England had managed just one solitary win at The WACA in eleven attempts since the inaugural Test Match in 1970 but every run has to come to an end, right? With Australia at 69-5 on day one, it looked to all the civilised world that win number two was just around the corner and The Ashes were to be retained by Christmas. It was going to represent another psychological advantage wrestled away from the Aussies that would continue to resonate as we dominated them for the next twenty- five years, right? Wrong.
Only the most optimistic Australian could have envisaged the turn around and writing anything in such circumstances is hard but trying to impart humour is nigh- on impossible.
I recall July and August of 2006 when we played Pakistan. We seemed to have the measure of them in every department except the one man who we couldn’t get out. In that series it was Mohammad Yousuf who made 631 runs in the 4 matches (which we still admittedly won 3-0*). Michael BLOODY Hussey is bringing back those memories as we don’t seem to have a plan to get him out and he’s (almost) single-handedly prevented Australia from registering consistent scores of around 150. The rest of the top six look useless (to be fair, Watson looks average). In a parallel universe Hussey didn’t notch 118 for W.A. against Victoria in November, saving his international career. In that universe he was dropped and he immediately retired a broken and bitter man. In that universe Steven Smith came in to the Aussie batting line and averaged 16 for three Tests that England dominated and won easily. Such are the margins... We are not living in that universe but in one where Michael Hussey has been the Australian Man of The Series by a million miles.
The Australian comeback kicked- off on day one when Mitchell Johnson and the tail added 80 quick runs to move their first innings total on from under 190 to 268. Momentum noticeably swung. He then did what we know he can do with the ball but let’s hope he’s back to spraying it all over the place at The MCG as he’s equally as capable of doing.
I still retained my optimism as we started our second innings. Aftreall we'd had a double centurions in each of the preceeding Test Matches. At three wickets down I still thought Ian Bell would make a big hundred so long as he had sufficient support. The reality was simply terrible and just as England had won so well as a team, they collapsed as a team in spectacular fashion. Only the new comer Chris Tremlett can take any personal satisfaction from his performance. The batting was indefensible... KP’s second innings dismissal was the worst of the lot.
People will ask if there should be changes. I don’t imagine there will be but there was a case even before this Test Match for Bell to move to number five and for Eoin Morgan or Timothy Bresnan to be bought in. It has been a while since Colly made a significant contribution with the bat but he has a habit of punctuating mediocre form with battling centuries that cement his place in the team.
Our horrendous run of results in Perth continues: No psychological advantage gained there. The only run that was ended this week was Australia’s run without a Test Match Victory. On to Melbourne where a Series that looked like a walk over has a whole load of new life in it.
Game on.
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