Cricket: Ashes to ashes for shamed England

Test cricket: Second collapse of match means Australia cannot lose: Australia 391 & 278-5 dec England 227 & 237 Australia win by 205 runs series but Stewart pledges to keep battling

IT ENDED as it has threatened to do all tour, in a clatter of wickets. England's ability to collapse at a moment's notice is becoming a feature of their cricket. But, if once in a match is usually enough to damage your prospects, twice consigns you to history.

Perhaps we ought not to be surprised. Australia, who have retained the Ashes for a sixth successive time even without Shane Warne, are currently the best side in world cricket. But if England should perhaps have been beaten in the long run, the nature and speed of their demise here and at Perth has been alarming.

More worrying is that lessons are not being learned and, every time the heavy necklace of pressure is placed around their necks, England tend to choke. No amount of hard work in the nets - and England have put in the hours - can prevent that.

For that reason, blame cannot simply be attributed to one or two individuals. This is Team England, remember, and while those here, especially Graham Gooch and David Lloyd, will have their roles scrutinised, those involved back home must also expect some criticism.

Some hard thinking must be done to make English cricket more rigorous and talent-concentrated, qualities two divisions will not go nearly far enough towards improving.

The celebratory huddle that followed the headlong rush for souvenir stumps showed that the Australian players, if perhaps not the public, still regard this contest with importance. It used to be the utmost respect, of course, but England have not made them break sweat nearly enough for that.

Australia have never held the Ashes for longer, which is a reflection of just how poor English cricket has been over the past 11 years. Since Mike Gatting's Ashes-winning tour in 1986-87, the victory count has been 20-4 in Australia's favour.

The England selectors claim that this is a tougher and better prepared team than usual. Prepared for what? Failure, perhaps; winning, no. But for a fortuitous tropical storm in Brisbane, England would already be 3-0 down.

Alec Stewart, who made an unbeaten 63 and who surveyed the final moments from the other end yesterday as England lost their last four wickets in the 24 minutes after lunch, had no excuses. It would be a miracle if he had, so poor has England's cricket been since Mark Ramprakash's dismissal an hour before lunch on the third day. "We came here with the intention of winning back the Ashes," the captain said. "Most of the media reckoned that was nigh on impossible, and they've been proved right.

"We didn't play well enough against the best side in the world and because of that we've been beaten really quite convincingly, especially in the two games we've lost. This is the fifth series I've been involved in against Australia, and it certainly hurts. But now that the Ashes have gone, our next objective is to try and square the series, which will not be easy."

He can say that again. After all, was not Australian cricket meant to be at a low ebb this week following revelations of a cover-up after two of their players had taken money from an Indian bookie?

Match-fixing may be an emotive business, but, if there is one team in world cricket guaranteed to be clean, it is England. On the evidence of this Test, as well as the one in Perth, the majority of their batsmen are certainly capable of throwing matches without being bribed.

To their credit, England's bowlers have competed favourably, as have Ramprakash and Nasser Hussain with the bat. Yet modern Test matches are won by teams who have 11 players contributing, rather than one or two, and it was interesting that, while Mark Taylor thought the marked difference between the contributions of the Australian and England tails was a significant factor, Stewart refused to acknowledge it.

"We played seven batsmen, Stewart said. "If they can't get the right total, you can't expect the bottom four to."

Taylor, answering a question about whether he felt Australia had such a psychological edge over his opponents that they were beaten before they came on the park, felt the advantage had been built up over a number of years.

"I think they are intimidated by us," he said, "especially their lower order. The last four or five batsmen have played a big part in this game. Glenn McGrath is not a better batsman than Peter Such or Dean Headley, but he was able to hang in there and help Justin Langer add 37 for the last wicket."

Compare this to the 17 and 16 runs England's last four managed, and you begin to understand why Stewart is wrong to dismiss the matter. Australia may have several high- class players, but it is their attention to the small detail that makes them so hard to beat. Good sides are able to bring the best out of individuals. For some reason tours seem to have become joyless, which may explain why England, who can more or less hold their own at home, have a poor record abroad. There appears to be an inner tension among players that is not obvious at home, which leads to a lack of self- expression in their cricket.

