The Australia head coach, Andrew McDonald, does not agree that his side was saved by rain on the fifth day at Old Trafford, and is confident they have been the better team across the Ashes series. “Yep,” was his one-word response when that question was put to him after the fourth Test was washed out on Sunday, an assessment resting on the fact that they had secured the trophy by dint of winning the first two Tests.
As for the assumption that the weather had robbed England of a 2-2 scoreline before the fifth Test, McDonald says otherwise, with his team 60 runs behind with five wickets in hand. “We still had some batters to come. We could have shifted some pressure. So it feels as though we sit here and [say] it was a foregone conclusion that England were going to win the game – I don’t believe that and that change room upstairs doesn’t believe that.”
McDonald was frank, however, about how badly his team got outplayed across the match until that rain intervened. “It was a disappointing three days or so. We’re not gonna shy away from that and we own that,” he said.
“England put immense pressure on us. There’s no doubt about that. I thought the surface on day one gave us an opportunity to put a few more runs on the board and when you sort of get behind a little bit, that can compound on you and I thought the way that Zak [Crawley] came out and put pressure on us, you’ve got to give some credit to the opposition as well.”
More to the point was why that pressure became so effective, as Australia’s bowling faded after Crawley initially rode his luck before an innings of 189 flourished, paving the way for a batting blitz through the order. “Both teams have probably had errors at critical times. It’s hard to put your finger on that in a highly pressurised environment,” McDonald said.
“I think that pressure does bring out errors and dysfunction within the game and it’s how you recover from those moments. We feel as though the first couple of Tests we were able to recover.”
Recovering will be the key from here, with a couple of days before the fifth Test that will decide whether Australia can attain a long-awaited series win in England.
Team balance is a hot topic, after Australia played no spinner at Old Trafford and had no options when the seamers were hit around. Of those bowlers, Mitchell Marsh and Mitchell Starc have fitness issues and the captain, Pat Cummins, looked frazzled in the field after playing five Tests since the start of June.
“We’re all working on the Australian cricket team together, and it should never really come down to Pat as an individual, but unfortunately as a captain, sometimes you wear that,” McDonald said of the criticism about tactics and approach that came Cummins’s way after Old Trafford.
