It was early afternoon on November 22 in Perth and the Barmy Army was in good voice. After bowling out Australia for 132 at the start of Day 2, England were 65 for one in their second innings, effectively 105 ahead with Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope at the crease on a pitch that had seen 19 wickets fall on the first day.
Another hour of their partnership would have effectively taken the game conclusively towards Ben Stokes’s side. But the game turned in a matter of three overs as Duckett, Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root were dismissed in quick succession. Duckett fell to a regulation outside edge caught in the cordon, but the other three scripted their own downfall.
Driving on the up through the offside is a fraught exercise on bouncy Australian pitches, especially at the Perth Stadium. But all Scott Boland had to do was bowl a hard length outside off-stump for Pope to go chasing. Brook didn’t learn his lesson and did likewise on only the third ball he faced.
But England still had their best batter at the other end, but Mitchell Starc put paid to that. An ill-advised horizontal bat shot angling away from Root resulted in a chop-on, and 65/1 suddenly became 76/5, and then 104/7. Some late-order hitting by Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse took the fourth innings target beyond 200. A remarkable hundred by Travis Head turned the chase into a cakewalk. It was the beginning of the end of the tourists’ Ashes ambitions as they subsequently lost the series in 11 days of playing time.
However, the side managed to win the Melbourne Test on Saturday to register their win in the Tests in Australia since 2010/11. The parts that seemed lacking in the first few Tests seem to be coming together in the Bazball machine as the series progressed.
But what if those three overs had panned differently? It’s a case of ‘what could’ve been’.
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