The Ashes Diary (14 page)

Overall, I couldn’t have been more pleased with the attitude and team spirit shown by the batting group. They all put team first, self second.

The English bowlers sent down a large proportion of short balls at Davey. I don’t know if this was to probe a suspected weakness, or just to ginger him up and test him out after all the controversy. At any rate, he got into his stride very quickly and looked impressive. He missed one bouncer from Broad, and England referred it to the DRS when the umpire turned their appeal down. There was nothing to say he’d hit it, and he went on. The English took some time about getting back to business. Time meant as much to them as it did to us.

Chris kept the scoreboard ticking over, before nicking Broad to slip. Usman also showed an unselfish, positive attitude. The pitch was starting to misbehave more often. Usman was beaten by one ball from Swann which bounced over the edge of his bat, over Prior, and even over Jonathan Trott at slip – and it hadn’t even landed in the footmarks. There’s definitely going to be something for Nathan Lyon to bowl into.

Davey eventually holed out to Joe Root at deep mid-wicket, but again, he was doing the right thing by the team. Then Watto and Usman pushed things along until Usman was bowled around his legs by Swann. I felt very relaxed when I went out – this was about as different a scenario as possible from two days ago. Watto looked in good touch. Then Bresnan bounced him, and Watto unfortunately steered it over the slips cordon to Kevin Pietersen, who was waiting at third man for the catch.

Smithy was in fine fettle again, picking up where he left off in the first innings. He was in a more attacking frame of mind, hitting two beautiful straight sixes, one off Bresnan and another off Swann. Speaking of Swann, a bizarre thing happened when he was bowling to me. He attempted what appeared to be a leg-spinner, but it came out of his hand like the famous balls John Howard bowled in Pakistan when he was prime minister. It landed halfway down the track and in my surprise, all I could do was follow it around on the leg side and paddle it away for a single. I guess David Warner sometimes bats right-handed, so Graeme Swann’s allowed to try leg-spin.

The whole mood of batting was different from the first innings. After fighting for every run the other day, Smithy and I were now trying to hit the accelerator. Unfortunately, after nudging one fine of third man, Smithy, who’s a very fast runner, turned and came back for a second without my hearing or seeing him. By the time I looked up, at the keeper’s end after a comfortable single, Smithy was almost next to me. He turned and ran back, but didn’t make it in time. It was the first run-out of the series for either side, which I guess is a measure of how grimly contested the Test matches have been. Both teams have been professional and careful with our running between wickets.

All along, I had to think about how long to go on batting. Ten minutes before tea, some light drizzle came down and the umpires took us off for an early break. This affected my thinking on a declaration. The early break meant that the last session would be something like 38 overs in length. We just felt that our bowlers, who had slogged away for 140 overs in ten hours of cricket to get England out, and had now only been resting for 30 overs, needed more of a break before they could make the most of the new ball. A 38-over session is a long one, and we thought that declaring at tea would also take the sting out of them for tomorrow. We want to make a really strong push for victory, but we need the bowlers to have the freshness and energy to do so.

For those reasons, our plan at tea was to bat for another 50 minutes before declaring and having some 20–25 overs to bowl tonight. Then the ball will still be relatively new when we restart tomorrow. The runs weren’t so important. I am happy to give England a target they might think about chasing. So after tea, I just planned to bat for those 50 minutes.

The relations between the teams have been as competitive as you would expect in an Ashes series. But I don’t think they’ve been poor, given the pressure everyone’s under. England were doing all they could to slow the game down again, but nothing so extreme that they could get sanctioned for an over-rate violation. It’s a matter of pushing the law to the limits, and Australian teams have done the same. Similarly, at one point I was pushing for a second run off Anderson, and when I turned to go, he had moved across the wicket into my path. I’m sure he didn’t mean it, but he was right there and I went into him with my shoulder. It was an accident and some words were exchanged, but the senior players have been by and large keeping a lid on things. He looked like he was hurt, but I don’t think he was.

