Ashes 2019: Australia crack the code to destroy England in a session after deadly trio finally come together

It had been a long time coming. A really long time. For the better part of a decade, the dream sequence for Australian cricket was getting all of their big quicks fit at the same time. Occasionally two would be up, sometimes three. But despite the fact that Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson debuted within two Tests of each other in 2011 – Josh Hazlewood arriving three summers later – stress fractures denied the full set until this tour.

But before this week in Yorkshire, Justin Langer had decided against assembling any three of them at the same time. He knew he finally had this classy fast car at his disposal but respected the fact that it’s another thing to steer it safely at top speed. Instead, the name of the game at Edgbaston and Lord’s was containment and rotation – to first get into the series, as they did, then making sure the bowlers all made to the business end of it relatively unscathed.

On day two, that patience paid off. The first time that a trio of Cummins, Hazlewood and Pattinson appeared on the same team sheet was on a day where Australia needed them to bowl England out in a hurry or risk this quickly becoming Archer’s Ashes. Two remarkable hours later, they had all-but-guaranteed that the urn will be retained by Tim Paine’s team this weekend.

Of course, the pace and bounce offered by the surface played its part, as did England’s calamitous approach to their task. But the art of selection, when done right, is when it depends on more than tallying up spreadsheets. Langer’s cricket IQ, coupled with his vast experience, allowed him to pick the right moment to go up the gears in this series. Sure, it might not be unusual to see Test teams skittled for a pittance in 2019, but nevertheless, it will be a session that goes down in Ashes folklore. Achieved because of careful choices, not lucky breaks.

It was Hazlewood who walked off the field with the ball aloft when finishing England off for 67 just after the lunch, the statistical star just as he had been at Lord’s. But it could just as easily have been Cummins cleaning house. Hurtling in from the first over, he banged away short of a length at Rory Burns’ body to make life as difficult as possible to settle. Within moments, he was all over him.

After five overs, Cummins had strung together three maidens at Burns then Joe Denly, beating the former’s outside edge a couple of times then finding the latter’s inside edge twice more. With nowhere to escape after copping a whack to the chest, the opener opted for a stroke he seldom plays, the hook, and was caught down the legside. Australia’s enforcer – sending down short balls with more than half his deliveries, CricViz calculated, at an average speed of just over 90mph – was helping his colleagues and now he was helping himself.

By the time Pattinson had gotten himself into the act, England were 45/6 – the same analysis that Jofra Archer recorded just yesterday. At lunch, that read 54/6 – Peter Siddle’s figures when snaring an Ashes hat-trick in 2010. The veteran should not be forgotten for his work in the first two Tests to make this dreamy session possible. Before the close on evening one, England brought on a collapse of 8/43 – Bob Willis’ figures in the 1981 Test at Headingley that lives on forever. Because of this morning, there won’t be any of that, or 2005, this time.

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First ball after lunch? Cummins again, lifting more at Chris Woakes than he thought. Langer declared before this Test that it wouldn’t be a bouncer war and this wasn’t that. Rather, it was his fittest bowler doing what he does best: relentlessly targeting the armpit rather than the lid. He did rough up Archer with some old-fashioned bumpers – how could he not? – earning him a cheeky three-for.

Hazlewood did the rest, rewarded for his contrasting approach, landing 69 per cent of deliveries on a good length. Through this series in 2015, bowling too full and seeking too much swing that negated his impact. This time around, he’s cracked the code.

Australia had, in essence, did exactly as England had in 2009, 2013 and 2015: winning the Ashes in a session. Then, Stuart Broad was the protagonist on each occasion, the latter completed in such a short space of time that each ball of the innings could fit in a tweet. Today, doing it in 167, that was possible again – it was the home team’s lowest score at Leeds since 1907, no batsman making it into the teens. They had been reduced to a rabble.

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So, barring a miracle of Bothamesque 1981 levels, this is going to be the first Australian team to win in England for 18 years. Imagine saying that a year ago, when they were the laughing stock of world cricket? Or even suggesting it six months ago when India were hammering them on home soil? With bat in hand, they remain a side no more stable than England – so much so that if Paine does retire a happy man at The Oval in a few weeks, it is anyone’s guess who would lead them next. But with this finely-tuned fast bowling Lamborghini now motoring freely, they should for some time be able to produce special spells like today.