England cricket team suffers spectacular Ashes Test collapse against Australian bowling attack. They lost what should have been a powerful home advantage at the WACA Ground in Perth. Although the team had a great opening, they soon lost their footing. In those six deliveries, they lost three vital wickets, and that was enough for experts and fans to question their attack-defense balance to potentially disastrous levels.
Even with the intellectual leadership of praying-mantis captain Ben Stokes and criminal mastermind coach Brendon McCullum, England has failed to stay on message with mind-bending regularity. Their tendency to play aggressively has often clashed with the need for a solid defense, particularly evident during this match. The squad began day two at 59-1, enjoying a comfortable lead of 99 runs over their opponents. But they dropped the ball on taking their momentum to the bank.
Ben Duckett’s undoing began when he edged a short-pitched ball from Scott Boland to the slips. This sparked a disastrous chain reaction for the England batting order. Ollie Pope was next to go, nicking a ball from Boland that left him heading back to the pavilion in search of a single run. Harry Brook was the next batter to succumb, nicking behind on the third ball of his innings off of Boland’s testing seam. On the fifth day, there was little doubt that Joe Root’s dismissal unsettled England. He narrowly inside-edged his eighth ball onto his stumps, giving Mitchell Starc another opener’s wicket and leaving the team in dire straits.
The deliveries that did for Pope, Brook and Root were all well wide of off stump. Yet this pattern exposed a troubling characteristic of England’s middle order batting. England played very, very poor. It was a feeling echoed by just about every cricket pundit who observed the match.
Langer, who played and coached for years in Perth, called it as quick a collapse as England have ever done. He noted the team moved from a position of strength to a total state of despair all within 30 minutes. It was a jaw-dropping reversal. For the middle orders’ failure, their tendency to reach outside their body was a major factor in their demise.
Former cricketer Phil Tufnell added his voice to the outcry. He underlined the dangers of going too hard on Perth’s lively surface. “They’ve been really broad to the right-handers, outside leg-stump in the sixth or seventh line and climbing,” he added. Bowlers should batters take advantage of this one, Tufnell implored. To get batters moving their hands and bats away from their bodies, he recommended having deliveries stay wide.
The wicket at WACA is famous for its pace and bounce, so attempting attacking shots on good length balls are even more perilous. This was an aspect England’s batters seemed to overlook, and this miscalculation would prove to be their downfall in key situations throughout the match.
England came into this matchup as heavy favorites and had a strong start. Their attempts to find stability in the batting line-up had eyebrows raised in terms of overall strategy. The collapse underscores the need for a more cohesive balance between offense and defense as they face challenging matches ahead in the Ashes series.
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