The Ashes 2010: Tim Bresnan wrecks Australia with minimum fuss

The Ashes 2010: Tim Bresnan wrecks Australia with minimum fuss

Line and length is what old sages tell you will win cricket matches. And with Tim Bresnan, line and length is what you get.

Gotcha: Tim Bresnan celebrates dismissing Shane Watson in Australia's second innings Photo: AP

By Simon Hughes, Melbourne 6:08PM GMT 28 Dec 2010

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There are no frills, no fluctuations. He is a sturdy, no-nonsense, salt-of-the-earth labourer, chipping away at the rock face until he strikes precious stone.

There were two gems in Australia's first innings, and three in the second on the third day. All achieved with good old- fashioned digging.

But beneath the solidity of Bresnan — as English as a pillar box — is unexpected subtlety. On the third day he exhibited skills perfected in Bangladesh, of all places.

It was there last March that a previously unknown prowess on parched, featureless pitches was revealed. In severe heat he was the pick of England's bowlers, artfully using reverse swing to defeat stubborn bats.

That performance would have influenced England’s decision to pick him in Melbourne. After the initial greenness has been lost, the MCG pitch can resemble a sub-continental pitch — beige, abrasive and low in bounce.

In fact it was here in the 1976-77 season that reverse swing first came to prominence (though it was not called that then.) It was pioneered by Dennis Lillee, who routed Pakistan with late inswing with the old ball.

The young Imran Khan asked him afterwards how it was done. In the next Test in Sydney, Imran devastated Australia with the same method, taking 12 wickets in the match, and a modern art was born.

One of England’s strengths is an ability to generate reverse swing earlier in an innings than other teams.

The entire team focus on getting the ball swiftly in the right condition, allowing one side to wear naturally while keeping it scrupulously dry, not letting anyone with sweaty hands near it and getting it to the non-perspiring Alastair Cook as quickly as possible.

Bresnan’s selection owed much to what he was capable of with the scuffed, older ball. It is not a question of making the ball swing vast distances at breathtaking speeds and uprooting stumps, but just getting it to move a little either way from a persistent line and length.

Bresnan was brilliant (as was James Anderson, with no luck.)

Releasing from closer to the stumps than before, Bresnan maintained immaculate control, targeting the stumps — or rather the pads in front of them — shaping the odd ball away from middle to off stump, and darting some back the other way.

With the ball skidding through uncomfortably low, the batsmen had to keep their legs out of the way and bring the bat down as late as possible. It resulted in a sequence of misjudgements and jerky defensive shots.

Shane Watson left one that swung back in just enough to suggest that it would have hit the top of off stump. Ricky Ponting jabbed and poked, his bat coming down hurriedly and crookedly as he was regularly squared up.

It was his angled bat, brought down from 11 o’clock rather than midnight, that caused the bottom edge that cannoned into the stumps.

It was the late curve away from Mike Hussey that prevented him from getting properly over a drive, resulting in a low catch to short extra. These were the sparkling stones England craved in this Ashes test.

Bresnan was typically modest about his wickets, describing the Ponting dismissal as “a slow, dirty drag-on, there was nothing special about the delivery”.

But he had previously reduced Ponting to a suspicious lunger and prodder as he jerked his bat uncertainly at a sequence of searching deliveries, curving a touch one way or the other with a crafty alteration of seam position.

Ponting defended as if he thought each ball was a potential grenade. His stilted innings was verging on the submissive.

With vast shoulders and a bull’s neck, Bresnan generates surprising pace from a cruising run-up — he has been the fastest England bowler in this match — reportedly hitting Matt Prior’s gloves the hardest of anyone.

It is this allied to his consistency and wristy skill that has enabled him to penetrate the cracks in the Australian block, leaving just rubble for his team-mates to sweep up.

And you can bet he will celebrate his success not with champagne but a good old-fashioned ale.

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qtdz
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