Hadds got out playing a big shot for the team – more unselfish cricket – and Mitchell Starc and I were pushing the scoring along. The light was fading, but the floodlights were on and we were having no problem seeing the ball, even from the faster bowlers. Some of the England players were saying to the umpires that they were losing sight of the ball from the outfield, but this didn’t concern me. The playing conditions say that the umpires can stop the game if safety is at risk. As batsmen, Starcy and I were feeling no risk at all. The outfielders aren’t really relevant to that argument.

Starcy was out for 11, playing a big shot, but the first sign that the umpires were intending to move was when they asked Cook if he wanted to put his spinners on. He said no, of course. I thought this was a bit strange, as, being a batsman, I still felt no sense of danger. Then, suddenly, the umpires told me they were going to stop play.

I made my feelings clear, as coherently and respectfully as I was capable of doing in the frame of mind I was in. The issue here was that they had given Cook the option to bowl spin, but they hadn’t given it to me. If they’d said, ‘You can declare and bowl your spinners, but not your pacemen,’ I would have seized that option – anything was preferable to stopping play. Nathan Lyon and Steve Smith would have happily taken a crack at the England openers. But as it panned out, there was consultation with the England captain and not the Australian captain, and this was what annoyed me.

So we’ve come off, extremely frustrated. It did rain, not too long afterwards, but that wasn’t the point. When the umpires made their decision, we believed there were 32 overs remaining in the day. Now we’ve lost them, and only eight overs can be made up tomorrow.

Still, I have to forget that and carry on. We have every chance of winning, with plenty of runs on the board and 98 overs. There is an increasing amount of up-and-down bounce and certainly some spin in the pitch. I’m certain that if we get a full day’s play, we will get ten wicket opportunities. If we can hang on to our catches and do everything right, we can win this Test match and the Ashes will be well and truly alive.

Monday 5 August.
Manchester. Morning.

I didn’t need to open my curtains and look out this morning to know that the sun wasn’t out. There’s a particular darkness to the Manchester sky when it’s damp, and by the time I got up and had a look, it wasn’t just cloudy but raining too.

Still, each day when I’ve looked at the local forecast on my iPhone, it has said it would be raining. And we’ve had almost four full days of cricket. It might rain this morning and then be finished by the time we start. We don’t need a full day to bowl England out. I have every confidence in our bowlers and fielders – and the extra pressure of the scoreboard – that we can do it in two sessions.

Monday 5 August.
Manchester. Evening.

There have been many frustrations on this tour, but none bigger than this. We really did have a strong position to win this match and stay in the battle to reclaim the Ashes. It wasn’t inevitable that we’d win if we had enough time – but we thought we were good enough if we played our best. Having made such a fantastic start only sharpens the pain.

That rain I saw this morning left some moisture on the outfield, so when we got to Old Trafford, they had the Super Soppers and other equipment out to try to dry it up. It’s amazing that in a summer when the pitches have been bone-dry to assist England’s plans, it is rain that has foiled us in the end.

We got on an hour later than scheduled, at 11.30. We still felt that would leave us enough time if we got a good start. The game could go till 7.30 pm and we had been allocated a minimum of 98 overs.

An unusual aspect of the morning was that we were all out on the field, having a really good warm-up fielding, catching and bowling session, while the English were nowhere to be seen. Later we found out that they had been very slow turning up from their hotel, in the belief that the rain would have delayed the restart for much longer. Apparently their first few batsmen were there, but the rest of the team only turned up a short time before play began.

We were definitely ready. I’d declared, of course, and we started with Ryan Harris and Mitchell Starc taking the new ball. From the very beginning, the odd ball – maybe one every couple of overs – was behaving unpredictably. Some were taking off and flying through to the wicketkeeper at shoulder height, while others were keeping low from the same length. You couldn’t tell, from looking at the pitch, what was causing this variation, but there were some cracks opening up.

Both new-ball bowlers were getting some movement in the air, too, and it wasn’t long before Rhino bent one in late to hit Cook in front. We appealed very confidently, and the onfield umpire gave him out. Thinking he’d heard two noises, Cook referred it to the DRS. The replay showed that the toe of his bat had clipped his leg or foot, causing his confusion, but he was out and walking off before the decision even came through.

