Test 2: Odds are stacked against Stewart (27 November 1998)

27 November 1998

Test 2: Odds are stacked against Stewart

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

MIKE Brearley's first touring team to Australia 20 years ago have remained the only England side to win a Test at Perth, and the chances of Alec Stewart's team emulating that achievement in the second Test starting at the WACA tomorrow are small.

The WACA pitches lost a little of their pace and quality some years ago, but they are uniquely quick again now, and the high bounce gives the home side a definite advantage.

Add this to the indisputable evidence from the first Test that Australia continue to be the stronger side in all departments and it becomes clear why the TAB, the equivalent of the Tote, put a full page colour advertisement in yesterday's West Australian newspaper enjoining readers "Do Something Nobody's Done For Years - Bet On The Poms".

At no more generous odds than five to one against, however, even the 1,000-plus who have travelled to Perth to support England might feel that the money is best kept in their pockets. The only dangers to Australia, it seems, are over-confidence with the bat on a rock hard pitch, on which even the best players may need some luck early in an innings, and an injury to Glenn McGrath.

There is another way of looking at it, however - namely, that England were saved by the rain in the first match at Brisbane and are not incapable of repairing their errors in Perth. They certainly played some poor cricket, missing two crucial catches on the first day, batting brainlessly after Graham Thorpe had fallen to McGrath in the first innings, and inadequately against Stuart MacGill's increasingly dangerous leg-spin in the second.

The positive approach is certainly the one which will be stressed to his players tonight by Stewart himself, chastened though he is by the way Australia suddenly lifted their game on the fourth day at Brisbane.

Stewart is badly in need of runs himself after the double failure at the Gabba, which reduced his average in Tests in Australia to an unworthy 22. If he does not get runs at Perth, he will have to take seriously the view that it is asking too much of a captain to keep wicket and bat at number four in the heat of an Australian summer.

As he points out with that dry wit which endears him to Australians, he has not taken much out of himself while batting on this tour so far. A single fifty in Cairns and a sparkling 74 on his former club ground at Midland Guildford in the one-day game with which the tour started are the only times he has broken sweat.

If he could get in at the WACA, with its pace and even bounce, one would have thought this a pitch ideally suited to Stewart's style. He loves a true surface on which the ball comes quickly on to the bat. Because of his associations with Perth and the conditions, he will not get a better chance to lead from the front. This might well be his last opportunity.

Thorpe, though he was worried about a stiff back yesterday after the long flight west in a cramped aircraft seat, scored 123 here in 1995 and Mark Ramprakash made 72, despite which England were bowled out for under 300 in their first innings.

To compete this time, England will need to blunt McGrath and the returning Jason Gillespie, the new ball attack, and earn a substantial first-innings lead. Although Colin Miller is an unknown quantity with his swing bowling into the wind and his aggressive and progessive off-spin, he will cause less consternation, surely, than MacGill.

It is time that the latent power of the top six batsmen was released together on a decent attack but, just in case, it is likely that John Crawley will be grafted on at seven, leaving Ramprakash to bowl the off-breaks instead of Robert Croft.

The indications were that Dean Headley, not Alex Tudor, would be the first choice as replacement for Angus Fraser, but Dominic Cork may not have done enough at Brisbane to retain his place as the all-rounder.

None of England's fast bowlers can be expected to turn the heat back on Australia unless the slip catches are held. Four years ago, when McGrath was a tyro but still took three wickets in each innings, Michael Slater was dropped so many times on his way to his third century of the series that he was embarrassed. Devon Malcolm bowled very fast but without luck, and Darren Gough had much the same experience here four weeks ago against Western Australia, though he still took four for 73 in the first innings.

Slater simply mugged Gough at the Gabba last Monday, and it is the pace at which he scores which makes the dashing little New South Welshman so entertaining and so valuable to Australia. He buys the bowlers time to win. Not only has Slater scored nine hundreds in his 41 Tests, but five innings of 90 or more too. An enterprising statistician worked out yesterday that this makes him, judged by the percentage of his innings over 90, the sixth most effective batsman in Tests, bettered only by Bradman, Headley, Weekes, Walcott and Sutcliffe.

Woe betide England, therefore, if they do not catch Slater the first time that he edges something towards the slips. With the tendency of the pitch to get slower and easier, the chances are that Stewart will choose to bowl first if he should win the toss.

He is starting to look like a lucky captain, so perhaps the bookies will get some optimistic investors after all.

Perth Teams

ENGLAND (from): M A Atherton (Lancs), M A Butcher (Surrey), N Hussain (Essex), *-A J Stewart (Surrey), G P Thorpe (Surrey), M R Ramprakash (Middx), J P Crawley (Lancs), D G Cork (Derbys), D Gough (Yorks), A R C Fraser (Middx), D W Headley (Kent), A J Tudor (Surrey), A D Mullally (Leics).

AUSTRALIA (from): *M A Taylor, M J Slater, J L Langer, M E Waugh, S R Waugh, R T Ponting, -I A Healy, D W Fleming, J N Gillespie, M S Kasprowicz, C R Miller, G D McGrath.

Umpires: D Harper (Australia) & S Venkataraghavan (India). 3rd umpire: T A Prue (Australia). Referee: J Reid (NZ).

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