How ironic it for WACA to
Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon, our Aussie journo double act, reflect on the final throws of the WACA
Geoff Lemon:
Why do you hate Christmas, England? Why do you detest joy and good cheer? Why are you wadding up this festive edition of The Cricket Paper and jamming it into some poor vicar’s fuel tank? We go to all the trouble of putting on a Boxing Day Test, we cook up a great feed, we make the place look nice, and then every time you come over, you kill the series before it reaches Melbourne. Apart from that one time when you won it in the first hour, which was also very careless. Can’t we just have nice competitive things?
We’ll look back at this as quite a special England capitulation, too.
Adam Collins:
From 368-4, with two blokes above 100 and bossing it, to all out an hour later. All that hard work undone from the opening day, when the ball was fizzing through at literally the fastest average pace that three quicks have maintained since stattos started keeping data, so says CricViz. That made it a rather lovely – if unexpected – farewell love letter to the dear old WACA.
I don’t know how much motor oil or fairy sparkles they pumped into the surface, but it came back from beyond The Great Divide. They must have had
GL:
John Edward on the groundstaff. It wasn’t lightning but it was quick enough. That first morning was compelling. Short balls galore for Mark Stoneman and James Vince, but they weathered most of the session. Then Stoneman gets hit, and he’s basically gone at that point. But he still battles through another seven overs or so before the inevitable. It was brave stuff, and set the tone for YJB and Dawid.
Making it all the more frustrating what happened next. But balancing out the WACA’s virtue was the final day circus. Industrial strength hairdryers for all during the first session. Parochialism to one side, I was barracking for the story there, hoping the day would be called off. Would have been a neat finish for the ground’s lifespan as a Test venue, waiting until the very last day to have one rained out.
That part was one of the most hilarious displays of performative ineptitude I’ve ever had the enjoyment of witnessing rather than being part of. They had covers that got the pitch wet, then every time they tried to dry it, rain started again. They were slow getting the covers back each time. Then the covers would blow away. Then the rain would stop and they’d pack up again. And this went on for hours. I know conditions were tough, but people were in sincerity proposing the ground staff should get a free pass, as though no one in Perth has
AC: GL:
It would have been a neat finish for the WACA’s lifespan, waiting until the very last day to have one rained out