England cricket followers on Saturday got a glimpse of non-Bazball life – and it arguably produced the tourists’ most competitive day of this summer’s Ashes series to date.
The issue, though, was that England’s gritty performance came when the series had been essentially lost – and Australia’s bowling attack was at its ruthless, dogged best – leaving UK pundits and scribes bereft.
Ben Stokes’ side is staring down the barrel of losing the Ashes within three Tests, still 228 runs adrift from the mammoth 435 the hosts set them to win in Adelaide with just four wickets in hand and a daunting task ahead on day five.
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The tourists had generated some hope on day four. They took 6-38 with the ball to rip through the Aussie tail then showed some fight with the bat, with Zak Crawley (85), Joe Root (39) and Harry Brook (30) all standing tall at times. Somewhat uncharacteristically, the trio were watchful and patient in their approach, defending well and attacking loose balls.
But Australia’s bowling attack had a response every time it was challenged on Saturday, with Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins doing the damage.
“They have started to write the ‘Bazball’ obituaries during this Test with England heading for a resounding Ashes defeat. As it transpires, those eulogies would have been relevant even if Stokes’ team had avoided Lyon’s late flurry of wickets,” Tim Spiers wrote for The Athletic.
“Bazball died here in Adelaide and, for long periods, England — for all the remarkable, logic-defying highlights they have given us since 2022 — suddenly looked all the better for it.
“What are we to make of it all? Should we knock England yet again for completely ditching their principles in conditions that McCullum said were ‘more attuned to our best style of cricket’? Or applaud them for finally applying common sense and playing the match situation?
“It has to be the latter, albeit it’s still fair to chastise them for applying these methods far, far too late to save the Ashes.
“They wanted Bazball to entertain us. They wanted us to love their cricket whatever the result. But this orthodox afternoon in Adelaide was by far their most likeable innings of the series, despite the score at the close of play.”
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Should England lose in Adelaide, the five-match series will be decided, with Tests in Melbourne and Sydney still to come after Australia won the opening two clashes in Perth and Brisbane by eight wickets.
“All that hope the Bazballers inspired has evaporated and jobs are on the line in Melbourne and Sydney,” Nick Hoult wrote for The Telegraph. “Stokes and Joe Root will never know what it feels like to win a live Ashes Test in Australia and the possibility of a third Ashes whitewash in Australia in 20 years is an unpalatable reality for England.
“At the start of the tour, when the air was filled with promise, Stokes described those England captains who had won in Australia as the “lucky few” and believed he had the arsenal to join the five to win an away Ashes since the second world war. Now all he can hope for is winning a dead rubber and ending the 15-year drought for any Test win in Australia.”
Veteran cricket analyst Simon Wilde declared it “a dark time for English Test cricket”.
“The public at home is turning away from the game through a mixture of disappointment and disgust. Youngsters who might have been engaged had Ben Stokes’ team even been competitive will now remain among the unconverted,” Wilde wrote for The Times.
“There is a generation of England players who do not know what it is to win an Ashes series. Stokes himself and Joe Root, who have done so much for the game in our country, have — amazingly — yet to play on a winning side in Australia. The next tour here may be a step too far for both. With the Hundred now drawing big salaries, the dangers of further erosion to the Test format in England are clear and present.”
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Crawley and an uncharacteristically subdued Brook began a rebuild at the crease. But Brook badly mistimed a reverse sweep and was bowled by a classic Lyon off-break – a shot that drew fierce criticism.
“Wildly off balance, with his limbs splayed from an abortive reverse sweep, Harry Brook looked as if he had no idea what had hit him,” The Telegraph chief sports writer Oliver Brown wrote. “It felt a fitting motif for England’s befuddlement on this tour, for their woeful inability to anticipate the Australian juggernaut thundering towards them.
“Brook, the country’s most extravagantly gifted young batsman, just stood there dumbfounded, confused as to whether he had been bowled or stumped. Advancing to a delivery from Nathan Lyon that pitched outside off stump and spun devilishly, he could only swipe at thin air as the ball clipped the top of leg stump. And sure as night follows day, his team would tumble through the trapdoor once more.”
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Two of England’s most under-fire batters also failed to deliver in the fourth innings.
The team lost Ben Duckett in the second over. After hitting his first ball for four, Duckett poked at a Cummins delivery outside off-stump and edged to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip.
“Nothing has encapsulated England’s inability to impose themselves on Australia in this series more than the decline of Duckett,” Paul Newman wrote for The Athletic.
“The opener’s all-action style and refusal to leave almost every ball has been a feature of England’s ‘Bazball’ style since he was plucked from international obscurity by England coach Brendon McCullum to replace Alex Lees at the top of the order towards the end of 2022.
“But Duckett has been a shadow of himself throughout this Ashes campaign and his out of character, tentative prod at a Cummins delivery saw him dismissed by just his second ball at the start of England’s improbable run chase in Adelaide. It was a ball he could have left on line as well as length. Instead, he guided it obligingly to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip.
“It summed up England’s series in a nutshell.”
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Out-of-form number three Ollie Pope was widely seen as on his last chance with Jacob Bethell.
He failed to deliver again, gone for 17 with Labuschagne taking a stunning one-handed catch at full stretch in the slips, again off Cummins.
While Jacob Bethell is waiting in the wings and is seen as the likely Pope replacement, veteran BBC commentator Jonathan Agnew lamented the lack of healthy internal squad pressure for spots in the starting XI.
“You need competition for places. The big criticism of mine of this squad is there’s no competition, there’s no accountability,” Agnew told the TMS Podcast. “So you get out, you play a rash shot: ‘OK, well anyway I’m playing next week, that’s good news.’ It shouldn’t be like that in a team.
“You need to have people breathing down your neck. You need to have somebody in form, playing games between Test matches who’s getting into form and putting pressure on the people that are playing. It’s a good thing … and that’s just not happening.”
England headed to Australia with high hopes, but it has been mostly one-way traffic despite the series being hyped beforehand as having the hallmarks of being a classic.
“As I know, as various captains out here know, once you lose and it starts going in the wrong direction in Australia, this crowd gets behind a nation and it becomes very difficult,” ex-England captain Nasser Hussain told Sky Sports News. “And it’s very difficult to stop that momentum of the opposition.
“If they lose the Ashes (on Sunday), which looks likely, you’re going to have to pick yourself up. You’re going to have to think of all the people that are flying out to the MCG and the SCG for Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Test matches, hard-earned money saved, you think of those people and people back at home waking up at 3am trying to follow this side. You’re playing for your country and you keep going right to the end.
“History tells you coming here as an England side, it’s so difficult to win out here. But it will feel like a missed opportunity because of the players Australia has missing. They’ve had Hazlewood ruled out the whole series, Cummins didn’t play in the first two Test matches, Lyon left out of Brisbane, Steve Smith not playing here – they are some of the greats of the game and it still looks likely that Australia will go 3-0 up.”
Crawley said the mood in the England dressing room was “flat”, adding: “We came here to win the Ashes, we’re always an optimistic team, an upbeat team, and we’ll try and put up as much fight as we can.
Crawley admitted England had been outplayed by a better side.
“They’re a very, very good side. I feel like it was always going to be tough coming here, against them,” he said.
“They were the favourites going into it and they’ve proven why.
“Obviously we’ve been slightly short of our best, but a lot of credit has to go to them. They’ve not allowed us to be our best.”
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