England are on the verge of falling into a 2-0 hole following a “gruesome” third day in Brisbane.
The visitors capitulated in the final hour last night, losing five wickets for 44 runs to end the day at 6-134 in their second innings, 43 runs behind Australia.
It would have been tough to watch as an England fan. Respected sports journalist Lawrence Booth didn’t mince words.
“It was a hall of shame performance … They batted like they had been lobotomised,” he said.
The pile on didn’t stop there.
Former England opener Michael Atherton labelled the day’s play as “gruesome” on Sky Sports while on the same network, Nassar Hussein blasted the visitors for their costly recidivism.
The former England captain says the same mistakes have been made across the five days of cricket that has been played so far. The top order aren’t prizing their wicket, fielding has been ordinary and tactics with the ball have been found out.
“England were out-bowled, out-batted, out-caught, out-thought – completely and utterly outplayed from start to finish,” Hussein said.
“But what has happened today is a consequence of what has happened from the first day, when Harry Brook’s dismissal opened the door for wickets to fall, wafting at wide deliveries outside off stump.
“England then ended up slightly below par on first innings – they should have maybe got 400 and then they are way behind when you add in bowling badly and the dropped catches.
“Each mistake you make is a small one but as the Test progresses it catches up with you.”
Hussein was particularly critical of one player, first drop Ollie Pope.
Pope has given his wicket away cheaply at times this series, including on Day 3 when chipping one up back to bowler Michael Neser.
Pope was playing with fire throughout his brief innings of 26 and during the knock, it seemed it was just a matter of time he’d lose his wicket.
Hussain was incredulous when discussing Pope’s soft dismissal, believing it’s clear the batsman didn’t adapt to the second Test Gabba pitch.
“Pope’s dismissal was utterly bizarre,” said Hussain.
“There is something in your brain that, however positive you want to be, driving on the up on this surface is not easy. We have seen that … It’s not the shot to be playing.
“He nearly got caught and bowled early on and then he nicked one over slip off the outside edge. I sat in the press box thinking to myself, ‘what is going through Pope’s head now?’ I would have been thinking ‘that shot started a collapse in Perth so put it away’.
“But what does Pope do? He goes down the other end, drives on the up with a closed bat face and is caught and bowled as 90-1 becomes 90-2 and the collapse comes.
“How can Pope himself not say, ‘if I carry on batting like this I am going to get out’.
Pope wasn’t the only England batsmen to let his side down on Saturday night but his wicket did spark the collapse.
Skipper Joe Root, who was the hero in England’s first knock, could only manage 15. Opener Zak Crawley was looking good on 44 when he fell cheaply as well, one of two players to be caught and bowled by NEser.
Writing for The Telegraph, journalist Nick Hoult labelled the situation a “bleak state of affairs” for English cricket.
“Root, the only batsman capable of weathering a storm, had edged behind a lazy drive for 15 and the England death rattle could be heard above the din,” Hoult wrote from Brisbane.
“It is a bleak state of affairs, summed up by thousands of Australians mocking when an England fan appeared on the big screen with five minutes to go and his head in his hands.
“Unless Ben Stokes finds a Superman cape in his suitcase overnight, nobody will need to stick a dollar in the Gabba electricity meter on day four: it should be all done and dusted before the lights go on.
“No England team has recovered from 2-0 to win the Ashes,
“It is mission impossible and has all come about so quickly: England’s Ashes dream has evaporated in just five days of Test cricket in a blaze of big-ego batting.
“It will soon be a question of how bad the bloodletting becomes.
Hoult also went hard on Pope.
It’s fair to say that along with Harry Brook, Pope has been one of England’s big disappointments this series.
“Pope symbolises so much of the muddled game management that sometimes grips this England side. Five balls before his dismissal he was almost caught at cover mistiming a drive. Two balls later he edged over second slip before another hard-handed drive gave Neser a catch he clung on to this time. It was soft batting,” Hoult said.
Discussion about this post