It is never too early to start winning. This elementary principle of sport was demonstrated yesterday almost to the point of obsession when, after a long 14 months of frenzied anticipation, England once again faced Australia to play for the Ashes.
So at the Gabba yesterday, Australia won the toss and proceeded with their game plan: which was to start winning this five-match series as early as humanly possible. They set off with their ruthless plan of unsettling the opposition and attempting to introduce desperation into English hearts and minds.
The first ball is always a massively significant moment in any series, and this one has been looked forward to since England clinched the 2005 series at the Brit Oval. Stephen Harmison bowled it: fast, fierce and desperately wide. It was a horribly queasy moment.
So much of this series depends on what goes on in Harmison’s mind. One day he is a fierce and unstoppable destroyer, the next a problem only to himself. So naturally, the Australia batsmen set out to unsettle him early, in return for the way he had unsettled them in the previous series.
Justin Langer, an old foe, took it on himself to go after him and, in a brief but withering assault, triumphantly succeeded in implementing Australia’s plan A: to hit Harmison out of the attack. He hit four fours off him, so Harmison had to be removed almost before he had even started.
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It was a wonderful victory for Australia’s morale and a desperate, disabling blow for England, and the effect was doubled when James Anderson was brought on in his place and went for ten in his first over.
There has been so much talking about this series, but the truth in sport is always in the action. Australia began this series with half-an-hour of violent purpose and England were staggering under the weight of it.
There was a real arrogance in the way that Australia went about this: it seemed that Langer in particular was motivated by a bitter contempt for English bowlers. He seemed like a man on a mission: a cowboy riding into town to set things right.
The first morning of the series is one of infinite possibilities. It is a time to set down markers, renew old enmities and to rearrange the old hierarchies. Australia set out as if the effect of the English summer of 2005 were nothing more than a strange dream, one that they were happy to wake up from. They crashed 37 runs without loss in the first half-hour and looked like men who had made a magnificent early start to the long-term business of winning.
It was a morning for the making of psychological points and the Australians were making them, especially Langer, who played like a man in a frenzy of vengeance. He launched an attack not so much on the England bowlers as on English pride, and long before drinks were taken, England were cut to the quick.
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