Day 3 at The Adelaide Oval : Deja Vu as lethal Johnson rips into England

THE EVENTS

Absolute shambles. The perfect two words to describe the batting performance of the English team in the heat of Adelaide on a flat pitch. It was quite appalling stuff on day 3 as England resumed where they left off in Brisbane. With an overnight score of 1-35 , Michael Carberry and Joe Root walked out to bat on a good batting wicket in the best conditions possible. They took their time in the middle but all the good work was undone when Joe Root , rather unnecessarily took a risk and found Chris Rogers off the bowling of Nathan Lyon. In walked the mercurial Kevin Pietersen who has a fantastic record at Adelaide. The South African born batsman, mourning Nelson Mandela’s death, ensured his day would get even worse with an unnecessary drive which found Bailey . A careless way to give a priced wicket away on a flat track. Ian Bell, the hero of the English summer , walked in . Just as a partnership was building up, a Watson ball was pulled by Carberry. The result was a diving catch from David Warner getting the Englishman back to the pavilion. England, or in particular, Carberry, had failed to hold on to catches and that proved the difference - Australia took their chances well. The debutant Ben Stokes walked in at number six with England on the ropes. Little did he know that he’d face one of the best spells of fast bowling in modern cricket history.

Mitchell Johnson. The bowler mercilessly mocked by the Barmy Army two years ago, had his revenge with a spell that many will never forget. First he had Ben Stokes trapped in front. In walked Matt Prior and all too predictably, he was back in the pavilion for a duck. Stuart Broad was clean bowled in the next ball. Graeme Swann lasted one over before Johnson bowled a couple of short balls to him and followed it up with a full one that Swann slashed to gully. Jimmy Anderson was bowled off the first ball too. The stare given by Johnson to Anderson told the story. After brief resistance and excellence from Ian Bell, Johnson returned to clean up Panesar’s stumps and surprisingly Michael Clarke didn’t enforce the follow on.

Batting second, Australia lost their way a bit when Anderson picked up to quick wickets but Clarke and Warner put up a partnership. Monty Panesar’s beauty castled Clarke but Steve Smith and Warner held up well enough to put Australia in total command at end of day 3.

THE SCORES

AUSTRALIA - 9-570 Dec. & 3-132 (Warner 83*, Anderson 2-19)
vs
ENGLAND - 172 (Bell 72*, Johnson 7-40)

STAR OF THE DAY

Australia - Mitchell Johnson - Simply fiery. We are running out of superlatives to describe him at the moment

England - Ian Bell. Poor old Bell put up a fight but none of team mates cared

FLOP OF THE DAY

Australia - Shane Watson - The Aussie batsman put his team under massive pressure when he lost his wicket unnecessarily

England - Matt Prior -  Awful , absolutely awful from England’s wicketkeeper

DAY’S VERDICT

Absolutely awful from England. If England don’t recover, it’ll all head down the direction of 2007 again.