Australia's bowling regains
its edge

Daniel Laidlaw

Even in one-day cricket, it is possible to see something new. Beforehand, one would have thought we had seen it all, that there was no way the one-day game could witness the introduction of anything remotely original. Then along came Steve Waugh's Australians, who set possibly the most constantly attacking field throughout an innings in one-day international history as Australia bowled England out for their lowest ever one-day score of 86 and struck a psychological blow ahead of the Ashes.

They may have been dressed in coloured clothes and been competing with a white ball under lights, but it was not one-day cricket the Australians were playing in the field at Old Trafford on Thursday. Remove the aforementioned details and Australia's style of play would have been recognisable as nothing other than their toughest, most attacking brand of Test cricket that saw them win 16 consecutive Tests.

Apart from the appearances there was little to distinguish the latter half of the game as a one-day international as, provided a seaming pitch by the weather, Waugh installed four slips and unleashed top guns Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie in a sustained and unbroken spell of hostility that, by the time they had both bowled out their quota of nine overs each, left England reeling at 40/5.

The all-out attack began as the most logical way to defend a small total but soon became a ruthless attempt to completely disintegrate England. Whether it really has any affect on the Ashes series may never be known, but it did emphatically prove that Australia's bowling, the least impressive compartment of its game in the first two matches, had regained its edge.

After two batting efforts responsible for securing its opening wins, Australia's innings was one long struggle. Under grey skies, Darren Gough, Allan Mullally, Andrew Caddick and even Ben Hollioake exploited the pitch to near perfection, but to claim there was something in the wicket just waiting to be taken advantage of is to do them an injustice.

The restrictive job done by the bowlers was ably supported by commitment in the field throughout. The Australians are renowned for pressuring fieldsmen into mistakes and consistently turning ones into twos, but England's fielders continually prevented twos by attacking the ball, especially in the important final overs, when the Australians frequently scampered the first run only to have to call 'wait.'

Matthew Hayden received his first opportunity to bat in his second game of the series when he was promoted to open in place of the rested Mark Waugh, but he may as well not have bothered. Hayden was dismissed by Andrew Caddick fourth ball of the innings, top-edging a pull shot to deep fine leg where Gough held a somewhat fortuitous catch after failing to sight the ball.

In addition to the rotation of Waugh, Australia welcomed back Jason Gillespie from a hamstring injury to give Brett Lee a break after his rusty weekend outing, while England dropped Mark Ealham for Paul Collingwood.

Adam Gilchrist recorded his third successive failure of the series as an opener, furthering his poor run both as an opener in England and against England in general. The English seem to feel they have Gilchrist's measure and not without justification, as they are yet to experience the full fury of a rampaging Gilchrist. He was out in familiar fashion, slicing Gough in the air backward of point to Ben Hollioake stationed there for just such a shot. Gilchrist's airborne driving and cutting in the gully region has been a notable weakness but one riskily exploited, as with just a little more height and velocity is it also a great strength, but Gough was able to do exactly that.

Ricky Ponting played exactly as you would expect from a man coming off a hundred, full of confidence and authority. It lasted only 21 runs, though, as Caddick got him with an excellent ball that left Australia a suddenly perilous 27/3 in the ninth over. This, it seemed, was representative of England's best method of Ashes success - Gough and Caddick penetrating the top order on a pitch with some bounce and lateral movement. Caddick made the ball lift off a length, squaring Ponting up and finding the shoulder of the bat for Nick Knight to complete a difficult take diving across in front of first slip.

A 45-minute rain interlude followed, the highlight of which, for Australian viewers, was a hilarious faux pas by former Aussie fast bowler-turned-commentator Jeff Thomson. Anchoring the Australian coverage with James Brayshaw, the pair had just finished a summary of the downpour while standing under an umbrella when they went to a break. The only problem was that the network did not immediately cut to a commercial and so, through a live microphone, we heard Thommo exclaim to a drowsy nation, "I'm gettin' ******* drowned here." Oops! Maybe Joe the Cameraman had made a reappearance in Manchester.

Of course, the advantage of losing early wickets was that Michael Bevan had the opportunity to bat, and thus shape, the majority of the innings. The Bradman of Not Outs (Gower: "Bevan has been not out in 50 of 143 innings." Thommo: "That's amazing, innit? A touch under one in three") failed to capitalise on his chance for an extended stay, becoming frustrated by a scoreless period and falling to Mullally for 37. After a steadying partnership of 66 with Steve Waugh, Bevan attempted an expansive drive to a rising ball outside off, never moving the feet for an edge behind.

