Root and Smith use their heads in slow burner
England conjure early wickets on placid pitch Captain leads Australia fight before Marsh falls
On the third morning England made a vital breakthrough by dismissing Shaun Marsh just before his stand with Australia’s captain Steve Smith reached three figures and damaging proportions. The opening Test therefore continued to be a ding-dong affair - which no Ashes series has been for 30 years, when England won the opening Test at the Gabba, for once, and took the series 2-1.
To stop the fifth wicket stand between Smith and Marsh, worth 89 overnight, becoming the matchshaping partnership, Joe Root began with his most senior bowlers but he could not give James Anderson and Stuart Broad more than a few overs each because of the imminence of the second new ball.
Anderson and Broad mixed up their normal seamers with the occasional cutter. The Gabba has not proved to be the fast and bouncy pitch which has made this ground Australia’s unviolated fortress since 1988, and which their fast bowlers had wanted to demonstrate their superiority in virility and speed. Instead it has been slow, because it had too little rolling in the build-up, and the odd ball has gripped as if it had been Sharjah or Chennai.
Broad made the breakthrough with the aid of a catch by Anderson. Marsh was brought up facing a bowling machine on the family farm, the son of the former Australian opening batsman Geoff. Although Broad was changing his pace cleverly by means of the odd cutter, Marsh still went for a big offdrive and bunted a slightly slower ball to mid-off.
Marsh had reached his first 50 against England, at the age of 34, and had shared a stand of 99 with his captain, but Australia needed a stand of more than 99 to gain the upper hand. It is a low-scoring - and slow-scoring - match, with echoes of the Melbourne Test of 1982-3 which continued on a knife-edge from the start to the very finish, when England won by all of three runs.
On a slow pitch, which Anderson had labelled “stodgy”, the dexterity of fingers and wrist more than made up for England’s lack of extra pace which Australia have. Shane Bond, as the temporary bowling coach, has also made an impact by analysing Australia’s batsmen in forensic detail - he was once a policeman in Christchurch, New Zealand - and discussing tactics with Joe Root, who has grown in stature as captain during this game and tour.
Spells of only four overs for his pace bowlers, so they could bowl full burn; Moeen Ali on for the ninth over against two lefthanders, of whom Usman Khawaja was duly trapped. The right plan for David Warner who played his idiosyncratic twitch - not pull - to be caught at short mid-wicket. The right line for Australia’s debutant Cameron Bancroft, who looked a million dollars when the ball was on his legs and a million lira when it was on fourth stump. The right length for Peter Handscomb who missed a half-volley because he bats so deep in his crease, and fell over, like an unbalanced Ballance.
So long as the ball was new, Root was a combination of Andrew Strauss, for his calm assurance, and Raymond Illingworth, for his analysis of the opposition and ingenuity. And at a sustainable level as well, because Root was not too animated or rushing round, bound to burn out.
As the ball aged and softened however, nothing could disguise England’s lack of pace, such as Cummins showed when dismissing Root, or Mark Stoneman, or Dawid Malan with a bouncer. Not even Anderson with all his old-ball wiles could prevent Smith and Shaun Marsh rebuilding on the second afternoon.
Smith, moreover, underneath all the quirks and mannerisms, excels at thinking on his feet. In his new autobiography, The Journey, he relates how he had to acquire this skill. He was a dab hand at tennis as well as cricket when a boy, and was pitted in a tournament against an opponent several years older. He was 4-0 down, despairing, then looked to his dad in the crowd. His father tapped the side of his head. The son had to think and adapt. And after changing his tactics he won 6-4.
Smith blocked when he had to, resisting the temptations offered when Stuart Broad hung the ball outside offstump: after tea on day two Australia scored only ten runs off 10 overs. But when less experienced bowlers like Chris Woakes and Jake Ball could not resist the call of the Sirens, and bowled straight at Smith in the vain attempt to dismiss him leg-before, he invariably scored off his legs.
Broad, it should be said, had already played a valuable little innings which did much to blur the impression that England had collapsed again when they lost three wickets for four runs. Still at number seven, in spite of Ben Stokes’s absence, Jonny Bairstow for once could not arrest the slide because he “went” too soon, if understandably so as he was left with tailenders. So it took a bit of a swing by Broad to get England to 300. He got behind the ball, ducking the bouncers, ready to cop the odd hit, before having a swing when Anderson came in. Bowlers who visibly don’t fancy it undermine morale.
Smith adapted by gliding down the pitch to hit Moeen - not straight for six or anything high-risk and spectacular - for singles deep on the leg side. For every challenge set by Root, his counterpart had an answer. If Australia can win on this pitch that is more Asian than Australian, they will surely go on to do much greater damage on typical surfaces they have at home.