Australia’s performances on slow pitches are consistent. And the more they struggle, the more teams will prepare slow surfaces to greet them
Brydon Coverdale in Dubai24-Oct-2014To Chennai, Hyderabad, Mohali, Delhi, Nottingham, Lord’s, Chester-le-Street and Port Elizabeth can now be added Dubai. Not yet in terms of Australia’s losing venues over the past 18 months, for they will hold out hope of preventing defeat over the next two days. But all were pitches that lacked the pace and bounce Australia are used to in their home conditions. And all were pitches on which Australia’s batsmen struggled.”It’s hard to get in,” they like to say of such surfaces. They have proved it’s easy to get out. In many cases, to get yourself out. In England last year, new coach Darren Lehmann had plenty of cause for disappointment but was particularly irate after the loss in Durham. Set 299 to win, Australia started with a 109-run opening stand from David Warner and Chris Rogers. They were bowled out for 224.”Blokes are missing straight ones. That doesn’t help,” Lehmann said after that loss. A penny for his thoughts on the two wickets Zulfiqar Babar claimed in Dubai, when Michael Clarke inside edged an arm ball to short leg and Mitchell Marsh was lbw to a straight one. For all the talk of raging turners in the UAE, that is not what has greeted Australia. Here we have witnessed a slow pitch with a little rough and a lot of batsmen making bad choices.Mitchell Marsh was lbw to a straight one after Pakistan reviewed the umpire’s not-out decision•Getty ImagesThat is not to devalue Pakistan’s bowling. They assessed what would work against Australia and made it happen. The finger spinners, Babar and Mohammad Hafeez, worked on accuracy and kept the runs down. Yasir Shah’s legspin provided more scoring opportunities but also sharper turn. Warner aside, Australia were made to look poor against an attack whose four specialists entered the match with a combined eight Tests of experience.Again Australia had a strong opening partnership, this time of 128. But Warner and Rogers were their two top-scorers. If reaching 20 can be considered a start, four more men made starts after the openers but none passed 40. Australia lost 10 for 190 on the third day, six of those wickets to spin, but the pitch was not deteriorating, nor the ball zipping around corners. It was just sluggish, the ball did not come on.In such circumstances, either Warneresque attack or extreme patience is required. Rogers faced 103 dot balls on his crawling route to 38. He is a man designed for endurance, but also for scoring against the fast bowlers. When he tried to force the pace with a cut, he played on to Rahat Ali. For him, 130 deliveries of “getting in” were still not enough; 230 may not have been either.Alex Doolan got so bogged down that he tried for a run where a run barely existed. Clarke and Marsh were done by straight balls from Babar; Steve O’Keefe might have wished he could bowl to them instead of the Pakistan batsmen.Steven Smith showed his class against spin with a whip through midwicket against the turn of Yasir for four, but then lost his head cutting a long hop to point. Yasir pitched it short and wide and there was a touch extra bounce, but it was as if the ball was so unexpectedly mediocre that Smith’s normal thought process ceased to function. In short, it was Steven Smith getting out to a Steven Smith ball.The delivery that finally removed Warner turned out of the rough and struck middle stump, but Warner admonished himself for not defending it as he had similar balls. Instead he tried to open the face and get the score moving after the hour-long lunch break.”I tried to be too cute and look for a run and played all around it,” Warner said after play. “Credit to him, he got me out, but I was looking to score and I made a half-tracker look like a good ball.”It was better than a half-tracker, but nor was it unplayable. And that was the story of Australia throughout the innings. On a slow pitch, the dots compiled and they tried to force the issue, or in a couple of cases tricked themselves into thinking the ball would turn from the middle of the pitch. In Warner’s opinion, the rough is too wide to be a major threat.”There’s a bit of turn there but it is turn that is outside the [danger] areas,” he said. “The bowlers are going to have to pitch it out wide and it will be easy to sweep as a batsman rather than being defensive … I think it [the pitch] has been the same as day one, very consistent.”What is also consistent is Australia’s performances on such pitches. And the more they struggle, the more teams will prepare slow surfaces to greet them. Already it is happening outside Asia, as the Ashes in England last year demonstrated. There is another Ashes tour there next year. But first, they must find a way to get through this series unscathed.Perhaps more liberal use of the sweep, as Warner suggested and Pakistan demonstrated on the first two days, might help tick the scoreboard over in the second innings and keep players from getting mired down. That and not missing straight ones. Otherwise Australia’s list of recent losing venues will have another entry.
