Before lunch in the first Test yesterday, the Gabba experienced a power failure that incapacitated cameras at the ground providing the world feed. Local viewers were submitted to glimpses of commentators calling the game remotely, their wan smiles and uneasy repartee.
Shane Warne, Brett Lee and Isha Guha sat together like three patients in a tightly packed doctor’s waiting room. Ricky Ponting mugged on their free-to-air alternative, which was disarmingly good — further proof that actual cricket can sometimes be a distraction from his well-formed views.
When, in due course, limited vision was restored, one was for a period back in the 1970s: through a single functioning camera at one end, the action appeared as if shot through the wrong end of a telescope. It being Brisbane, one half expected Clem Jones to rematerialise.
● Read Simon Wilde’s report from the fourth and final day in Brisbane
In the Test proceeding all the while, England were suffering their own power failure. Having been two wickets down and only 58 behind at the beginning, they had only three wickets left when they moved into the black, optimistic prospects of a climactic fifth day turning into plans for a day off.
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There was something old-fashioned about the Australian squeeze too — robust, rugged, communal, the wickets shared, the conviction absolute.
Once Nathan Lyon broke the overnight partnership by removing Dawid Malan, and Cameron Green swung one away from Joe Root’s tentative stroke, the second new ball generated five wickets for 52 runs in 21 disciplined overs, Pat Cummins leading the way by bouncing out Ben Stokes.
Lyon took advantage of Ollie Pope’s frenetic approach against spin, Josh Hazlewood of Jos Buttler’s defensive looseness. Sun-hatted teammates swarmed on the field; Star Wars cosplayers cavorted in the crowd; the empire was striking back. The moustachioed man-of-the-match Travis Head afterwards could have been accepting his cheque from Gillette.
Tests sometimes shadow previous Tests. We sense examples to follow. We glimpse pitfalls to avoid. The follies of England bowling first in 1954 and 2002, as my colleague Mike Atherton has suggested, hung over Joe Root on the first day when he chose to bat.
The better Ashes antecedent ended up being the Gabba Test in 1978, where Australia batted on a green top, conceded a sizeable first innings deficit, almost regained parity by way of a handsome third-wicket partnership between Graham Yallop and Kim Hughes, then tailed away.
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In other words, memory is selective. We accent those precedents that suit the way we already think. Root on Wednesday seemed to accord conditions less significance than the need to: a) be seen to be avoiding previous mistakes; and b) send a message of confidence about England’s readiness which, in his heart of hearts, he cannot possibly have felt.
Had this Test not been the first, not been at the Gabba and/or had England chosen James Anderson and Stuart Broad, would Root have fielded instead, taking advantage of the cloud cover and the verdant surface?
Because that was where the die was cast. For all the criticisms of England’s attack, the need to defend 147 made their task virtually impossible. It’s perfectly probable England would have lost this Test regardless of Root’s decision — Australia have now lost one Test of their past 33 at the Gabba — but what the data might have related about the Gabba surfaces on the second day as distinct from the first could not factor for the patent inadequacy of the visitors’ preparation.
Had Rory Burns received any delivery in the previous two weeks that looked anything like the first he received in this match, from that angle and at that speed? There is not a left-arm pace bowler in either English squad here, let alone one who poses Starc’s peculiar challenges.
There will be no nostalgic kick when Australia and England resume the Ashes on Thursday. It will be that distinctive made-for-television phenomenon, a day-night Test at Adelaide Oval. Some believe it offers England their best chance of summer; Anderson and Broad have hardly had the pink ball out of their hands in the nets; Root’s men are due some luck. But such history as exists also bears down on the visitors. Australia have never lost a pink-ball match under lights.
