1st Ashes Test: Mullally's haul is something to cling on to (22 November 1998)

22 November 1998

1st Ashes Test: Mullally's haul is something to cling on to

Scyld Berry

WHEN professional cricketers give an unsuccessful performance, the current vogue is for them to declare that they will 'take the positives out of it'. Nobody in the England party used the phrase publicly after they had conceded a total of 485, but on this occasion there actually were enough 'positives' to nourish the belief that England can hang on to Australia's coat-tails a while longer, provided they escape from Brisbane with a draw.

One of the two chief 'positives' has been the general desire of the England team, who at practice and in the middle have upped their game towards the Australian level of intensity. They will not fail for want of trying, as the case has sometimes been in recent Ashes series.

"I thought they stuck at it pretty well," said Steve Waugh, in confirmation of England's improved attitude under Alec Stewart as captain and Graham Gooch as a very hands-on manager. "You get a feeling that they're a lot tougher, and more professional, and working to a plan." It did not prevent Waugh and Ian Healy putting together a record sixth-wicket stand for Australia against England at the Gabba, but it was nice of him to say so.

The second silver lining, as a 'positive' used to be called, has been the bowling of Alan Mullally, who recorded his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket, and conceded little more than two-and-a-half runs an over on a pitch which has dried out into a true and evenly paced surface - the most desirable strip this side of Surfers Paradise.

Mullally may look diffident, the sort of chap who never slams a car door shut first time and has to have another go to do it properly; and he can be a bit dosy, as when he intervened to stop Steve Waugh being run out for 29, as if 'The Machine' needed a helping hand from anyone. But he is bowling like a man whose time has come after almost a decade as a journeyman in county cricket.

It is likely to be only the tallest pace bowlers who make something of this pitch with its springy bounce and no great pace: in other words Mullally and Glenn McGrath. And the very mention of Mullally in the same breath as Australia's strike bowler is some measure of how far he has advanced in the last year.

Thanks to his height, Mullally has always been able to keep it tight. The difference is that now he consistently makes the batsman play, whereas on his first England tour, to Zimbabwe and New Zealand, there were times when he "couldn't hit the cut bit" as he himself engagingly admits. In his initial run of nine Tests he was never collared or clattered, and never penetrative, taking three wickets in an innings at most.

Since then the Leicestershire player has cut his run to a dozen strides, got in slightly closer to the stumps, and above all positioned his wrist behind the ball so that he can sometimes swing it in. He has always been able to slant the ball across and seam it away from right-handers, but he might not have dismissed Michael Slater, Steve Waugh, Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart MacGill if he had not also been able to bowl that inswinger for variation, like the one which got Mark Waugh.

In the course of his 40 overs Mullally also removed any lingering doubts about his appetite for battle. Whereas Martin McCague was picked on the last time England played a Brisbane Test - the Australians called him traitor and mimicked his attempt to put on an English accent at press conferences - Mullally gave as good as he got from Steve Waugh, and never lost his composure.

He is sure in his identity as someone who has been enabled by birth and upbringing to enjoy the best of both worlds. His accent is virtually English. When he circled under the skier eventually put up by Healy, he caught it with fingers pointing upwards, Australian-style.

All these improvements seem to have been lost on a betting firm which specialises in cricket, and which proposed to its customers that Mullally would take between 12 and 14 wickets in this series. He should take many more, given a fitness record that is excellent for one so tall, and much better than that of Bruce Reid, the man whom he replaced in the Western Australia side at such short notice that he wore a borrowed shirt for his first-class debut.

Lacking Mullally's height, the skiddier Darren Gough has not been suited to the Gabba, and even in the second innings the ball is unlikely to become scuffed enough to allow reverse-swing. Gough, moreover, was unluckier than anyone as the nicks kept flying off the outside edge through third or fourth slip and gully - while England, from the time they took the second ball on Friday, kept two slips as their only close catchers.

On the first day, until Waugh and Healy pressurised them, England's reasoned plan was an aggressive one. But their instinctive reaction to that pressure was innate, visceral caution, which never wins hearts or series. For all of Mullally's improvement, it can surely be only for so long that England manage to cling on.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)