Australian makes mark along lines of Lillee, Marshall and Hadlee (22 August 1997)

Friday 22 August 1997

Australian makes mark along lines of Lillee, Marshall and Hadlee

By Mark Nicholas

ON WHAT appeared at first to be a good Oval pitch, though the suspicion of surface dampness rather tarnished the idea, the present quality of English batting in general received a great humiliation.

Humiliation is an accusing, unforgiving word, and perhaps it is too strong for what is, after all, just a game. But, sorry to say, humiliation it was, when a look to the scoreboard at 2.50 yesterday afternoon revealed that England`s top seven batsmen had been hanged, drawn and quartered in 44 overs for the sum total of 132 runs between them.

To hear the crowd first jeer and then cheer the batting of Andrew Caddick and Peter Martin was to pour salt on a wounded art and on the waning, wounded support of the full houses that loyally con- tinue to greet England`s team. Edgbaston and all its pomp seemed from another time; its distance from reality a terrifying reflection on the reversal of authority that has allowed Australia to win the last three Test matches by galling margins.

The catalyst of these defeats - often, indeed, the executioner - has been Glenn McGrath. McGrath got his team back on track at Lord`s when he took eight wickets in the first innings, and his foot has not left the accelerator since.

In most fast bowlers, excellence shines from a specific attribute, or an aesthetic appeal: Lillee`s drama and skill, Marshall`s cool assassinations, Hadlee`s clinical application of a perfected technique, the unorthodoxy of a Thomson or a Croft. But in Mc- Grath, there is nothing to hang a hat on, nothing to fix in the mind, and dig out with relish - "Oooh, I was there when Lillee . . . or Marshall . . ." With McGrath, you hear people mutter "Cor, that McGrath seems a good bowler", and they leave it at that, and start talking about "Warney". Well, he`s better than that. He`s right up there with any of them, and in harness with Shane Warne, he`s dynamite.

Each wicket he claimed yesterday was the result of a search for his opponent`s weakness and the ability to expose it. First, Mark Butcher, to whom he bowled around the wicket, and cramped for the room he needs to break out of defence. Butcher can be a victim of his own concentration, and McGrath knows this, and preys upon it.

Then Michael Atherton, whose batting is off colour and who has suffered from McGrath`s probing all summer. Atherton feeds from the clip off his legs and the square cut; McGrath gives him neither and instead draws him across his stumps and encourages him to play at balls he would usually choose to leave alone. This tactic and the skill to direct the occasional but highly effective short- pitcher at the England captain`s throat has won the most important duel of the series.

The final, frantic session after tea at Trent Bridge 12 days ago began with Alec Stewart giving a catch to gully. Australia will have remembered this and during lunch yesterday will have set them- selves to bowl accurately at Stewart in case he lapsed. McGrath was the chosen bowler, an arrow-straight offcutter the chosen ball. It worked, Stewart missed and fell lbw.

The field that was immediately set for Nasser Hussain included a very straight, short mid-wicket. This is because Hussain, while going so far across his stumps, is inclined to bat on the move and to attack in the air through the leg-side. Where was he caught? Low at midon, of course.

Graham Thorpe played beautifully, but all too briefly because, for once, his balance deserted him and McGrath, switching to bowl around the wicket as he did so effectively to Brian Lara last winter, slanted the ball across Thorpe and hit his leg stump. The coup de grce was the wicket of Mark Ramprakash, whose nerves he could sense and whose errors of the past he had seen on film. The first ball was a yorker which Ramprakash jammed down upon and squirted for two; the second was a short ball to the chest at which he pushed unconvincingly but earned two more. Appearing jumpy, as he had done in South Africa when he last played for England, McGrath dug another into the pitch three balls later and bingo, Ramprakash fended it to short-leg.

McGrath bowls straight, from close to the stumps and with a fine, high action. His high standards ensure that the batsman is commit- ted to play and is rarely released from his questionnaire. Because of these simple yet skilful attributes, he is an outstanding bowler and, every bit as much as Warne, is the engine room of his team.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)