CRICKETS/Ashes Test Series: England, with fast bowling and slow, were predatory in the final half an hour as the gloom enveloped Manchester yesterday evening.
From the Statham End, a giant fast bowler of the modern era stormed in at the Australian openers and achieved such velocity as to almost render the ball invisible to the naked eye on the periphery, and bringing a gymnastic display out of Geraint Jones.
At the other end, Matthew Hoggard, England's bit player only so far in this series, but one surely with a major speaking part to play before too long, bounded in for a solitary over before handing over to Ashley Giles. Immediately Vaughan shrewdly pre-empted the offer of bad light to the batsmen by replacing Harmison with his own gentle offspin and immediately had Justin Langer falling over his own feet.
Both achieved some reassuring turn, just as ought to happen as a Test pitch reaches its dotage. And, as they had for most of the day, while Andrew Strauss scored a memorable century and England batted themselves into a position of supremacy, the crowd roared and cheered their approval.
England thrive on the support: today is pay-as-you-go - a tenner for adults, a fiver for children, first come first served with the gates opening at half past eight - and the game deserves, demands even, another full house for its climax.
For the second time in as many matches Australia, outplayed probably beyond the wildest expectation of either side, are under the cosh in the final innings of a Test, England scenting a victory the importance of which, not just to the Ashes or the series as a whole but the whole order of world cricket.
A regime is being overturned. The facts are simple. To win, Australia have to score a further 399 runs in a maximum of 98 overs; to draw, a more realistic proposition, they must bat out the entire final day against a rampant and confident attack. England, for their part, need to take all 10 Australian wickets, something that ought to be well within their compass. The task facing the visitors can be placed in perspective. No side has scored more in the final innings of an Old Trafford Test than Australia managed in 1981, and that was to lose by a distance; to win none has made more than England's 231 for three, achieved against West Indies here last year against a vastly inferior attack to their own here.
Vaughan's declaration, at twenty to six, timed as perfectly as a Michelin-starred souffle, came in the immediate aftermath of a serious assault on Glenn McGrath by the England wicketkeeper that brought 16 runs off the final three balls, a brace of sixes clumped disparagingly over midwicket as if the great Australian was little more than a benefit bowler. By then England had reached 280 for six, a lead of 422, effectively taking the game out of Australian reach, and leaving the destiny of the match in the hands of the bowlers.
Langer and Matthew Hayden survived until the close, scoring 24 in the process although not without alarm. But the task is an uphill one. The very nature of Australian success over the past decade and more has been the pace of their play which has taken the prospect of a draw out of the equation. In recent memory, only in Steve Waugh's last Test, against India at Sydney in the first week of 2004, have they been required to knuckle down and save a match that might otherwise have been lost. Today will see whether in pursuit of winning, they have forgotten the integral art of not losing.
Australia have been stripped naked in this match, more so than at Edgbaston where their performance could still be rationalised, within the four walls of the team room anyway, as an aberration. Old Trafford has brought desperation, in the form of McGrath's fast tracking back from injury when clearly unfit, and the persistence with the hapless Jason Gillespie, who sent down four forlorn overs for 24 runs yesterday, 14 accruing from the final one, which simple humanity demands will surely be his last in Test cricket. As he pulled his sweater on and plodded, head dejectedly down, to his place in the outfield, even the sections of the crowd that had taunted him throughout the day, offered sympathetic applause.
But Australia's decline goes further than that, no better exemplified than late in the morning session, as England began the task of expanding their first-innings lead of 142. Strauss had made but a single when he edged Brett Lee at catchable height between Shane Warne at first slip, and Ricky Ponting at second. Neither moved, and for 20 minutes or more the atmosphere between them was frosty. They had clashed ferociously, so it is alleged, after Ponting had put England in to bat at Edgbaston. When you lose the trust of senior players the authority of a captain goes.
Yesterday Ponting looked helpless and alone, his kingdom inherited from Waugh disintegrating before his eyes, and devoid of anywhere to turn but his hobbling hero of a pace bowler and the champion Warne.
That they responded, McGrath with the unlikeliest five wicket haul of his career, and Warne, a shining beacon for his side in this match, with all the trickery that he could muster, says more about them than the captain.
This is a side carved in Waugh's image, not that of Ponting, nouveau riche, who has merely inherited. Only Warne's beligerence with the bat saved them from possible ignominy in the first place, and to his chagrin he fell 10 runs short of a maiden Test century as Simon Jones completed a five wicket haul en route to the best figures against Australia here since Laker's match almost half a century ago.
Strauss exorcised demons yesterday, his ineptitude against Warne in particular, who had identified him as a bunny-in-waiting before the series, a thing of the past. He played brilliantly for his 106, his sixth Test century, hitting two sixes and nine fours, and adding 137 for the third wicket with Ian Bell who made 65. No strike in this game has been better or more pertinent than his offdrive which lofted McGrath into the stands. McGrath's bravery cannot be called into question but he is an old gunslinger who is dying with his boots on.
SCOREBOARD
Overnight: England 444 (M Vaughan 166, M Trescothick 63, I R Bell 59; S Warne 4-99, B Lee 4-100). Australia 264-7 (S K Warne 78 no).
AUSTRALIA: First Innings
S Warne c Giles b S P Jones 90
J Gillespie lbw b S P Jones 26
B Lee c Trescothick b S P Jones 1
G McGrath not out 1
Extras b8 lb7 w8 nb15 pens 0 38
Total (84.5 overs) 302
Fall: 1-58, 2-73, 3-86, 4-119, 5-133, 6-186, 7-201, 8-287, 9-293.
Bowling: Harmison 10 0 47 0; Hoggard 6 2 22 0; Flintoff 20 1 65 1; S P Jones 17.5 6 53 6; Giles 31 4 100 3.
ENGLAND: Second Innings
M Trescothick b McGrath 41
A Strauss c Martyn b McGrath 106
M Vaughan c Sub b Lee 14
R Bell c Katich b McGrath 65
K Pietersen lbw b McGrath 0
A Flintoff b McGrath 4
G Jones not out 27
A Giles not out 0
Extras b5 lb3 w1 nb14 pens 0 23
Total 6 wkts dec (61.5 overs) 280
Fall: 1-64, 2-97, 3-224, 4-225, 5-248, 6-264.
Did Not Bat: M Hoggard, S Harmison, S Jones.
Bowling: McGrath 20.5 1 115 5; Lee 12 0 60 1; Warne 25 3 74 0; Gillespie 4 0 23 0.
AUSTRALIA: Second Innings
J Langer not out 14
M Hayden not out 5
Extras b4 nb1 pens 0 5
Total 0 wkts (10 overs) 24
To Bat: R Ponting, D Martyn, M Clarke, S Katich, A Gilchrist, S Warne, J Gillespie, G McGrath.
Bowling: Harmison 2 1 1 0; Hoggard 1 0 6 0; Giles 4 1 7 0; Vaughan 3 0 6 0.
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