What did we learn in 180-odd overs of the Adelaide Test?
We learnt that the modern Adelaide Oval still looks like a cricket ground rather than a sports stadium. The renovations for the spectators have worked without reservation.
What has changed – and I look from the perspective of someone who played many times on that billiard table outfield and concrete slab pitch – is the pitch.
Drop-in pitches have become de rigueur on major multipurpose sports fields because the footballers can’t cope with some grassless patches and a change in soil type as they run through the centre of the ground. The homogeneity of a football surface is anathema to cricket played with variety.
Test pitches need to evolve over five days (or three or four on current trends); grass needs to wither; clay dehydrate; spikes need to rough and gouge; bounce declines; spin advances; batters and bowlers need to be adaptable and flexible. The best players are the best players in all circumstances, whether that be dealing with scoreboard pressure or a deteriorating surface or facing spin or blunting the new ball. Cricket changes; football wants, nay demands, an unchanging scenario.
The Adelaide Test pitch was a graphic illustration of how football changes cricket. Once the three certainties of life were “death, taxes and a hundred at Adelaide Oval”, such was the reliability of the centre. The pitch started hard and true, grassy but rolled into a shine. You did not send the opposition in because the pitch was perfect to bat on for a coupe of days and then began the descent to spin, widening footmarks and unreliable bounce. You did not want to bat last unless the target was small.
Josh Hazlewood walks off the Adelaide Oval after claiming nine West Indian wickets.Credit: Getty
Aussie skipper Pat Cummins spied green, long 12 millimetre grass on the drop-in and immediately asked the Windies to bat. One of the rare times that has happened in an Adelaide Test was when Bob Willis completely misread the previous evening’s light mist spray in 1982: “To seal the surface,” said curator Les Burdett.
Greg Chappell lost the toss, but still got to bat first. The emotions in the dressing room at hearing Tony Greig ask the rhetorical question, “Well, Bob, what are you doing?” changed from resignation at the prospect of a long 35-degree day in the field to incomprehension.
“You are going to do what?”
Chappell made the obligatory ton, a NSW quick was man of the match and Australia won early on day five by some distance.
Cummins could have batted first this time and it would have made little difference against an understrength and inexperienced touring team, but he looked at the pitch and figured that day one was an advantageous time to bowl; the pitch was slow, the bounce uneven to begin with.
Nathan Lyon is mobbed by teammates after taking a wicket in Adelaide.Credit: Getty
Nothing wrong with that as the bounce was not searing past eyeballs, as in the recent South Africa v India fiasco in Cape Town. Batsmen find it hard to settle against bounce of varying height, even if the pitch is slow, and the Windies were far from settled.
Nathan Lyon turned a few sharply in his brief appearances at the bowling crease. The Adelaide pitch of old certainly turned: Ashley Mallett, Clarrie Grimmett and Shane Warne flourished – but not on the first couple of days when batsmen had their way.
The Australian attack is outstanding in any conditions, and they need little help from underprepared pitches to smother a batting line-up.
Travis Head’s century pushed Australia to a commanding first-innings lead in Adelaide.Credit: AP
The Adelaide Test also confirmed that this Australian mainstream bowling is among the, if not the, best ever produced. “If Cummins don’t get ya, Hazlewood and Starc and Lyon must,” to paraphrase the old “If Lillee don’t get ya, Thomson must” line.
Max Walker was the stock bowler for Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, and he was a fine seam and swing bowler. On this occasion Cummins, Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Lyon were joined by Cameron Green, for seven overs only, and the “former” all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who bowled two overs for the match. So we didn’t find out too much about the efficacy of Green’s reinstatement to the team, except that his catching ability has not waned. Wow, can he catch; buckets for hands and moves unbelievably well for such a tall man. Marsh struggled on the slow pitch and fell to a shrewd piece of field placement after edging short of the slips repeatedly.
We found out that the West Indies played to form. They had glimpses of the fallow field that is Shamar Joseph, who struck me as not just physically talented, but has an old head on those very young shoulders. Kirk McKenzie and Justin Greaves look to have promise, but Test cricket is a tough classroom.
We found out that bowling at 125km/h against Test batsmen isn’t going to work, which is a pity because Kemar Roach has been a magnificent servant for his team.
What we didn’t find out was the answer to the most vexing pre-Test question: can Steve Smith be a successful opening bat? We are non the wiser after 26 balls then an edge to slip off a delivery many openers would watch harmlessly by, and another 22 balls with zero scoreboard pressure in the second edition. It would be hard to criticise or praise either dig.
The pink-ball excursion next week will not be easy for any top order bat and whether Smith fails or plunders at the Gabba, there still may not be any objective pointers to future Test success. A number of innings against different opponents in foreign conditions will be needed for that, something Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Matt Renshaw have yet to be afforded.
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