3/27 is a Steve Waugh score, even in one-day cricket, as he is defensive enough to see Australia to safety while positive enough to put away the bad balls and keep the score ticking. This he did, top scoring with 64 as Australia were forced into recovery mode not so much because they chose to consolidate and bat cautiously, but because England's mostly incisive, accurate bowling gave them no other option.

Dominic Cork was the notable exception, but the surprisingly effective Ben Hollioake more than made up for him. With a clever mix of slower balls and good length bowling ideally suited to the wicket, Hollioake bowled a full complement of overs for just 30 runs. There was enough in the pitch, even at that point, to make scoring heavily a genuine challenge and test of concentration.

Waugh was dismissed before having an opportunity to cash in on the slog overs, adjudged leg-before to a reverse-swinging Gough delivery as he moved back and across to play to leg. Andrew Symonds could not get going, caught at wide long on after failing to connect properly to full one from Mullally, then in the same over Mullally got Ian Harvey for a duck with a big full toss that he could only sky to mid on, leaving Australia 189/7. All the while Damien Martyn was keeping his end in tact with an efficient if unspectacular half-century.

Australia were 208/7 after 48 overs when the rain arrived again, allowing us to become reacquainted with dear old chums Messrs Duckworth and Lewis, whose formula decreed after an hour's break that England's target would be set at 212 from 44 overs. The equation seemed to favour Australia, especially considering the pitch had been livened up.

Not one to forfeit such an advantage, Waugh immediately went on the offensive, deploying four slips without a third man from McGrath's first over. Such a move may have appeared radical, but it was actually immensely logical. In what were essentially Test conditions with plentiful seam movement on offer, why not maximise the opportunity of wickets, which Australia needed to win anyway?

McGrath and Gillespie had the ball flying through with such accuracy it took 3.5 overs for the first run to be scored from the bat. After frequent play-and-misses Nick Knight finally played without missing, lunging at a McGrath delivery with his hands as it seamed across him for the edge behind. After eight overs of survival that garnered 25 runs, it was the beginning of the end for England.

Gillespie, playing his first international match since the third Test against India, appeared to have lost none of his venom. Alec Stewart succumbed to him for a duck, attempting an awkward half-hearted pull shot to a short ball outside off for a lame skied catch to mid on. Next ball, Michael Vaughan was bowled by a beauty, the ball seaming back between bat and pad to hit leg stump to leave England 26/3 and Owais Shah facing a hat-trick. The already overly attacking field became even more so with a gaggle of slips, two gullies, a short leg and a leg gully for the hat-trick ball, a ferocious delivery homing in on Shah's ribcage that jagged back savagely to strike him on the arm.

With the Australians ruthlessly seeking the kill it was only a matter of time before more wickets fell. Gillespie collected his third when Shah fell for 10 to a delivery that again seamed back and rebounded off the pad, possibly via an inside edge, into the slips cordon. Although given out caught, it was unclear whether he was in fact caught or adjudged lbw.

After somehow surviving 16 overs and numerous play-and-misses, Trescothick departed in the last over of McGrath's spell, his first from around the wicket. Masterful at bowling to left-handers from that angle, McGrath made the ball seam back off the pitch, through the gap in Trescothick's defence to hit the top of middle stump. Both pacemen were bowled out, McGrath finishing with the analysis of 9-3-19-2 and Gillespie an outstanding 9-5-20-3, which said it all.

Having "seen off" the quicks at 40/5, England were confronted with none other than Shane Warne. Ben Hollioake saw no point in lingering, skipping down the wicket and failing to get to the pitch of the ball in attempting to play against the spin, easily stumped without scoring. The Australians were convinced they had Cork caught at silly point the next ball, which would have made it 40/7, but it hardly mattered. As Symonds was introduced to bowl off-spin at the other end, the imperative became not wickets but rushing through the overs quickly enough in order to reach 25, the minimum number of overs required to constitute a match should the rain set in. It bordered on farce.

Cork went for a quickfire 17, England's top score, when he pulled a Symonds long hop straight to the man at deep mid wicket. The laconic Symonds then proved he could do no wrong by snaring a freakish caught and bowled chance off Paul Collingwood, throwing himself to his right to seize a brilliant one-hander. Gough propped forward to a non-turning Warne leg break, fired lbw to make it 69/9, and after Mullally blocked Warne out of the attack in a tedious last wicket stand of 17 Harvey took four balls to find the edge and complete the carnage.

The result did not matter in the context of the NatWest series, as England were out of contention for the final anyway, but the abject manner of the defeat may have more significant and abiding consequences.

With just over half the preliminary games completed, the remaining fixtures are inconsequential. Australia and Pakistan have two more practice matches against each before contesting the final, with one each against England. Given the nature of triangular tournaments in this situation, it would not surprise if England won at least one of those.