AUSSIES ROCK DEFIANT COOK
Skipper’s brave knock as Australia march on to victory in last Test
IT TOOK one last piece of funky captaincy from Michael Clarke and the advent of the innocuous leg-spin of Steve Smith to end Alastair Cook’s resistance late yesterday and keep Australia firmly on course to spoil England’s Ashes-winning party.
Only the England captain had been able to display anything like the necessary application at the Kia Oval as Australia closed in on an emphatic consolation victory in this most up and down of Ashes series.
Yet Cook could not quite live to fight another day and with his tame dismissal, all too typical of England’s batting in this match, surely went England’s hopes of avoiding finishing this tumultuous Ashes on the lowest of notes.
Cook stood just 15 runs away from his first Ashes hundred on home soil when he poked Smith to short-leg and Australia, still 129 ahead, now only need four more wickets to ensure this topsy-turvy series takes one last dramatic swing.
The England captain would hardly have been contemplating an innings defeat to end a triumphant series when he rang each member of his side in the wake victory at Trent Bridge to remind them to keep their focus here.
His pleas have largely fallen on deaf ears as they were again outclassed on the third day of the final Investec Test and look almost certain to undertake their Asheswinning lap of honour today in the wake of a crushing reverse.
That will not take too much gloss off the overall victory when dust settles on a bitterly disappointing few days but it will emphasise that they still have much to do to return to the top of the cricketing world.
It just does not seem to be in the England psyche to be ruthless enough to keep the old enemy down once the series is decided as Australia have twice done to record 5-0 Ashes white-washes that have so damaged English cricket.
Everything seemed set up for a historic fourth victory in a home Ashes series for England but their batting has twice been lamentable and their bowling not accurate enough to take advantage of helpful conditions on the opening day. Those conditions were just about perfect for batting yesterday in the sunshine but only Cook had the patience and technique to make the most of them in a brittle looking line-up. There is no doubt that the pace and positivity of so much of England’s cricket has been thrilling this summer but surely there are times when they have to rein themselves in, as only Cook has done here.
It could be argued that England tried to play in a more old-fashioned way yesterday after Michael Clarke enforced the first and last follow on of his Australian captaincy but they still contrived to give away wickets.
In the case of Adam Lyth, the latest evidence of his limitations will surely be terminal and he now faces the end of a Test career in which he has been found wanting against the very best bowling.
It was all too predictable in this most unpredictable of Ashes that Lyth would again fall cheaply once England had been made to bat again after Australia had taken their last two first-innings wickets with their lead standing at 332.
When the Yorkshireman poked meekly at Peter Siddle and was again exposed outside off-stump he left the Oval with his head down knowing he will not be touring this winter now.
What a problem England have had in replacing Andrew Strauss as Cook’s opening partner, a puzzle that has yet to be solved with Lyth following Joe Root, Nick Compton, Michael Carberry, Sam Robson and Jonathan Trott in trying to fill the huge shoes left behind by the man who is now England’s director of cricket.
It looks certain now that Moeen Ali will be elevated to the top of the order against Pakistan while Alex Hales looks set to join him on the plane to Dubai as long as he comes through the one-day series against Australia unscathed.
Jonny Bairstow is another far from certain of lining up against Pakistan, particularly after the lame way he prodded at Nathan Lyon and got out tamely. There will be plenty of slow bowling to come in the United Arab Emirates.
The fact that Bairstow should not actually have been given out at all, the ball hitting the grille of Adam Voges helmet at short leg before he grasped it, only added to the agony of a batsman who was dismissed in exactly the same illegal way in Mumbai in 2012.
Before Bairstow’s dismissal it was possible to believe England might hang on until the rain that could hit Kennington today, but when Lyon followed it by claiming Ben Stokes in the same over their hopes were all but extinguished.
England could barely score a run against Siddle, whose success here after being overlooked all series will provide plenty of food for thought for Australia. And Mitch Marsh again looked a class act, not least when he was putting Ian Bell out of his misery.
Root has repeatedly got England out of trouble this year but he could not do so this time and it may be worth the selectors resting him for the one-day series, even though they are determined to take white ball cricket as seriously as red.
Jos Buttler managed to hang on to the close but it will need to rain for much of the next two days — which it might — for Australia to be denied the 3-2 scoreline their dominance in the two London Tests deserves.