“It was painful to watch two of England’s most faithful servants being mugged in the fading light, which might have been metaphorically apt: this is the evening of Anderson’s and Broad’s career. “It was to punch England’s veterans into a corner, and pin them there, and bash them with bouncers and bruise them, before taking England’s tenth and final wicket. The object of the exercise for Australia however, once James Anderson joined Stuart Broad at the crease, was not to dismiss them,” Berry noted. “A single quick yorker would have done the job. Veteran cricket watcher Scyld Berry, in The Telegraph, dwelled on Australia’s ‘mugging’ of tailenders James Anderson and Stuart Broad at the fag-end of England’s sorry first innings. (Photo by Mark Brake – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images) Nathan Lyon celebrates Ollie Pope’s wicket on day two of the second Test. “Given the marked contrast between Australia’s out-cricket in the middle session of play on the third day and England’s during the first two days, it is too tempting not to recall it. “One of the most famous quotes in cricket came on this ground nearly 90 years ago, when Bill Woodfull chastised England’s Bodyline tactics by stating that there was only one team playing cricket out there,” Atherton observed. “The specialist batsmen above them had earlier produced their latest heinous collapse, the crowd was up, the famous Edwardian scoreboard on the grass hill read 220 for nine and the deficit was 253 runs.Īlso writing in The Times,England great Mike Atherton hearkened back to one of Test cricket’s legendary utterances when describing yet another chastening day for the visitors. “Yet here they were, England’s two most decorated seamers united out in the middle and Mitchell Starc bounding in with a hard, new, pink Kookaburra ball in hand. “When the England brains trust held back Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad at the Gabba under a belief they could work their magic under lights in Adelaide, it is fair to assume the scenario envisaged was not the pair trying to push their team past the follow-on mark with the bat,” Martin wryly observed. The Guardian’s Ali Martin saw some dark humour in England’s catastrophic series. “What happens when these two fail to get set together?” But at the Gabba the team still managed only 297 and here it was a meagre 236. In Brisbane they added 162 and here their alliance raised the score by 138. “England’s best total in their past 11 matches (432) came against India at Headingley, when Malan and Root put on 139. Where would they be without Root or, since his return to the side four matches ago, Malan? “The speed with which the initiative can switch hands when this England side are batting is something to behold. “But what followed was their worst in terms of runs scored, as first Root and then Malan departed and all momentum dried up. “In batting terms, they began with their best session of the series, Dawid Malan and Joe Root playing serenely and adding 123 with few alarms. “This was another chastening day for the England team and their supporters,” Wilde wrote. “What is the matter with these people? Where is the nous, the resilience and the desire to try to stay in? Guess what, fellas, you can’t score runs unless you are actually out in the middle.”įor Simon Wilde, in The Times, the swiftness of the change in momentum on day three was ‘something to behold’.
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