Images of Waugh mark summer

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 32

Images of Waugh mark summer

By

JOHN COOMBER

of AAP, in London

Long after the awesome statistical achievements of Allan Border’s 1989 Ashes-winning team have been consigned to the pages of Wisden, the image which will spring most readily to mind is of Steve Waugh, perfectly balanced on the toes of his right foot, hammering a square drive to the Pavilion at Headingley. The day was June 9, the second day of the first test, when the genius within Waugh reached its full flowering and brought him his maiden test century. In hindsight, the die of the series had already been cast, Mark Taylor having batted unbeaten through the first day to confirm what his teammates had already suspected — England’s bluff was about to be called. It was to become a familiar pattern. The amazingly consistent Taylor would provide the platform for strokemakers like Waugh and Dean Jones to put : England’s bowling to the sword. There was an exquisite irony in the manner and execution of Waugh’s innings of 177 not out. Eight years ago on the same ground, lan Botham played one of the greatest knocks in the history of cricket to pull an England victory from the fire.

It was to haunt Australian cricket until June, 1989, when Waugh and Taylor emphatically exorcised the ghost. Waugh, eyes narrowed and expressionless under the peak of his cherished green cap, played an innings which, if it did not quite match Botham’s in power or effrontery, cer-

tainly surpassed it in beauty. Using a soft-grained, light bat which Botham might have discarded as a toothpick, Waugh flashed through the full repertoire of strokes: cuts, leg glides, hooks, pulls, front foot drives from midwicket around to cover and most of all those startling square drives off the back foot.

By midway through Waugh’s innings the England captain, David Gower, was forced to post a sweeper on the boundary at cover point. If the ball went more than 10 metres either side of him, it was four.

Waugh then went to Lord’s and made 152 not out, and it wasn’t until he had scored his 393rd run that England managed to get him out. He finished with a test average of 126.50, the second highest achieved in an Ashes series.

Taylor, like Waugh a 24-year-old from New South Wales, had in some way an even more remarkable summer. Sound, unhurried and unflappable in his first full series, he hit 839 runs from 10 completed innings, his scores ranging from 27 to 219, including one other century and five fifties. Only Bradman and Hammond have made more in an Ashes series. Taylor also topped the first class aggregates, with more than 1600 runs on tour. His consistency was such that in his 30 first

class innings he got into the twenties on all but four occasions.

The same did not apply to his more experienced opening partner, Geoff Marsh.

He was the only one of the top six test batsmen to average less than 55, and the vice captain’s mediocre summer was rescued by the 138 he made in an Ashes record opening stand of 329 with Taylor at Trent Bridge, and a match-winning 111 not out in the third one-day international at Lord’s.

David Boon, moved down to No. 3 to accommodate Taylor as opener, averaged in the mid-fif-ties in both test and first class matches, but in two tours has yet to make a test hundred in England.

Jones confirmed his reemergence as one of the top flight batsmen in world cricket. Ideallysuited at No. 5, he scored his 566 runs at better than 70 with a zest and ingenuity not seen in the Australian middle-order since Doug Walters. In the opinion of many good judges, the Australian top six of Taylor, Marsh, Boon, Border, Jones and Waugh — unchanged throughout the series — might be Australia’s best since 1948.

Terry Aiderman, as spearhead and elder statesman of the bowling attack, was unquestionably the man of the series.

The appendage “lbw Aiderman” became as established as “c Marsh b

Lillee” in Ashes legend, as 19 of Aiderman’s 41 victims were dispatched in that way. The modern game has seen no finer exhibition of classical, skilful swing and seam bowling. By the simple expedient of bowling straight and out-think-ing thfe batsmen, Aiderman laid bare the delusion under which English batsmen like Graham Gooch had been operating.

Aiderman had magnificent backing from the three support bowlers.

Geoff Lawson had easily his most successful of three Ashes tours, with a return of 29 wickets bettered in England only by Aiderman, Lillee and Craig McDermott. Plenty of people in England, and Australia, thought Merv Hughes was brought along as the tour •clown. Merv proved them all wrong by finishing with 19 wickets. He supplemented the subtler new ball attack with aggression and genuine pace which brought him wickets at vital times when England threatened to take the initiative. Trevor Hohns came into the side at Lord’s after nerves had spoiled the Tasmanian, Greg Campbell’s test debut at Headingley. It was the only change in the Australian team and it proved highly effective. Like Hughes, the 35-year-old Queenslander took wickets when it mattered. Among Australian leg-spinners only Richie Benaud n has

bettered Hohns’s bag of 11 in a series in England. Tom Moody was perhaps the unluckiest man of the tour. He came within an ace of getting his first test cap at Headingley, where the selectors instead preferred to keep the left-right opening combination which worked so effectively. Moody played some thunderous innings in the minor matches, but despite his talent and potential, it is difficult to see him breaking into such a settled batting order, especially with Mark Waugh in the wings. Border crowned a magnificent career by becoming only the second Australian captain after Bill Woodfull to regain the Ashes in England. From hesitant beginnings five years ago, Border has developed into one of Australia’s best captains, and his team would walk over hot coals if he asked them to.

He failed to get a hundred — it is now 12 tests since his last — but still averaged 73 in the tests. He and the coach, Bob Simpson, planned the campaign meticulously, and some of Border’s field platings — leg slip and two gullies to Gower, short midwicket to Gooch, short mid-on to Smith — were brilliantly effective. When Border walked into the dressing room after the Ashes had been won at Old Trafford, it is said his eyes were not altogether dry. By the time Big Merv had sprayed him with the contents of several champagne bottles, neither was the rest of him.