“Our plans worked perfectly.” One could imagine Darren Lehmann as a supervillain. That saurian monolith of a scone, complete with Blofeldian vasculature. Spinning around in a high-backed chair with that knowing squint. More likely to be stroking a bottle of white wine than a white cat – a crisp Riesling, perhaps, to cut through the third-session torpor? Come, come, Mr Cook, you derive just as much pleasure from crushing touring teams as I do.
In its inception, back in the dim mists of 2013, the Lehmann masterplan could be generously described as uncomplicated. Bowl fast, score faster. Aggression was the only way. It failed in England, worked a charm for the return Ashes a couple of months later, and failed more spectacularly in England in 2015.
Michael Clarke personified it. The worse your form, the harder you swing, became the then-captain’s guiding principle, encapsulated in his accidental 10 off 15 balls during the Trent Bridge disaster. Clarke swung himself off his feet and recognised it was time to swing himself out of Test cricket. But “play your natural game” remained the mantra of a team through thrashings against Sri Lanka away and South Africa at home.
By the end of last September’s stoush with Bangladesh, the current era’s captain had a personal tally reading 15 collapses in the last 13 Tests. Steve Smith was not amused, with the lack of amusement that only Smith can muster – there is no Border or Ponting rage about the man, more an obsessive late-teenage fastidiousness born of no prior Australian captain.
For Smith, that number was unsustainable. There was no fanfare about a new approach, because it did not carry the same sense of threat, but a new approach was definitely taken. In Brisbane for this Ashes series, we saw the early turning point that defined the tour, as Smith turned a parlous 76 for 4 into a position of command.
It was abnegation of pebble-kneeling intensity, Smith’s slowest hundred in a career that has enjoyed the chance to freewheel. England had good bowling plans to all the Australians, and 10 of them worked. Yet Smith withstood, offering denial to himself and England even-handedly. Every ball that landed where they wanted, he forsook. The occasional one where he preferred, he acceded, rarely with lavishness: of his unbeaten 141, only 56 came in boundaries. He penitently absorbed 326 balls in the process, a strike-rate of 43.
Thus, on he went. He led the run-scoring, of course, but duration was the standout: 1416 deliveries faced across the series, 448 more than the next in line, from seven out of 10 possible innings. Only two of his knocks were under three and a half hours. He totalled 35 hours and 37 minutes at the crease: insert arbitrary stat about how many times that would let you watch Gone With The Wind while laying spaghetti end-on-end to the moon.
As much as Smith out-endured his team-mates, they followed as best they could. Shaun Marsh was the standout: 968 balls and 22 hours 45, with pivotal hands in four of five Tests, all with his attacking instincts pared back to a series strike rate under 46. The ever-punchy David Warner barely capped 52. Of the top seven batsmen, Mitchell Marsh scored fastest with 57.04. The only Australians to hit the 60s were Mitchell Starc, who slogged 44 runs, and Jackson Bird, who made four from six balls once.
Had the Lehmann of 2013 governed a top order striking in the 40s, they would probably all have been sacked by series end. This later version has embraced a different way. “Long periods of time with their two senior bowlers in Broad and Anderson,” he confirmed. “We wanted them to bowl a lot of overs. That was certainly a plan in the first innings of every game.” Australia did not need to dominate England by smashing them. They dominated by beating them slowly, by making them work harder without ever feeling they were in the game.
Where the need for speed has been tempered with the bat, it did not need to be with the ball – at least not in Australian conditions. Of course speed still needs accuracy – just consult a certain Barmy Army song. But Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Patrick Cummins had that in spades. There were not many loose deliveries, and the scarcity meant some still went unpunished. Their relentlessness meant that eventually, England’s batsmen always slipped.
“In Australia you need velocity, you need pace, it’s simple,” said Lehmann. “History shows that. In England it’s a different story.” Hopefully, this means there is still a future for the unlucky Bird, handed a turf sandwich by filling in on a Melbourne pitch so dead that they hold parades for it in Mexico.
Bird has proved his worth before, and could still be key in England in 2019, along with perennial Adelaide understudy Chadd Sayers – but it is hard to imagine how Lehmann could move past his current bowlers if they remain fit and available. Asked if they could be the best attack he has coached, he said “They certainly have the potential to be. Harris, Siddle, Johnson and Lyon were pretty good four years ago, but these guys are younger, they’ve got the appetite to be great.”
Aside from the impressive trick of how Nathan Lyon today is younger than he was four years ago, the spinner has himself become a force in terms of accuracy. The way he dropped the ball on a length as soon as he started each spell was key in restraining scoring and creating chances for his quicks. Consistency came through in the quartet’s wicket tally: 21, 21, 22 and 23 for the series. Which number belongs to who is irrelevant. As with the batting effort, this was an Ashes victory built on co-operation, no matter how fast it moved.
