Bazball ‘out the window’ as ‘reckless’ brainfade, ‘ill-disciplined’ act sum up demise: Talking Pts

Australia are on the brink of taking a 3-0 lead in the Ashes at home for the sixth time this century as the hosts’ edged closer towards victory on day four of the third Test at the Adelaide Oval.

England ended the day 6/207, needing a further 228 runs for victory, but a late collapse, sparked by a Harry Brook reverse sweep blunder, sent scares that the Test match could have been over late on Saturday afternoon.

Brook’s dismissal was widely ridiculed on a day where several of England’s batters were in the firing line.

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Australian captain Pat Cummins was simply superb ripping out the England top order before Nathan Lyon wreaked havoc in the final session.

Zak Crawley was the shining light for the tourists, delivering on a pre-series promise to show more mongrel.

While earlier in the day, Ben Stokes made a big statement after concerns about his fitness.

Scroll down for the biggest talking points from day four at the Adelaide Oval!

BROOK BRAIN FADE

You can never take the Bazball out of Harry Brook.

The England vice-captain along with opening batter Zak Crawley curbed every instinct they have cultivated in the last three and a half years during their 68-run partnership in the final session of day four.

Both batters were striking at a rate of little more than 50, far below their usual marks – especially for Brook whose career strike rate in Test cricket stands at 87.36.

“It’s funny Bazball has completely gone out the window with their batting,” Australian great Mark Waugh said on Kayo Sports’ live Ashes coverage.

“If they were batting like this in the first Test they probably would’ve won the first Test.”

But like in Perth, a moment of madness arrived.

Brook and Crawley had been reverse sweeping Nathan Lyon and Travis Head regularly.

The Australians set a leg side dominant field and with a sweeper on the fence behind point, the English duo targeted that fielder as their way to easy rotate strike.

But with the ball beginning turn bigger and sharper as the pitch showed more signs of wear and tear, hitting against the spin was an option that was not without major risk.

Eventually, it undid Brook as he missed the reverse, and it crashed into the top of his leg stump.

“Just too much aggression from Harry Brook, perhaps a little bit reckless,” legendary Aussie keeper Adam Gilchrist said on Kayo Sports’ live Ashes coverage.

“Huge blow.”

While the Australians roared, Brook stood at the crease in disbelief at what had happened.

He was unsure what had transpired, and the image of Brook standing there looking towards the umpire and Crawley at the non-strikers end will be a lasting symbol of Bazball’s disintegration down under.

“It was just such an awkward-looking shot,” Waugh said. “Lost his balance, you’ve got to at least cover your stumps. That right leg had to go more towards the bowler, rather than so far out to the off-side where he dragged his body across with it

“He would’ve gotten away with it if he’d kept his body in line with the stumps.

“He hadn’t hit a boundary for a while and he looked to up the ante. Zak Crawley was playing that reverse sweep with much more control, but Harry Brook tries to hit it so hard – and when you try to hit it hard, you sometimes lose your balance.

“But it was a little bit slower from Nathan Lyon so give credit to him that he dragged it back. It meant Harry Brook was in that position too early and couldn’t adjust being a pre-meditated reverse sweep.”

It was also emblematic of England allowing Australia to seize control any time they started to grab hold of it.

Brook departed for 30 from 56 balls. England were three wickets down needing 258 runs to win the ball before he was dismissed.

It was still a long shot, but not impossible, particularly for a team that has prided itself on being able to chase anything and everything.

Such moments also often triggers collapses, and this was no exception.

Ben Stokes came and went, knocked over by a Lyon cracker for 5 and Crawley fell five runs later, stumped by Alex Carey off Lyon for a well made 85.

They lost 3/17 in 37 balls and suddenly the urn looked like it could have been gone tonight.

CUMMINS’ ‘ELITE’ RETURN GIVES ENGLAND CHAMPION NIGHTMARES

Joe Root may have got his long-awaited century in Australia at the Gabba, but Pat Cummins has not relinquished his stranglehold over the England champion.

The Australian skipper returned to the side for this Test and returned to tormenting Root, catching his outside edge in both innings to gift Alex Carey two relatively straight forward catches.

Before the series began, former Australian leg spinner Kerry O’Keeffe called Root “a nicker”.

Throughout many Ashes battles, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood had been the best exponents of feeding the catchers behind the wicket when Root was at the crease.

With those two on the sidelines in Perth and Brisbane, he received some reprieve despite Mitchell Starc nicking him off twice before they arrived in Adelaide.

But Cummins’ comeback at the Adelaide Oval brought with it a return to usual programming.

Root has been dismissed by Cummins 13 times in Test cricket – twice more than anyone else.

Arguably more important that the sums of the wickets have been the moments when Cummins has uprooted England’s best batter.

