Adelaide has a reputation as a batsman’s paradise, partly because its short square boundaries are unforgiving for anyone straying in line or length. Not a problem for our Glenn, who doesn’t do that sort of thing. At Adelaide, McGrath has taken 44 wickets in nine matches at a cheaper cost (21.2 runs) and faster rate (51.2 balls per wicket) than on any other of Australia's main grounds. Oh, and every time he has played there, Australia have won. So let’s hope England enjoy their days off before the second Test. They didn’t enjoy yesterday. It was one of their most miserable days in recent memory.
McGrath has been plotting his revenge on England ever since Australia lost the 2005 Ashes series, though he hasn’t played a Test since January. He has been putting in long hours in the gym and claims to be fitter now than he has ever been. His mind is at its sharpest, too. He has always reckoned he could work out a batsman in six balls and the number of deliveries he bowled to the six batsmen he dismissed in the first innings here tells its own story: Andrew Strauss 11, Andrew Cook 6, Kevin Pietersen 26, Geraint Jones 13, Ashley Giles 24 (but dropped off his second ball) and Steve Harmison 1.
Early today, Ricky Ponting extended Australia’s innings for another six overs to allow Justin Langer to reach his 23rd Test century. This left England a nominal target of 648 runs, their largest in time-limited Tests. More relevantly, there were 172 overs to survive. Ponting paid a price for his conservatism when an old back problem flared up. He received treatment on the field and did not come out when England began batting. Those disenchanted by his decision not to enforce the follow-on may feel this was justice of sorts.
England were soon in trouble when Strauss compounded his crass first-innings error with another, hooking Stuart Clark straight down the throat of fine leg. To add to the hurt, the fielder was a substitute, Ryan Broad, a Queensland youth player who had to ask for time off as an IT clerk to be at the Gabba on Friday. Shades of Gary Pratt. Soon after, Ian Bell was struck on the front pad playing forward and adjudged leg-before to Shane Warne.
There are any number of reasons why England will find it hard to recover from what has happened in Brisbane. Australia is as harsh an environment for cricketers as it once was for the early settlers: hostile terrain for the uninitiated, of whom there are plenty in this squad. Last time, at home, it was an advantage that few of the England team had lived through earlier Ashes defeats. This time, Test experience in Australia is invaluable. That was partly why Giles, controversially, won his place.
England's feeble batting, and McGrath’s wonderfully accurate bowling, were to be expected once Australia had amassed their biggest total on home soil against proper Test opposition for 11 years. Visiting sides generally don't field well on Australian grounds — Cook and James Anderson, the two Ashes debutants, both dropped catches — and England’s seamers bowled too short for the conditions. McGrath later showed where they should have put the ball.
Anderson will have to continue his learning in the nets because he will be dropped for Adelaide, probably to make way for Monty Panesar. Sajid Mahmood, another option, has never played cricket in Australia, so will have to learn fast. Summoning Stuart Broad from Perth might concentrate a few minds, Harmison’s in particular, but Harmison will play in Adelaide despite his nightmare here. The problem for Harmison is that he has struggled for rhythm for several months; the problem for Matthew Hoggard is that the new Kookaburras are giving him so little swing. But the overriding concern is that, so disrupted are England’s plans, Andrew Flintoff has too much on his plate to get the best out of his own game. His dismissal yesterday, beaten for pace by Brett Lee, who touched 97mph at one point, already spoke of a tired mind and battered spirit. Flintoff finished the last Ashes as player of the series after starting with a duck, as he has here, but he is now less free to play his natural game.
Nor will Australia be as casual in protecting their advantage as they were last time. Ponting’s decision to bat again after taking a staggering first-innings lead of 445 showed he was taking nothing for granted. Only once in history has a team gained a bigger lead and not enforced the follow- on.
Batting a second time left the locals disenchanted, with the ground half-empty for yesterday’s final session as Ponting and Justin Langer helped themselves to easy runs. It was, however, the surest way of ensuring that the pitch deteriorated sufficiently for survival for several sessions to be almost impossible, against accurate bowling at any rate. It also protected McGrath from being overbowled in a four-man attack at an early stage of an arduous 45-day series. This is payback time.
Though they were the better side in four Tests, England enjoyed the best of the luck in 2005, but here they have had none. To an extent, circumstances have conspired against them. The Champions Trophy ate into their preparation time and they have come into this match not so much undercooked as still frozen.
The toss here was crucial on a pitch that is dry and breaking up faster than normal: whoever batted second would have found life hard — again, against accurate bowling. Umpire Billy Bowden, who has lived with allegations of pro-Aussie bias ever since he hugged Steve Waugh at the end of his farewell appearance, has given them nothing. Giles might have had Ponting lbw on 72, Flintoff’s first ball to Michael Clarke might have also won a leg-before, and yesterday Kevin Pietersen was out to a shocker. According to Hawkeye, the ball from McGrath struck him 6.9cm outside off stump.
But Pietersen forfeited much sympathy for the fact he was out offering no stroke and had already been dropped by Stuart Clark off an ill-judged pull against Lee. Why he should have fallen twice in succession not offering a shot, having done the same thing against South Australia, is something one of the game’s most brilliant strokemakers might reflect on in these early days of a tour that will help define him. Pietersen had already felt a chiller air. Shane Warne made his intentions plain by returning his first ball to the batsman hard to the keeper, just past Pietersen’s head, without the usual follow-up smile. The only ray of hope in the first innings was the batting of Bell. He came into the game carrying a badly bruised left wrist, but showed no signs of it. He looked like the one Englishman hungry to bat. When Lee eyeballed him, he stared back until Lee turned and went back to his mark.
The story of last year’s epic series has taught everyone to be cautious in their predictions, but things could not have gone better for Australia here, or worse for England.
