Ashes 2011 (20 page)

What becomes of Smith is complicated by his leg-break bowling. Shane Warne has already commented that time spent on his batting will come at a cost to the development of his wrist-spinning skills. There are, after all, only twenty-four hours in a day. But just now, Smith looks like he wants to use all of them. He cannot get enough of cricket – and on days like today, who can blame him?

If it were done when it is done, 'twere well it were done quickly, and all it took today were ten overs for Australia to eradicate the last five England wickets and tie the Ashes of 2010–11 up at 1–1. On the first day, the sum of 268 runs, being Australia's total, looked paltry. Today, the sum of 267 runs, being Australia's victory margin, appeared overwhelming.

There was little drama about the final rites, even an air of conviviality. Shortly after 11 a.m., the strains of 'The Last Post' wafted over the WACA, courtesy of Billy Cooper. What else? A minute or two later, Cooper was at it again. This time it was 'I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside'. As it died, Steve Finn edged to second slip: time for the beach. Say what you like about the Barmy Army, they have a talent for making the best of things – it probably comes of practice.

There was even a sense of right order restored. As Australia lorded it over England, Shane Warne was being reported to have deluged a blonde with obscene text messages, that disorienting brunette interlude apparently an aberration – just like the good old days. There was only one absence this concluding morning, that of Ricky Ponting, marking his thirty-sixth birthday by nursing a fractured little finger on his left hand, sustained late the night before. It was vice-captain Michael Clarke who enjoyed the luxury of deploying four slips, gully, point and short leg, and a bowling attack able to exploit them.

Ian Bell played some shots of quality, rather too good for someone reduced to batting number seven in this second innings by the ineffectual use of the night watchman, before falling lbw – arguably the first time he has been genuinely defeated by a bowler in the series, having twice fallen while hitting out in the company of the tail. Otherwise, the day was largely for the benefit of man-of-the-match Mitchell Johnson and man-of-any-other-match Ryan Harris, nine for 82 and 106 respectively, the former bowling the potentially irritating Swann all over the place, the undersung latter claiming a Test-best six for 47. Ponting saluted both afterwards, making a good fist of keeping his sense of vindication quiet. Rumour has it that he pressed strongly for Johnson's inclusion, and that the selectors gave in on condition he include a fourth quick bowler in case of another Mitchell meltdown. Having worked against Australia all summer, accidents may now be working in their favour.

'It's transformed him and it's transformed the way he's seen in this series,' said Ponting afterwards, seated alongside Johnson. 'Now is not the time to panic,' said Strauss, inviting the question of when is. On the subject of his finger, Ponting pronounced himself satisfied that it would prove no impediment to his playing in Melbourne, which makes complete sense. He is cut from the same cloth as Allan Border, who so frequently played with broken and chipped fingers that you almost swore he punched walls on purpose. At one-all in the Ashes series, too, he is in the same boat as Macbeth, 'vaulting ambition' ready to 'o'erleap itself'.

On the flight from Adelaide to Melbourne after the Second Test, reporters were surprised to find Ryan Harris among the passengers. No, he explained, he was not flying home to Brisbane, nor even in transit to Perth for the next game: he had an appointment to see his surgeon, the same surgeon he consults after virtually every game, who takes the measure of the steadily eroding cartilage in his right knee and, if he's satisfied, clears him to play again.

If there is one consolation for England in Harris's nine for 106 against them at the WACA, it is that in an Australian cricket age without a name, he is destined for one crowded hour of glorious life. On days of heavy toil, he experiences the sensations in his leg that athletes colloquially, graphically but matter-of-factly call 'bone-on-bone'. Surgery could repair the structure, but would also cost him up to eighteen months recovery time, and at thirty-one that is simply too long.

So, Harris makes the best of it. When the knee swells, as it did after he took nine for 140 for Queensland against Ricky Ponting's Tasmanians in the Sheffield Shield five weeks ago, there is nothing for it but to rest the joint and decant the excess fluid. But fifteen years ago, Harris would not have been playing at the equivalent stage of his life, because Australian cricket would not have been wealthy enough to sustain him medically and logistically. He is a cricketer lucky in his era. He will not play fifty Tests, but he may play twenty, and that is twenty more than this affable, self-deprecating bowler expected until very recently.

Ponting, moreover, is a stark raving fan. Harris swings the ball away at speed: 150 Tests have taught the captain that bowlers with such a profile win Tests. In an attack so dependent on the shit-or-bust Mitchell Johnson, Harris's old-fashioned hit-the-deck ways are also a set-and-forget reassurance. While his nickname Ryano is hardly original, it does recall Darren Gough's cheery self-description: 'You know why they call me Rhino? Because I'm as strong as an ox.'

As Ponting mingled on the field among his victorious team this morning, he somehow reached Harris last, but it was with Harris he remained longest, patting his back all the way off – with his right hand at least, his left little finger being a tad tender for too much congratulary work. It transpired that this is something Ponting has to do quite a lot with Harris, whom he confided later is one of those perfectionist bowlers who thinks he 'has never bowled a good ball'.

It is hard to reconcile this predisposition with the broad-shouldered, gravelly-voiced, sun-goldened figure on whose head the baggy green reposes rather more naturally than, for example, Johnson, where it might as well be a bandana to go with his body ink. But it makes a certain sense. If you knew your time was short, you would want every ball to be the best of which you were capable; if every delivery was exacting a measurable physical toll, you would not wish to waste a calorie of effort. Twenty wickets from four Tests at less than 20 should comfort Harris, just as twenty wickets for Australia in this match will have comforted Australia's selectors.

The forty-wicket Test match is a rare enough event as to suggest a complete domination of ball over bat these days. In fact, it was a little more complex. Three bowlers (Harris, Johnson, Tremlett) claimed twenty-six wickets at 13 between them, the other specialist bowlers thirteen wickets at 40. From side-on, where most of the press have been congregated, it has looked throughout as though the WACA's famous siren song proved too strong for some bowlers to resist, Steve Finn and James Anderson in particular pitching consistently a yard or two short, excited by the bounce and the tentative Australian batting on the first morning.

Australia took nine unassisted English wickets, five lbws and four bowleds; of England's six, two lbws and four bowleds, two of the latter were dragged on to the stumps. Australia's batsmen played the pull shot repeatedly; England's hardly had the opportunity at all. Strauss exonerated his bowlers from criticism after the match today – one can't help feeling that this was too much an accentuation of the positive. Harris's second innings lbw victims, by contrast, were plumb, the batsmen playing back but the ball hitting the stumps halfway up. Alastair Cook did not even bother to refer his decision yesterday; Ian Bell only did so for form's sake today. Collingwood, too, succumbed to a full delivery that he had moved too far back to do anything but nick. England's batsmen may not have been psyched out by Australia's bowlers, but Australia's bowlers had certainly weighed up England's likely response to the unfamiliar environs.

As for Harris, it was time to accept congratulations, one of the first arriving in the form of a text from his surgeon, who counselled him to look forward to the Boxing Day Test. Harris should: he took six for 68 for Queensland against Victoria there three weeks ago. The salient fact, however, is simply that he will be there. In one crowded hour, every minute counts.

THIRD TEST
 
 
Western Australia Cricket Association Ground, Perth 16–19 December 2010

Toss
 
 
England
 
 
Australia
 
 
won by 267 runs