Ten times Cummins has dismissed Root when he had reached double digits.

Coming out after tea on Saturday, Test cricket second highest run scorer of all time was set again, and the Australians badly needed a breakthrough.

Root was going along nicely on 39 with he and Zak Crawley combining for a 78-run stand that frustrated the locals before Cummins struck.

The Australian captain has a freakish knack for bowling an unplayable delivery to knock over the world’s finest, Root was memorably on the receiving end on two occasions in the 2019 Ashes, but his recent success has been built around patience and relentlessness.

Cummins consistently bowled in the channel just outside off stump, and the stars aligned when Root poked, and he got one to move slightly off a surface that had shown few signs of life in the middle session.

It is the fifth time in a row that Cummins has had Root caught behind the wicket.

“He just bowls that line and length where Joe Root is indecisive in his foot work,” Australian great Mark Waugh told foxsports.com.au.

“He’s stuck not going forward or back. He kind of straddles the crease.

“He knows that he’s got him a lot so there’s that extra baggage Joe always carries when he plays Cummins, so it plays on your mind.”

Root is not the only English batter whose outside edge Cummins, who took three scalps in the tourist’s first innings, has peppered.

The 32-year-old kicked off the fourth innings by nicking off Ben Duckett second ball with a shrewd piece of captaincy that trapped the left-hander on the crease before he needlessly pushed outside off stump.

Cummins set a field for a short ball trap with Travis Head under the helmet at short leg and Jake Weatherald behind him at a regulation square leg.

After lunch, he also sent Ollie Pope on his way cheaply with Marnus Labuschagne taking a spectacular diving catch low to his left at second slip.

Waugh said it was so good that it was on par with Steve Smith’s one-handed hangar at the Gabba.

Not having played a professional game since the third Test of the West Indies tour in July due to a lumbar stress issue, it was a mighty effort for Cummins to slot back into the bowling attack so seamlessly.

“He’s bowled great. He looks fresh. He looks fit,” Waugh told foxsports.com.au.

“He’s just world class. He’s just elite.

“Obviously he’s done a lot of work in the nets because he hasn’t looked like he’s missed a beat.”

CRAWLEY DELIVERS ON PROMISE

One of the most engaging moments of day four was Zak Crawley and Pat Cummins toying with one another as the seconds ticked down before the lunch break.

England came to Australia this summer promising that they are not simply nice guys, who will be bullied by the hosts like previous touring parties have.

The regular spotfires in their home series against India earlier in the year were viewed as a change of pace, they were happy to fight fire with fire.

Crawley’s clash with Indian skipper Shubman Gill and his team at Lords as the opener took the mickey in wasting time by arriving the crease 90 seconds late, calling for the physio and backing away as Jasprit Bumrah ran into bowl.

England had seven minutes to bat before stumps, and only one over was bowled because of Crawley’s time-wasting efforts.

Gill called Crawley’s actions against the spirit of cricket, while the Englishman later revealed in an interview with The Times that after the incident he texted his uncle to tell him he “would have loved it. Proper Millwall.”

It was a comment that raised eyebrows as the private school educated Crawley seemed to have little connection with the south London football club known for having some of the most notorious hooligans in England.

Regardless, English fans have been waiting patiently for their players to show a little bit of mongrel, a bit of character and banter to show they are not push overs.

For Crawley, his moment to play with fire came at the end of the first session on day four.

To ensure there would not be another over from Mitchell Starc, he took his time to take guard for the final delivery of Cummins’ opening over, walking down the pitch to do some gardening.

As the clock ticked over to midday, Cummins decided to play the game.

The Aussie skipper bent down and re-tied his shoelace at the top of his mark.

Crawley then carried on the back and forth as he backed away when Cummins approached the crease.

He would have been made to look the fool if he had been dismissed when the ball finally was bowled, but fortunately for Crawley the new Kookaburra beat his outside edge as Cummins delivered a pearler.

The pair then exchanged a few words as the pair headed toward the pavilion.

Crawley then told reporters in a tongue-in-cheek manner that he was not time-wasting, instead there had been some dirt on the pitch and someone walk behind the bowlers arm.

Australia was clearly on top with Cummins removing Ben Duckett earlier in the over, but at least Crawley showed that he was willing to scrap after many of the England team had failed to do so throughout the Test match.

He carried that attitude forward after the break, abandoning Bazball and bunkering down to soak up as much time as possible.

Crawley was only 14 after facing 50 deliveries. It was his slowest first 50 balls in a Test innings.

He later said that his slower approach not a deliberate change of tack, instead he credited Australia’s bowlers for not giving him much earlier and said it is naturally harder to score quickly on these shores.

Crawley picked up the pace naturally later in the day, eventually being stumped off Nathan Lyon for 85 from 151 balls, his highest Test score in Australia.

