The Boundary View: Hussey & bowlers put England to the sword - Perth, Day Three

 
Hussey serves up more humble pie

Before the Ashes we suggested that Michael Hussey was shot as a test cricketer - we even wrote this: Zeroes - Mike Hussey. We now feel like turning the gun on ourselves as once again Mr Cricket proved that we couldn't have been more wrong if we had said on the night of the Election that Nick Clegg was a man of his word. Hussey is now the leading runscorer in the series and has hit six consecutive scores of 50 or above in an Ashes innings - a record. Now, where did we store that humble pie?

Test Cricket? It's a funny old game

Perhaps like no other sport, test cricket is a game of highs and lows. Mitchell Johnson's rise from the dead in this game is arguably the type of resurrection not seen for circa 2,000 years - especially given how low he sunk in Brisbane. Kevin Pietersen has gone in the opposite direction. After a test best 227 in Adelaide, he followed his first innings duck here with a dreadful shot to give Ben Hilfenhaus his first wicket since the first over of the series.

Not so elementary my dear Watson

We're not big fans of Shane Watson in the Reverse Sweep household (see Zeroes - Shane Watson), but to be fair he does provide plenty of hilarity. No one does the nervous nineties quite like him and it seemed inevitable that he would yet again fall short of the magical three figures. Sure enough, Chris Tremlett caught him in front for 95 and despite a desperate call for the review and a near flood of tears when the decision was upheld, Watson had to depart for his fourth ninety in test cricket. His conversion rate is worse than the ugliest of geeks with only two hundreds from 16 scores of 50 or more - only 12.5%.

Court Jester Smith rides his luck

Steve Smith is patently not a test number six, but he obviously picked the right fortune cookie last night if his innings today was anything to go by. He survived more appeals and reviews than Wikileaks head honcho Julian Assange, was nearly run out, hooked just short of fine-leg and even survived leaving his bat in the air while ducking a Tremlett bouncer and a top edge looped over the keeper and slips. When Smith said he was going to bring a bit of fun to the side, no-one realised that this would amount to playing the court jester in the middle too. The luckiest Australian since Liz Hurley invited Shane Warne in for a nightcap?

Time for the Review System to be reviewed?

For the most part, the dreaded UDRS has worked reasonably well in this series - whatever Aggers may say, but there is still room for significant improvement. A case in point was when Erasmus turned down a leg before decision against Smith when he had made 28. England sent for the review and it showed that the ball would have hit leg stump, but it was adjudged 'Umpire's Call' and the decision was upheld. If the technology is there why not use it to ensure that the right decision is given for every referral, especially when England lost one of its two reviews as a result?

Player of the day

Michael Hussey - certainly Australia's player of the series to date and now that he is the leading run scorer on both sides arguably the player of the series so far too. But Chris Tremlett deserves a mention too for his first test five for and eight wickets on his test comeback.

Zero of the day

Graeme Swann didn't have a good day. Ignored for the whole morning session by Strauss, he proved expensive when he finally came on and then dropped Peter Siddle before tea, thus allowing Australia to further extend their lead.  

What happens next?

It's over already thanks to Hussey and more poor batting from England - it will be 1-1 going into Melbourne.

Where next?

Perth: Day 1 - Tremlett's Sinatraesque Comeback

Perth: Day 2 - Johnson's rendition of I Am the Resurrection reduces England to rubble

Read all the latest from our Ashes 2010/11 coverage

Check out all our Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes

Perth Heroes & Zeroes: Adam Gilchrist,  Alex Tudor and Chris Broad

Exclusive: Read KP's 2010 Ashes Diary

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Comments

[Vim]

You should try seeing it from an Aussie point of view. On forums as soon as he gets above 60, people start running polls on what score in the 90's he will get out on. Because it's Watson, it's laughable.

[The Reverse Sweep]

I know that Channel 9 ran a poll asking if viewers thought that Twatto would get his ton. Surprisingly, most people thought he would.

At least it provided some cheer on a dismal day for England fans.

[Randy McCain]

Man this blog is biased.

Watson is a fine player, what other opening batsman do you know that can bowl at 130km/h, and consistantly hit 50-100 runs. As an Aussie fan, I'd rather have a guy getting 30 - 90 in each start than someone like Strauss who gets 0 - 100.

And Smith wasn't lucky... if he wasn't out, he wasn't out. Also, the UDRS has a failure of about 2 cms, therefore that LBW appeal was just that. An appeal. I can't help think that if that was an English (or South African) batsman, you wouldn't have even mentioned that appeal.

[The Reverse Sweep]

Don't get me wrong Randy, I acknowledge that Watson is a good player for the reasons you give, but still feel that until he starts converting some of these fifties into hundreds his position as an opening batsman should be debated.

My thoughts on the review system would be the same whatever the badge on the helmet. If it's out, it's out and if there is a failure margin then until it can be corrected, UDRS shouldn't be used.

Now Smith was lucky. He deserves praise for gutsing it out, but he is no more a test number six than you and I. Again, I'd have said the same if Swann for example had come in at six and hit a similarly streaky 30 odd.

But well done Australia. It takes character to bounce back from the pumelling they had for eight successive days in this series and they thoroughly deserved their win.

It's all set-up nicely for the MCG and SCG now.

[Randy McCain]

Thanks for getting back to me. This is a great blog by the way (even if it's biased the wrong way;)).

I agree with you on the Review system, but in the whole it does add a level of fairness. For instance Pontings decision, he clearly gloved it, but was given not out. The UDRS overturned this, and England got a huge wicket. The last thing we need in such a close Ashes series is a repeat of the Indian tour in 2008, when the Indians had one bad decision go against them, and spent the rest of the series calling Australians cheats and trying to get rid of the umpires. UDRS does get rids of these howlers.

I agree that Smith isn't a number 6. Yet. He's a great talent, and at only 21, he could become an all time great one day. His leggies ae pretty decent, and while he's got a lot to learn, he could well become the next Warnie. Throw in a FC average of 43, (he had two SS seasons where he averaged 50 odd), and who knows what may happen, and where he could bat....

You'd be disappointed to know that the weather here in Perth has turned today. It's been raining all day here so far, which is extremely unusual for Perth this time of the year... obviously the rain dance that all the English fans performed came one day to late!

[The Reverse Sweep]

I did laugh Randy when I saw that it had rained on Perth on what would have been Day 5. Just as in Adelaide when the Aussies didnt show enough backbone in the 2nd innings, the same was true with England in Perth and both missed out on being saved by the rain. Im glad you like the blog - I try to be impartial, but it is difficult when it comes to the Ashes and the 24 years since England actually won the bloody thing down under. You may be right on Smith - he does have talent with bat and ball - I just wonder whether he is better of learning his trade in SS and ODIs rather than being dropped in at the deep end before he is ready. Only time will tell I guess.