England Dominate In Adelaide, Take Control Of Ashes

England registered their first innings defeat of Australia since the 1986/7 tour with a display to stun the hosts in Adelaide.

Winning the toss on what is usually a good batting track Australia would have been confident of a good result. But such hopes were in taters after losing 3 quick wickets including a disastrous run out of Simon Katich without facing a ball and Captain Ricky Ponting falling to James Anderson for a golden duck. Michael Hussey again provided stern middle order resistance in the face of an assured English bowling attack, putting up a resilient 93. However with just 245 runs on the board in their first innings it was going to take a monumental effort from the hosts to get any sort of positive result.

England’s innings started dimly too, giving a glimmer of hope to Australia. Captain Andrew Strauss was just as disappointing as his counter-part, being dismissed for just 1 run. However Alistair Cook and Jonathan Trott, Australia’s nemeses from Brisbane, again did the damage with a partnership of 173 before Kevin Pietersen, whose form had been in doubt coming into the series, hit an imperious 227 to help England to an incredible 620-5 before declaring early on day four to leave Australia needing a titanic second innings display to save the Test match.

Australia started their second innings in defiant nature. An opening partnership between Katich and Shane Watson looked to be giving a firm platform before the impressive Graeme Swann struck to get the ball rolling for the tourists. And things were looking good for England until the weather turned and the rain came down.

A delay of 55 minutes was just what the doctor ordered for Australia, and when play resumed a robust Michael Clarke took the fight on. With luck running thin Strauss tossed the ball to Pietersen to try his luck at the end of the day. The batsmen’s own brand of spin struck gold with the last ball of the day as Clarke nicked one to Cook at short leg. A back breaking wicket for Australia who finished the day on 238-4.

When play resumed early on the final day the hoped for rain did not materialised and despite an early drop from wicket keeper Matt Prior and an injury to seam bowler Stuart Broad the remaining attack of Swann, Anderson and Steven Finn mopped up the remaining 6 wickets of Australia before lunch, sending the hosts to a debilitating Innings and 71 runs defeat.

The defeat is the second heaviest Australia have suffered at the Adelaide Oval and one that Ponting made no excuses for, stating in his post-match interview: “They out-batted us, they out-bowled and out-fielded us the entire game.”. And it is praise not undeserved for England.

With both bat and ball England were a cut above their hosts, and the distinction was not clearer than in the performances of the two spinners; Xavier Doherty of Australia, and England’s Graeme Swann.

Doherty had a miserable test, getting swatted to all corners by England’s batsmen before picking up the largely undeserved wicket of Pietersen as he looked to add quick runs to England’s total and picking up just 11 with the bat. Swann meanwhile played up to the pre-tour hype, collecting a second innings fifer that included the wicket of a beguiled Ricky Ponting. And while England’s batsmen took to the middle he never had to put his pads on.

Australia now find themselves in an unfamiliar position. Anything less than two wins and a draw from the remaining 3 tests and England will win the Ashes series down under for just the 5^th time since World War II. And this is an Australia team in need of serious help. They have bowled England out just once in the 2 tests, and the changes made to the line-up before the Adelaide test seem to have weakened the tail and had no effect to the wicket-taking ability of the bowling. Opener Simon Katich is reportedly going to miss the rest of the series with an Achilles injury, leaving the batting line-up severely weakened.

The weeks break until the third test will be a welcome one for Australia, they need to assess their options. Ponting is expected to sit down with the selectors to discuss options for replacing Katich with Phil Hughes likely to come into the side.

As for England, from here they have a tour date against Victoria on the 10^th that will likely be used to decide who replaces the injured Broad for the next Test. Tim Bresnan is the early favourite to be selected, but a good performance from Ajmal Shahzad or Chris Tremlett could see them called up. But at the moment spirits are high in the England camp, as they should be.  Despite Strauss’ hit and miss form (His totals read 0, 110, 1) the rest of the batsmen are in great nick. Anderson is a threat whenever he picks up the ball and has been the player of the series so far along with Cook while Finn’s performances have been very encouraging.

England’s captain, while full of positive words about the match also talked of the hard work yet to come. He is fully aware that nothing is won yet, and we should hope that the forthcoming break does not dampen the form England has shown so far. However the sounds of Jerusalem reverberating around the Oval this morning will be hard to get out of my head until the series picks up again in the WACA on the 16^th December.