SMITH’S TORTURE BREAKS ENGLAND
Root’s men look bereft of ideas and energy as Aussie skipper puts Ashes campaign on the brink
THIS was brutal. This was torture. It was almost cruel. This was the day, surely, any hopes England possibly had of retaining the Ashes disappeared. By the close of a totally one-sided third day of the third Test they looked completely broken.
Not only did England have no answer to the extraordinary figure of Steve Smith but, far more worryingly, they looked flat and bereft of all energy, ideas and imagination throughout a day when they simply had to be at their best.
Remember, Australia started it 200 behind England with three wickets down and some of the biggest pundits in the game were saying they would rather be in Joe Root’s shoes than Smith’s.
Yet from the first over Root went on the defensive — with just one slip and a split field — and England looked resigned to their fate rather than trying to get through Smith and expose what is hardly a vintage Australian batting line-up.
There was none of the hostility and aggression shown towards Smith that seemed to unsettle the Australian captain, along with the moving pink ball, in Adelaide. This was a mild, meek, almost apologetic England.
As a result, England took just one wicket in the day and will surely need the rain that is forecast to fall late today and tomorrow if they are to have any chance of escaping their least favourite Australian venue with a draw.
England’s incompetence should take nothing away from an Australian captain who is not only the best batsman in the world right now but is piling up figures better than anyone in the game’s history other than Don Bradman.
It is no exaggeration to say Smith was just never troubled yesterday, let alone offering any chances to an England attack that did not have the pace nor the extra spin to examine a batsman at the very peak of his powers.
Smith, who was starting the day on 92, raced to the quickest of his 22 Test hundreds, off 138 balls, before piling on the runs and misery for England and finishing on a career-best unbeaten 229.
It left Australia, at 549 for four, 146 ahead and completely and utterly in control. This, remember, is a man who began his international career as a leg-spinner and No 8 batsman who failed to make a hundred in his first 24 Test innings. But since making his first century he has averaged 71.66 over 48 Tests and this was his 14th hundred in 29 matches as captain. Truly remarkable.
And joining him in the carnage yesterday was another returning Australian who began the game under extreme pressure but who ended the day 19 short of a Test double century having added an unbeaten 301 with his captain.
Mitchell Marsh joined Smith when his older brother Shaun had fallen out of the blue to Moeen Ali to leave Australia still 155 behind and England, in theory, still in the game. The reality was very different. The younger Marsh had been the latest contentious pick by an Australian panel labelled ‘morons’ by former leg-spinner Stuart MacGill ahead of the series, but now he joined his brother and Tim Paine in totally vindicating the selectors.
England did not help their cause. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are playing in their 100th Test together — but rarely can they have had a game as bad as this in their illustrious careers, going — a record for them — 57 overs between them without a wicket. Broad is enduring one of his worst ever series and looks no nearer fulfilling his great wish of winning the Ashes in Australia, having gone home injured early in 2010 and been a member of Alastair Cook’s thrashed side of four years ago.
Broad, along with Chris Woakes, Craig Overton and Moeen, all went for more than a hundred runs each, with Australians proving they do actually have a sense of humour by giving their favourite pantomime villain a rapturous ovation when he ‘reached’ three figures.
Anderson, meanwhile, looked every inch his 35 years and could find neither seam nor swing to do little to silence those doubters who still believe England’s record wicket- taker is nothing like as potent away as he is at home.
At least Overton, who cracked a
rib trying to catch Usman Khawaja off his own bowling on Friday, again showed spirit and character to at least discomfort Smith by striking him on the shoulder.
For the record, there were two reviews against Smith on 135 and 173 — but the first was missing and the second did not even have to go through the DRS because Anderson had overstepped. It just about summed up England’s day.
It was on the fourth day in Perth last time that England fell apart and both the series and one of their finest teams began to unravel, with the divisions in the ranks well and truly exposed by the time they lost for a fifth time in Sydney.
Their breakdown has come a day earlier this time but this is a united England team at a different stage of their development and it is highly unlikely they will go down the same path towards internal destruction. Yet, unless England can change the script very quickly, this series can only be hugely damaging for their inexperienced captain and one that could hasten the end for several senior players.
It was here that Graeme Swann retired once England went 3-0 down four years ago and it was the former off- spinner who made a very salient point on BT yesterday.
Swann noticed that not a single England batsman went to encourage Overton in the field once it was clear he was carrying on with a nasty injury. Not a pat on the back, not an arm round the shoulder, or even a tap on the backside.
And that is a worry because it suggests England are too consumed with their own problems to remember the wider picture and needs of the team. It really shouldn’t be all over yet but surely there is no way back for England now.