But for a player who was been much maligned, it was a knock that enhanced his reputation, while others diminished theirs.

‘ILL-DISCIPLINED’ POM’S LATEST BLUNDER

Ben Duckett is renowned for his reluctance to leave the ball, an unusual trait for a Test opener.

The Nottinghamshire product left less than two per cent of the deliveries he faced in Tests across the first 12 months of the Bazball era, scoring at a strike rate of 89.23. During the 2023 Ashes series, Australian captain Pat Cummins was overheard taunting the left-hander when he allowed a delivery to sail through to the wicketkeeper.

Duckett has reined in his approach somewhat over the last couple of years, hitting a match-winning 149 during June’s record run chase against India at Headingley, but the Englishman’s desperation to feel bat on ball came back to bite him on Saturday morning at Adelaide.

Tasked with chasing a record 435-run target for victory, Duckett fell in the second over of the innings after needlessly fending at a wide delivery from Cummins and edging towards slips cordon, with Marnus Labuschagne accepting a regulation chance.

Considering the match situation – with five minutes remaining until the lunch break – a traditional opener would have been content with leaving the harmless delivery. But that’s not the Bazball way.

“That’s a terrible shot,” former Australian captain Mark Taylor said on Triple M.

“It’s a good sixth stump, maybe even wider, and he’s just pushed at it.”

As he sheepishly trudged back towards the sheds, Duckett was seen shadow batting and practising his leave, a telling act from the struggling opener. He immediately knew his mistake.

“Nothing shot,” Australian skipper Alyssa Healy said on Fox Cricket.

“He just doesn’t leave the ball.“

Former Test batter Mark Waugh agreed, calling Duckett “ill-disciplined”.

Duckett is averaging 16.16 against Australia this summer, with a high score of 29 across six knocks. Bowlers Jofra Archer and Mitchell Starc have contributed more runs across the first three Ashes Tests.

Multiple of his previous dismissals on the tour can be attributed to superb bowling, but the 31-year-old only had himself to blame for Saturday’s dismissal.

Duckett isn’t the only batter struggling in England’s top order with Ollie Pope falling cheaply again, but even if the national selectors wanted to make a change at the top of the order, they may be short of options, with no reserve openers in the touring party.

Will Jacks is an option, along with Jacob Bethell, but neither of them have worthwhile experience against new ball, especially in Australian conditions.

England has plenty of selection headaches ahead of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

STOKES DISMISSES FITNESS DOUBTS

Ben Stokes’ fitness was one of the biggest talking points at the end of day three.

After a gallant 82 with the bat, Stokes did not bowl a single over as Travis Head flayed his teammates to all parts of Adelaide Oval.

It led to fears that the English skipper had broken down once again.

In New Zealand a year ago and against India in the English summer this year, Stokes worked himself until he was broken and forced to miss Test matches.

It looked like the same may have happened here, but England assistant coach Jeetan Patel insisted on Friday evening that Stokes was “pretty knackered” and there were no injury concerns.

Stokes then backed up those comments by grabbing the ball for the first over of the day on Saturday morning.

He proceeded to send down seven overs and took the key wicket of Alex Carey, caught at leg slip, to spark Australia’s lower order collapse.

Stokes’ short ball tactic paid off with Carey picking out Harry Brook around the corner, but it is a taxing ploy, and not one that is ideal for someone who has battled fatigue throughout the game.

“He’s a tough bloke, tough athlete, mentally very strong, but there’s only so much your body can take but also your mind can take, especially with the load of captaincy, leadership… were not even through the third Test match yet,” Australian captain Alyssa Healy said on Kayo Sports’ live Ashes coverage.

On day two, he was cramping relentlessly while plugging away with the bat for half a day in 40-degree heat.

Perhaps he simply needed the recovery time after batting for a little more than an hour on the third morning.

If that truly was the case, it is a fascinating change of pace for Stokes.

He has never been one to shy away from a challenge, and his ‘no country for weak men’ comments in Brisbane suggested that he would guts it out and keep pushing himself to the limit.

Possibly he realised that self-preservation was the only way to keep fighting.

Outside of Stokes and Jofra Archer, England have offered little resistance in Adelaide.

It is clear that the captain needs more support and cannot afford to run out of fuel again.

“That’s where you need your (vice-captain) to step up, he needs someone in charge when he’s bowling,” former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee said on Kayo Sports’ live Ashes coverage.

“(Harry) Brook needs to take the opportunity to rev up his teammates, lead from the front, obviously with the bat he needs to get more runs and we have not seen the best from him yet, hopefully today we can.

“Just to take the pressure off Stokes we’ve seen that with Pat Cummins and Steve Smith,“ Lee said.