Twenty-nine wickets. The number of wickets that have fallen by the second day of the ongoing Ashes Test between England and Australia in Perth. Who knows? As I complete this copy, Australia could very well be batting in their second innings. And that brings up the question of whether the conditions have been treacherous for batting.
There is one more element to add here. Isn’t it true that a sizeable portion of the wickets were also due to poor batting? Or a slew of batters unable to negate the extra bounce the Perth pitch is offering? Just consider England’s abject display in the second innings. In the 17th over of the innings, Ben Duckett was dismissed by the ever-persevering Scott Boland, with the delivery kicking up from off a back-of-a-length spot.
Harry Brook, who is a back-foot player, tried to drive a good-length delivery while hanging back and was caught in the slips. Joe Root threw his hands at an angled-across delivery from Starc and chopped one onto the stumps. On an unresponsive wicket for fast bowling, he might have got away with that stroke. Then there was Jamie Smith. He edged a couple of Starc’s deliveries that bounced extra, with one chance being dropped and the other going over the slip cordon.
Yes, Smith might consider himself unlucky for being given out when it seemed as if the spike on RTS came after the ball had passed the bat. But the narrative remained the same: he too struggled against Perth’s bounce. Something similar happened during Australia’s innings, where the majority of their batters were undone by bounce, either while defending or playing aggressive shots.
Granted, England’s pace attack in the first innings, as well as Starc and Boland in the second, found nifty movement off the seam. But the movement on offer doesn’t seem exaggerated. And there was little variable bounce.
So, was it poor batting? Dicey conditions for batting? Or just quality fast bowling? The right answer could be a mixture of ordinary batsmanship against the famous Perth bounce, blended with tricky climes for batting and some classy pace bowling. But it doesn’t seem prudent to call it treacherous conditions.