Perhaps it is the culture of practice that now pervades cricket on tour that is causing the problem. In Perth, following their defeat in two and a half days, the team were given two days off. On the second of those days most volunteered to have nets. Practice, like revising for exams, is fine if done properly, but too much makes you stale. Maybe it is that, along with the lack of a decent break, which explains why England players tend to tolerate tours rather than enjoy them.

Beginning the final day on 122 for 4, it was the clock, rather than the scoreboard, which England had to beat. Six hours is a long time to bat on a fourth-innings pitch in Australia, especially when the ball is turning as much as both Colin Miller and Stuart MacGill had made it do the previous evening. Predictably, England did not even get half-way towards running the clock down.

With the bounce becoming increasingly variable, the pace bowlers were also dangerous and it was them rather than the tweakers who polished off England with the second new ball after a morning of stoic resistance from Stewart.

Having not faced a ball the previous day, Stewart played rather well. He is not the best technician against the turning ball, but he is a fighter and his unbeaten knock was comfortably his highest of the series. For a while he and Ramprakash looked untroubled enough to prompt recalls of the recent great escapes at Johannesburg and Old Trafford.

But if hope began to gather momentum it was quickly dashed when Damien Fleming, reverse swinging the old ball, plucked out Ramprakash's leg stump with a perfect yorker.

As in the first innings, the adage "get one, get them all" came to pass. John Crawley, his temperament as well as his technique now in question, was once again found wanting outside off stump as McGrath hit the edge two balls before lunch.

After the break, England simply capitulated as McGrath and Fleming mopped up a tail which included Graeme Hick who, judging by the way he used his bat to slice a wide one to slip, was ready for surrender. The choice between Hick and Crawley for a place on this tour has been one of the most irrelevant of all time. At the highest level both are flawed.

England, who lost by 205 runs, now have to wait until the new millennium for another chance to bring the Ashes home. By then it could be a three- match series.

Leading article, Review, page 3

ADELAIDE SCOREBOARD

Final day; Australia won toss

AUSTRALIA - First Innings 391 (J L Langer 179no, S R Waugh 59, M A Taylor 59; D W Headley 4-97).

ENGLAND - First Innings 227 (N Hussain 89no, M R Ramprakash 61; S C G MacGill 4-53)

AUSTRALIA - Second Innings 278 for 5 dec (M J Slater 103, J L Langer 52, M E Waugh 51no).

ENGLAND - Second Innings

(Overnight: 122 for 4)

M R Ramprakash b Fleming 57

185 min, 173 balls, 2 fours

*A J Stewart not out 63

148 min, 122 balls, 6 fours

J P Crawley c M Waugh b McGrath 13

68 min, 53 balls, 1 four

G A Hick c Ponting b McGrath 0

1 min, 1 ball

D Gough c Healy b McGrath 3

9 min, 9 balls

A D Mullally c Healy b Fleming 4

6 mins, 3 balls, 1 four

P M Such lbw b McGrath 0

5 min, 4 balls

Extras (b7, lb9, nb14) 30

Total (336 min, 89 overs) 237

Fall (cont): 5-163 (Ramprakash), 6-221 (Crawley), 7-221 (Hick), 8-231 (Gough), 9-236 (Mullally), 10-237 (Such).

Bowling: McGrath 17-0-50-4 (nb11) (6-0-12-0, 4-0-10-0, 3-0-9-0, 4-0-19- 4); Fleming 21-3-57-3 (nb3) (5-0-13-0, 3-0-12-1, 6-2-15-0, 4-0-10-1, 3- 1-6-1); Miller 24-1-57-3 (8-1-21-1, 13-0-29-2, 3-0-7-0); MacGill 25-8- 55-0 (4-0-8-0, 7-3-6-0, 6-2-14-0, 8-3-27-0); S Waugh 2-1-3-0 (one spell).

Progress: Final day: 150: 233 min, 64.1 overs. 200: 297 min, 81 overs. New ball: 82 overs, 211 for 5. Lunch: 221-6 (Stewart 56) 84.4 overs. Innings closed: 2.04pm.

AUSTRALIA WON BY 205 RUNS

Umpires: S A Bucknor and S J Davis. TV replay umpire: P M Angley. Match referee: J R Reid.

Man of the match: J L Langer.

Compiled by Jo King