The pink Test, now its 10th year, is firmly embedded into the Sydney calendar. With Glenn McGrath, the universally respected driver of a wonderful charity, they flock to the SCG in their thousands, young and old, male and female, committed fans and those who simply want to enjoy being there. The Saturday, when those not displaying something pink receive a funny look, is an especially memorable occasion.
Whether this Saturday will qualify as memorable for the 11 Englishmen toiling in the field for almost six and a half hours is another matter. Naturally the England players offer their absolute support to the McGrath Foundation but they would also have welcomed a few more wickets under an unrelenting sun against an unrelenting batting lineup.
England dismissed just two Australians in the day. One of them – remarkably – was Steve Smith; it was hard to tell who was more surprised, Smith or the bowler, Moeen Ali. The other was Usman Khawaja, who resuscitated his Test career by scoring 171 on a sleepy surface that is likely to offer increasing assistance to the spinners. Khawaja was eventually stumped to become Mason Crane’s first Test wicket. The young leg‑spinner deserved something in his final column.
So a flamingo-coloured crowd looked on at an England side that toiled and spun and who had no Dennis Lillees out there. They did not stint in their efforts. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad kept pounding in to no avail. On came the spinners and none disgraced themselves. Mark Stoneman dutifully stuck his helmet on and was stationed at forward short leg for much of the time. He might have wondered why. Here we are in the fifth Test and he has yet to take a catch there.
There would be no gifts from Australia’s middle order: Smith “failed”, having been dismissed for 83. Khawaja looked a Test batsman again, exhibiting patience that was punctuated by the occasional high-risk shot, whereupon he returned to watching the ball plop gently on to the middle of his bat.
Then came the Marsh brothers; Shaun was watchful and composed, forever demonstrating his dexterity against spin and ending the day on 98 not out; initially Mitchell was all at sea against Crane, missing his leg-breaks frequently, but before long he began middling the ball, which meant that he hit it powerfully, especially when facing Moeen.
So England kept toiling as Joe Root switched his bowlers, always in hope rather than expectation. The series was long gone and now this match was drifting away. There were echoes of the last Test in Chennai a year ago, when England scored 477 in their first innings, yet when India declared they had a lead of 282. On that occasion Alastair Cook was the captain, Adil Rashid was the leg-spinner and the embattled Moeen was the off-spinner.
This time one could almost sense Root’s worst fears at the start. In the morning he tried all his five main bowlers inside 40 minutes, by which time Khawaja had reached his sixth Test century and his first against England. None of them offered much of a threat, though Anderson was as frugal as ever.
Root took the new ball as soon as it was available, with Australia on 233 for two (England had been 233 for three when Mitchell Starc was let loose with a shiny new ball on Thursday evening), and once a Broad bouncer sent Smith on to his backside. But the Australia captain got up smiling rather, as Derek Randall used to do, as if he had been not in the least inconvenienced. Then there was the gasp and the brief stunned silence when Smith drove the first ball of a new spell by Moeen back into the bowler’s hands.
Just before lunch England sensed another wicket, which would have been Crane’s first. Khawaja on 132 was well down the pitch when he padded up and England reviewed the decision. It transpired that the ball would have hit the stumps but this was only established after the agonising discovery that no part of Crane’s left foot was behind the line as he delivered the ball.
So Crane joined a disturbingly long list of recent England bowlers who have been denied their first Test wicket because of over-stepping: Ben Stokes, Mark Wood and Tom Curran. What would Lady Bracknell say? Maybe the bowling coach should have a word; he probably will when he arrives.
After lunch Crane delivered his first maiden in Test cricket as he continued an impressive spell but the afternoon session was fruitless. Khawaja’s under-edge eluded Jonny Bairstow; Shaun Marsh was mistakenly given caught behind against Root, who briefly looked England’s likeliest spinner. Otherwise all was tranquillity. A Marsh cover drive took Australia into the lead.
After tea there was the one uplifting moment for England: Crane’s first wicket. He sensed Khawaja advancing down the pitch and bowled the ball wider and shorter; it passed between bat and pad and Bairstow was on hand to whip off the bails.
Initially Crane tormented Mitchell Marsh, beating him four times with leg-breaks that went past the outside edge. But soon the younger Marsh was acclimatised and thumping the ball harder than any other batsman in the match.
The bowling of Crane had been the solitary source of encouragement for England but his figures do not reflect that – though they also indicate that a young debutant is judged by different standards, especially if he flips the ball out of the back of the hand. At the close he had taken one for 135 from 39 overs. Ah well, in Sydney 25 years ago Shane Warne took one for 150 from 45 overs against India in his first Test match. There were no other crumbs of comfort.
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