Mastered

It will be remembered as ‘People’s Monday’ at Lords. The queues of fans snaked through St John’s Wood from the crack of dawn but it was going to take some Indian charm of the highest order to extract a result from a high class 2000th Test. They came to see the little master shoulder the burden of saving his nation at cricketing HQ but England were reading from a different script.

Deep in the final session of play a rejuvenated Stuart Broad trapped Ishant Sharma in front of his stumps for his seventh wicket of the match and England took a deserved lead in the four Test series with a convincing 196 run victory. The celebrations on the pitch showed the level of desire amongst the team to be recognised as the best in the business.

When England is credited with innovative thinking and the man dispensing the credit is S R Waugh then you take notice that this cricket team must have a bit about them. Australia found this to their cost in the winter and they may be smiling ruefully now that the English bowling attack has laid waste to the more vaunted Indian batting line-up dismissing them twice for under 300.

True, India suffered from injury and illness to Gambhir, Tendulkar and, crucially, Khan at various stages of this match but they also arrived under-cooked. Duncan Fletcher coached England to a glorious high in 2005 and humiliating low in 2006/07. More than anyone he knows the value of preparation for a high-octane series. Resting senior players for the recent tour of the West Indies and scheduling one warm-up game in advance of the Lord’s Test has proved insufficient against an England team performing as a cohesive unit.

As Kevin Pietersen, a deserved man of the match, put it succinctly ‘All departments seem to be covered.’ The batting showed grit in the first innings and when the foundations were rocked to the core in the second innings it was Prior and Broad who took the game away from India with a game-changing seventh wicket partnership of 162.

It was the bowling attack that really stood out and not just because of their height. It seems inconceivable that until last December the human tripod Tremlett had only played three Tests since his debut against India four years previously. In his 38th Test Broad finally discovered that he’s more likely to take wickets when the ball lands in the same half of the pitch as the batsman. The spin department out-bowled their more experienced counterpart. It was Anderson though that stepped up to the mark on the final day. Few bowlers in cricket will have taken the wickets of a more illustrious trio than Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar in the same innings. It was a fitting reward for the leader of the attack.

India has only 3 days to re-group before Trent Bridge. They have the talent to turn this series around but they must act fast. There is a sense that this England is a younger, sharper, more disciplined and resourceful beast than the old masters of India can handle. A combination of great batsmen, cunning bowlers, shoddy fielding and gnarled coach may not be sufficient to see them come from behind.

Super Mitch

One of the finest sights in world sport is that of a fast bowler charging in to hurl a 5.5 ounce missile of leather, cork and string at speeds of more than 90mph towards a batsman standing 22 yards away. No area is off limit. The batsman has to scramble for his life, ducking, swaying and defending not knowing whether the ball will be directed at his head, chest or toes. The batsman hopes the bowler will tire quickly and lose pace and accuracy. It is about survival rather than run-scoring. The atmosphere can be akin to a bear-pit.

England fans will remember the duel between Allan Donald, South Africa’s White Lightening, and captain Michael Atherton in the Trent Bridge Test of 1998 that has attained legendary status. Atherton repelled Donald’s high speed advances with skill and no small amount of luck and courage to see England through to a famous victory. Similarly, in Ashes competition, Andrew Flintoff was cast in the role of aggressor in 2005 as he ripped out Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting to the delight of a roaring Edgbaston crowd.

For Australia the nation’s fast-bowling hopes now rest on the shoulders of Mitchell Johnson. A fast, left-arm bowler he was named the International Cricket Council’s ‘Cricketer of the Year’ in 2009. If Australia were to regain the Ashes then Johnson would have to fire.

Sadly, from an Australian perspective, Super Mitch’s performance has been abject. A total loss of control has seen deliveries sprayed either side of the England batsmen who have pounced in the manner of King Henry VIII at an all you can eat buffet. Dropped for the second Test in Adelaide Johnson rebounded in Perth to produce a game-changing spell of rapid inswing but doubts remained as to whether he actually knew how he had rediscovered his ability to bowl accurately.

