Adelaide - Some further thoughts

It still seems like an impossible dream, five days on which everything that England touched turned to gold. Even the timing of the rain, just a couple of hours after the Australian tail capitulated, played into their hands. It is difficult to remember a more complete England performance than this: to win by an innings is one thing, but to win by an innings while only losing five wickets yourselves is quite another. This is the kind of Ashes beating that we have been used to receiving, which made the victory all the sweeter.

One particularly bitter and twisted Australian poster on the Guardian’s sport blog played down England’s win, claiming that Australia were ‘only a Mike Hussey pull shot’ away from saving the game, which is an interesting spin to put on events, but there were moments when Australia could have seized the initiative, only to blow them. On the second morning, lest we forget, England lost Andrew Strauss in the first over to leave them 3-1. There was then a run out chance to Xavier Doherty and a low but fairly routine chance to Mike Hussey in the gully, neither of which were accepted. Had one of those been taken then Kevin Pietersen would have been in against the new ball and an upbeat attack, but with both of them spurned Cook and Trott were able to take the game away from Australia and lay the platform for another big score. The psychological impact of missed chances on bowlers and fielders shouldn’t be underestimated either, particularly coming off the back of the carnage of the second innings at Brisbane.

England will know that tests like these come around pretty rarely and, now that the well earned hangovers have receded, will be looking at how to ensure that they maintain the same level of intensity not just at Perth but for the rest of the series. The loss of Stuart Broad is a blow, for he has bowled better than his figures have suggested, but the England management team will feel confident that they have more than adequate reserves in the touring party. They are also in the happy position of having the world’s number two and number three bowlers both fit and firing. In spite of events since, they will also have the events of the first three days at Brisbane in the backs so their minds – Australia are currently in disarray but it isn’t so long since they bowled England out for two hundred and sixty and took a commanding innings lead.

There is an assumption than Australia will come back strongly, and it may be correct, but the Australian reputation for mental toughness has taken something of a battering of late. The final morning at Adelaide was a feeble effort, especially given that rain was forecast and England only had three fit bowlers, but they have also been found wanting against both India and Sri Lanka in the recent past, showing an uncharacteristic inability to seize the moment and falling apart under pressure. If they can re-group mentally then they undoubtedly have enough talented cricketers to make this series exciting, but the days of the mental disintegration being entirely on the part of their opponents are long gone.