Colly, you just caught the Ashes
Australia were desperate for a good start to the third Test in what amounts a must-win game for them, but the pressure seemed to get the better of the hosts' top order on the first day
Liam Brickhill
25-Feb-2013
Australia were desperate for a good start to the third Test in what amounts a must-win game for them, but the pressure seemed to get the better of the hosts' top order on the first day. Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald certainly believes they have been found wanting, with bad luck playing no part in the early dismissals.
Australia's brave new world bore a stark resemblance to the bad old world. Far from rejuvenating a flagging campaign as had been hoped, the newcomers flopped and within hours the team's position had become dire. Not that the established players were any better, hanging their bats out to dry in the manner of a washerwoman on a Monday morning. Once again it was left to the middle order and lower ranks to save the day.
Malcolm Conn in the Australian writes that Australian cricket is in a mess, from top to bottom.
The malaise filters down to the states, where the money sloshing around in this fiscally professional era means all sorts of appointees have to justify their positions and feel the most appropriate way is with silverware. So journeyman cricketers are recycled, clogging up a domestic competition which can no longer provide enough quality replacements for a regenerating side.
Chris Tremlett, who removed Phil Hughes, Michael Clarke and Steve Smith was England's stand-out bowler on the first day. Derek Pringle, writing in the Telegraph welcomes Tremlett's Test renaissance.
Tremlett, like Steve Harmison, possesses all the attributes of pace and bounce to be a special fast bowler. Past frailties to body and mind appeared to hold him back, though, dissuading those in power from trusting him. At least it did until a transformation, credited to his move from stockbroker belt Hampshire to the Surrey of Southeast London, re-ignited the slumbering giant within.
In the Guardian, Vic Marks chooses to focus on one incident that may come to define this edition of the Ashes: Paul Collingwood's stunning catch to dismiss Ricky Ponting.
It was a miraculous catch; some might say it was a lucky one except that Collingwood practises these catches day in day out. Ponting paused, not quite believing what had happened, and headed back to a sombre dressing room. The Australians, pointedly, had been laughing all week but there were no smiles to be seen among them now. It does not pay to smile too much when a recently dismissed captain is returning to the pavilion.
Liam Brickhill is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town