1st Ashes Test: Mullally's haul is something to cling on to (22 November 1998)
WHEN professional cricketers give an unsuccessful performance, the current vogue is for them to declare that they will 'take the positives out of it'
22-Nov-1998
22 November 1998
1st Ashes Test: Mullally's haul is something to cling on to
Scyld Berry
WHEN professional cricketers give an unsuccessful performance,
the current vogue is for them to declare that they will 'take the
positives out of it'. Nobody in the England party used the phrase
publicly after they had conceded a total of 485, but on this
occasion there actually were enough 'positives' to nourish the
belief that England can hang on to Australia's coat-tails a while
longer, provided they escape from Brisbane with a draw.
One of the two chief 'positives' has been the general desire of
the England team, who at practice and in the middle have upped
their game towards the Australian level of intensity. They will
not fail for want of trying, as the case has sometimes been in
recent Ashes series.
"I thought they stuck at it pretty well," said Steve Waugh, in
confirmation of England's improved attitude under Alec Stewart as
captain and Graham Gooch as a very hands-on manager. "You get a
feeling that they're a lot tougher, and more professional, and
working to a plan." It did not prevent Waugh and Ian Healy
putting together a record sixth-wicket stand for Australia
against England at the Gabba, but it was nice of him to say so.
The second silver lining, as a 'positive' used to be called, has
been the bowling of Alan Mullally, who recorded his first
five-wicket haul in Test cricket, and conceded little more than
two-and-a-half runs an over on a pitch which has dried out into a
true and evenly paced surface - the most desirable strip this
side of Surfers Paradise.
Mullally may look diffident, the sort of chap who never slams a
car door shut first time and has to have another go to do it
properly; and he can be a bit dosy, as when he intervened to stop
Steve Waugh being run out for 29, as if 'The Machine' needed a
helping hand from anyone. But he is bowling like a man whose time
has come after almost a decade as a journeyman in county cricket.
It is likely to be only the tallest pace bowlers who make
something of this pitch with its springy bounce and no great
pace: in other words Mullally and Glenn McGrath. And the very
mention of Mullally in the same breath as Australia's strike
bowler is some measure of how far he has advanced in the last
year.
Thanks to his height, Mullally has always been able to keep it
tight. The difference is that now he consistently makes the
batsman play, whereas on his first England tour, to Zimbabwe and
New Zealand, there were times when he "couldn't hit the cut bit"
as he himself engagingly admits. In his initial run of nine Tests
he was never collared or clattered, and never penetrative, taking
three wickets in an innings at most.
Since then the Leicestershire player has cut his run to a dozen
strides, got in slightly closer to the stumps, and above all
positioned his wrist behind the ball so that he can sometimes
swing it in. He has always been able to slant the ball across and
seam it away from right-handers, but he might not have dismissed
Michael Slater, Steve Waugh, Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart
MacGill if he had not also been able to bowl that inswinger for
variation, like the one which got Mark Waugh.
In the course of his 40 overs Mullally also removed any lingering
doubts about his appetite for battle. Whereas Martin McCague was
picked on the last time England played a Brisbane Test - the
Australians called him traitor and mimicked his attempt to put on
an English accent at press conferences - Mullally gave as good as
he got from Steve Waugh, and never lost his composure.
He is sure in his identity as someone who has been enabled by
birth and upbringing to enjoy the best of both worlds. His accent
is virtually English. When he circled under the skier eventually
put up by Healy, he caught it with fingers pointing upwards,
Australian-style.
All these improvements seem to have been lost on a betting firm
which specialises in cricket, and which proposed to its customers
that Mullally would take between 12 and 14 wickets in this
series. He should take many more, given a fitness record that is
excellent for one so tall, and much better than that of Bruce
Reid, the man whom he replaced in the Western Australia side at
such short notice that he wore a borrowed shirt for his
first-class debut.
Lacking Mullally's height, the skiddier Darren Gough has not been
suited to the Gabba, and even in the second innings the ball is
unlikely to become scuffed enough to allow reverse-swing. Gough,
moreover, was unluckier than anyone as the nicks kept flying off
the outside edge through third or fourth slip and gully - while
England, from the time they took the second ball on Friday, kept
two slips as their only close catchers.
On the first day, until Waugh and Healy pressurised them,
England's reasoned plan was an aggressive one. But their
instinctive reaction to that pressure was innate, visceral
caution, which never wins hearts or series. For all of Mullally's
improvement, it can surely be only for so long that England
manage to cling on.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)