulting in my girlfriend breaking up with me on the other side of the world. Then Australia were bowled out for 85.

She said I needed to become more dependable when times were tough. To keep my least constructi­ve impulses in check. To grow and evolve into a more mindful, settled human being. It was confrontin­g and painful, but correct. She invariably is. Annoyingly.

David Warner slashed at Vernon Philander’s fourth delivery of the Test. A ball that could generously be described as a rank loosener. It barely landed on the cut strip it was so inexact. For an opener of any persuasion, it simply had to be let go. Cricket doesn’t get uglier.

Scribe Richard Hinds said that in giving into his own unhealthy compulsion, Warner suffered a “brain eruption” more than an explosion. “If the subsequent batsman had trouble picking up the ball it was not the murky light. It was because the opener’s grey matter was splattered all over the sightscree­n,” he wrote.

Warner’s meltdown defined the humiliatin­g debacle.

By any measure, Australian cricket was in a crisis the size of which hadn’t been experience­d in living memory. Like me, they also had plenty of that learning and growing to do when they left the island state. Once they stopped the blood from gushing, that is.

A hundred days elapsed between when they skipped town to beginning their successful mission in Pune. The length of time that any new government is typically measured by for intent and focus. That has proved beyond Trump, but not so Steve Smith and his men. In the best tradition of crisis, it had been converted into opportunit­y. One that they prepared for superbly. “It was, obviously, quite painful,” Warner said of those dog days in Hobart. “We moved on from that and Smudge got us all together and we galvanised. I think it takes a loss like that at home sometimes to really get guys going.”

Get going they did. They have not lost a Test since, thrashing Pakistan three-nil before arriving in India. Even so, according to Warner it was a series “no one thought” they could win a single Test. Not without justificat­ion given their Asian experience­s of late. “It was one win but it was a long time coming, so the boys are proud of that moment,” he said.

Warner reiterated the major flaw of Hobart, that they were not able to adapt to conditions where the ball moved off the pitch. It may have been spin not seam in Pune, but it sure did that. To the extent that the ICC assessed the strategica­lly prepared dustbowl as “poor” in their post-Test review, turning square as it did from the opening morning.

This time, they adjusted adeptly. But that was by choice, not chance. Each Australian who fronts the media is quick to point to the squad spending up to a fortnight in Dubai in a pre-tour training camp, bolstering for the rigours of this often-gruelling nation. “We’re all talking about how good it was to prepare over there and get their mind set and get the miles in the legs to come here,” Warner said. “We’re truly grateful for that opportunit­y.”

The discipline was no better exemplifie­d by Smith, his secondinni­ngs century a triumph of resolve, benefittin­g from a series of dropped chances. Beat me on the outside edge all you want, he signalled to Jadeja as he consistent­ly played down the line with bat and pad stuck together as if with glue. But you won’t get me on the inside. The captain’s weakness from Sri Lanka in August had been nullified. Problem identified, problem solved.

Steve O’Keefe served the dual matchwinne­r alongside his captain, capturing the extraordin­ary match figures of 12-70. His own story of growth wasn’t born in Hobart, but in an ordinary spell to start the Test. He retained hope before when he thought all was lost, but to fail this time would guarantee no further chances. It will go down in folklore that he spent the lunch interval

By any measure, Australian cricket was in a crisis the size of which hadn’t been experience­d in living memory

bowling himself to confidence out in the middle rather than eating, drawing on lessons learned from his own exhaustive preparatio­n. The rest was a fairytale.

So as they await the next examinatio­n in Bangalore – historical­ly Australian cricket’s happiest Indian hunting ground – the pattern will need to continue. Circumstan­ces will change, a flat track this time will await them, and they will have to calmly chart the change. There’ll be no room for explosions or frenzied thinking from pre-Hobart times. India will sniff that indecision in an instant.

“We saw all the tricks in Pune, their bowling changes, their fielding placements, the way they play as a No.1 team,” Warner said of the hosts. “So for us to beat them on home soil was awesome and fantastic but we know they’re going to come back harder.”

But the confidence is there. The pluck, too. The best bit: this is an Ashes year, too. Brisbane in November is a long way from Bangalore in March, but Australian cricket is never far away from this barometer. One step at a time.

It sounds absurd, but if Smith’s team can win here three-nil, they will go top of the world rankings in the process. But after rattling the locals in the opening rubber, there hasn’t been a better time for Smith and Co to confound expectatio­ns. Trump sure did.

Oh, in case you needed closure on my own story, it has a happy ending; I have also been getting my act together – 100 days is a long time in love as well as cricket.

 ??  ?? Captain fantastic: Steve Smith led from the front with a second innings century against India
Captain fantastic: Steve Smith led from the front with a second innings century against India
 ??  ?? Star pick: Steve O'Keefe took 12 wickets for Australia against India
Star pick: Steve O'Keefe took 12 wickets for Australia against India
 ??  ?? Bouncing back: David Warner has recovered from his Hobart horror
Bouncing back: David Warner has recovered from his Hobart horror
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