Johnson’s fragile confidence and natural shyness off the field has been further eroded by the verbal shellacking he has received at the hands of the Barmy Army. With Sydney to come it will be seen whether Melbourne represented a nadir. For hours on end England’s loyal band of supporters subjected Johnson to a repetitive ear-bashing that they would have never risked dishing out to Glenn McGrath – and nor did his performances give them ammunition to.

A less than complimentary ditty sung to the tune of the Addams Family played a bit part in the Barmy Army repertoire but it was dominated by the description of Johnson’s bowling sung to the tune of Sloop John B, “He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right, that man Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is shite”. Complete with hand movements thousands of Englishmen made their point to Johnson again and again. Even Kevin Pietersen, fielding in front of the Barmy Army, felt inclined to agree (see video).

For a man struggling to find any form, with the sun beating down and his team stuck behind the eight ball, it was the last thing that Mitchell Johnson wanted to hear. Every leg-side delivery or four was cheered mercilessly. Johnson needs to rediscover his form and fast if Australia are to re-emerge as a cricketing powerhouse.

Viva Espana

And so we arrive at the denouement. From reading the cricket press in the aftermath of the red rose capitulation at Headingley one would not realise that honours stand even in this Ashes series. Of course England need to win at the Oval to regain the little urn but given this scenario before a ball had been bowled they would no doubt have seized the opportunity quicker than Usain Bolt in a hurry. If you’re an England player it’s a rare thing to arrive at the Fifth Test with something other than ‘honour’ to play for.

In terms of the quality of the cricket no valid comparison can be made between this series and ‘that one’ four years that entered the 75th scheduled session of play with both teams still tussling for supremacy. That this series could climax in the same way owes more to the unerring ability of both teams to stumble in sight of the finishing line rather than pummel each other to a standstill.

On that 5th day at the Oval in 2005 it was Kevin Pietersen, playing his fifth Test, who seized the moment aided and abetted by Ashley Giles. Nothing could stop them recording their highest Test scores but time stops for no man and this time around Pietersen is recuperating following an operation on his Achilles heel whilst the ‘King of Spain’ now meddles in selectorial affairs. As with every final Test of a series it is time to pay tribute to those touring players participating in their last matches in England. Retrospectively we add Brett Lee to the ranks of Warne and McGrath, Langer and Hayden, Martyn and Gilchrist who made the Oval in 2005 their last English Ashes Test.

A fit Brett Lee in cahoots with a rejuvenated Mitchell Johnson would have enjoyed putting the wind up a rickety England but Lee’s series has been holed below the waterline by injury. Ricky Ponting is nearing 35 and it is realistic to assume that he will not be captaining the side on these shores on the next visit, having most likely, passed the baton on to Michael Clarke. Ponting has been cast as a pantomime villain by the English press but it is to be hoped that the crowd at the Oval give him the respectful send off that he deserves as one of the true greats of the game.

In case you’d forgotten Andrew Flintoff will be making his last test appearance not just here but anywhere before he retires to the land of curry, quick runs and four over bowling spells. You can be sure that he will be straining whatever ligaments are left in his body to cast himself as the main act in his final script. You don’t need to be a bookmaker lurking around a hotel bar full of cricket players to know that the fortunes of both Flintoff and Ponting will be instrumental in determining the fate of their respective teams.

Four years ago Andrew Strauss was an England centurion in the first innings at the Oval. This series he is captain and England’s sole centurion in four matches. Without the company of Vaughan, Trescothick and Pietersen there is an absence of quality and experience to support him but Strauss has coped manfully with the captaincy and also managed to successfully overhaul his batting technique since his disastrous series down-under in 2006/07. Strauss has come of age.

It isn’t just inside the boundary ropes that we see the passing of time and Richie Benaud will be appearing on English television for the last time in his spot on Channel Five’s highlights show. He will step down from all commentary commitments later this year. Old father time will catch up with all of us, even Richie. Let us look forward to five days of memorable competition that we hope will produce a climax to live in the memory for four years and hopefully longer.