As we waited for Jonathan Trott to come out, I stood on the pitch, alone, for several minutes, thinking. I stood in the batsman’s position on the crease, trying to work out exactly where to place the short fielders on the on side. We had to keep the initiative, and to follow our plan with Trott I had to be precise with the unorthodox field placements.

Starcy was bowling some excellent balls, as usual, including one skidder that very nearly trapped Joe Root in front. But he was also a trifle loose, allowing the Englishmen to leave too many balls. Feeling that we had to keep them playing as often as possible, I brought Watto on from the Pavilion end for a couple of overs. He’s been an invaluable bowler to have when we need to dry up the scoring, and I also think he’s been very unlucky not to have taken more than one wicket in the series.

England were finding it extremely hard to score, and were 1/13 in the 11th over when we thought we had Trott. He shuffled forward to Ryan Harris and was hit on the pad. The umpire gave him not out, but I asked for a referral. This was a classic case of the benefit of the doubt going to the onfield umpire: to all eyes it looked like the ball was hitting the stumps, and Hawk-Eye had it hitting Trott’s leg stump, but because there wasn’t
enough
of the ball hitting
enough
of the stump, the third umpire ruled it umpire’s call. That meant that if Tony Hill had given it out initially, his decision would have stood. And on top of that, Hawk-Eye itself has an acknowledged margin for error. We definitely felt that Trott was out, but the DRS ruling was quite consistent with the way it’s been all series.

It didn’t have too much of an effect on the game in the immediate sense. In Rhino’s next over, Trott tickled one down the leg side for Hadds to take another good catch in what’s been an outstanding match for him.

This brought Pietersen to the wicket, and I thought we might produce an error with spin, so I brought on Nathan Lyon from the Pavilion end to replace Watto. But Pietersen was starting off in a more assured way than he had on Saturday. I also brought on Sidds to replace Rhino, who needed a rest after seven overs.

Sidds got the nick immediately, with the last ball of his first over. He got a beautiful delivery to rise on Joe Root and take the outside edge. The ball had remarkably good carry, not only to fly to my right at second slip, but to deceive me with how fast it was going. I got my hands out of position and the ball hit me on the wrist – and went down. I couldn’t believe it. Again, I make no excuses. It was an unforgivable error at this stage of the game. As captain, I have to lead by example in catching as much as in batting. I was down on myself, and felt gutted for Sidds. I crossed paths with him at the end of the over and said, ‘Sorry, mate.’ There can’t be many worse feelings on the cricket field than dropping a catch when the bowler works as hard for his wickets as Peter Siddle does.

At this stage, though, chances to take wickets were coming up regularly. Pietersen charged at Nathan Lyon, missed, and was lucky the ball turned into his pads. Next over, he played and nicked one off Sidds. There was a loud woody noise, and Hadds went straight up, though the bowler himself didn’t react for a moment or two. Tony Hill gave Pietersen out. The batsman referred it, and lost. We had them three down, and they had no referrals left. The boys were getting very excited. It was typical of Sidds to bounce back so quickly after the disappointment of my dropped catch. He was all smiles, which made me feel a little better.

For the last over before lunch, I decided to have a bowl myself. The wicket was turning a bit, and that up-and-down bounce was continuing. As they hadn’t seen me bowl all series, I hoped Root and Bell might be tempted into a mistake. I warmed up for several minutes, and felt confident that my back would stand up to it. As it turned out, nothing much happened in my over. Ian Bell slightly miscued a drive that went in the air close to Steve Smith at short cover, but nothing else of note. I was pleased to see I’m not completely past it as a bowler!

The weather, up to lunch, didn’t look bad at all. The clouds were high and not looking too dark. But the forecasts were still gloomy, so it was disappointing to be going off for lunch when the weather was dry and the light was good. But the playing conditions are what they are, and they stipulated that lunch had to be taken at 1.00 pm, even though we had only bowled 20 overs in the first session.

During the break, a shower passed through. It left some moisture on the ground, delaying the restart by 20 minutes. When we got on again, Sidds was dangerous, sliding the first ball past Ian Bell’s edge and then getting one to jump, hitting him on the thumb. Bell called for a trainer, and a few of England’s support staff came out. Some of the boys thought this was overkill, but it was a sign of what we had to expect through the afternoon.