Whatever data is observable, he is still mining. No detail is too insignificant. Nothing escapes Smith’s CCTV.

Andrew Fidel Fernando07-Feb-2025Some batters have spectacular hand-eye coordination. Others have an extraordinary thirst for runs. Steven Smith has both, plus a personal electricity.He walks out to the middle in Galle on Friday, and long before he has the measure of this dusty pitch, or has his big shots humming, all the Smith fidgeting is there. There is the yanking of the pads. There is the twirling of the bat and switching from hand to hand. There is the self-chat. The bop of the knees as the spinner comes in. The pained gesturing to the ghost of a shot he could have played better.In other players, these are nerves manifesting. Is something wrong with this guy? In Smith, it is just the current that never stops running through him. Something is going very right.Related

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Ten runs in, he hasn’t set the world on fire just yet. He has survived a hopeful review. He has been beaten on the drive. The shots he has played are of a high quality for a batter starting out on a turner, and early on the defence is of a quality that reflects his fresh status as a member of the 10,000-run club. Many greats have sculpted spectacular innings out of this dust – Kumar Sangakkara, Younis Khan, Mahela Jayawardene, Joe Root and Virender Sehwag – and started as unsteadily as Smith has.Smith is on his way to adding his own piece to this hall of masters, but what distinguishes him is that internal motor. Ten runs in, he is cocking his head to see what mid-off is doing, turning around to see how the square leg and deep midwicket areas are protected, shooting looks at the wicketkeeper, and glaring at spots on the pitch. Nothing escapes Smith’s CCTV.He has faced almost 19,000 Test-match deliveries by this stage, and is playing his fifth Test in Galle. But whatever data is observable, Smith is still mining. No detail is too insignificant. If a divot is left in the ground at fine leg by a diving fielder, you suspect Smith wants to know all about it.His first 50 runs is where the day, and possibly the match, turns. He had arrived at the crease at 37 for 2, his walk to the crease already so intense and purposeful it is as if he’s going somewhere way more important than the other 12 cricketers on the field. (If you saw someone stride through a corridor this way, you might assume there is a million-dollar deal to be sealed, or a baby to be delivered.)The reverse sweep is not a Steven Smith shot normally•Getty ImagesThere are shots Smith leans on through this passage while he is working his way into this innings. The cover drive, on the day, is one of them, and Sri Lanka start setting fields for it. First, there is one short cover in case a ball stops on him and he hits one in the air. There’s also the short leg in case a ball from Prabath Jayasuriya that doesn’t turn as much as Smith expects, and it comes off the inside edge.Then there are two catching covers, plus a short leg, and the slip fielder who had seen Smith edge one on 12, but had the chance drop well short, which would seem like Smith got lucky. But he has let the ball come to him rather than pushing out, and loosened his grip on the bat. That, in turn, means the the bat absorbs a lot of the ball’s energy and it won’t carry to the fielder. Smith’s brain has computed all of this, and has accounted for such contingencies.This makes him sound like a batting cyborg, but there are some supremely human moments. On 34, he plays a reverse sweep. This is not a Steven Smith shot normally, but when he is batting as well as he was on Friday, he has decided to make an exception – like a bouncer letting a friend through the rope: “All right mate, just when no one’s looking, you try sneak into this party”.Smith twists his wrists on the shot to get it to the unprotected deep-third region. Partly, this is that incredible hand-eye coordination, partly batting IQ, partly Smith CCTV. He knows that Sri Lanka have left that area unprotected specifically because they don’t expect him to play the shot. He had glanced twice at that area in the seconds before he played that shot, his head forever on the data-mining swivel powered by that livewire energy.By the end of the day, Australia are so dominant that they are looking at another match-winning lead•Getty ImagesThe basis for playing the shot is extremely sound. An AI batting consultant would probably recommend it. And yet it takes a human to take a step into the unknown to play a shot they have resisted on many of the almost-19,000 balls they have faced in their career.One risk pays off, and Smith takes another a few overs later, shuffling down the track to launch Jayasuriya into the sightscreen, before later sweeping the same bowler to get to fifty. On tracks like this, 37 for 2 can become 150 all out, and that, in turn, can become Tests lost inside three days. It has happened often to visiting teams. It happened to Australia in 2016.Smith goes on to make 120 on the day. Alex Carey, very arguably batting even better than Smith, and certainly sweeping better, gets to 139 not out off 156 deliveries. By the end of it, Australia are so dominant that they are looking at another match-winning lead.We can talk about Smith’s last 70 runs, and how he manipulated the fields. But, by now, we know how that story goes. Sri Lanka’s bowlers were tiring. Their captain had already tried several attacking fielding positions to get Smith out. And by that stage, Carey was flowing freely.Other greats have come to Galle and played innings that felt like daydreams. Not this one. This one was brought alive by that personal electricity.

Proud father’s speech caps brilliant century from England’s debutant opener

Firdose Moonda15-Dec-20241:15

Maia Bouchier: My dad’s speech made everyone cry

Maia Bouchier and her father Anthony’s daddy-daughter days involved “sitting on the couch and just watching the best players in the world bat all day,” just like they did in Bloemfontein on Sunday. Sort of.Maia was the one doing the batting – and it was only for three hours and 42 minutes, so not quite all day – while Anthony was in the stands at the Mangaung Oval. He watched as the daughter he raised around the game flicked and pulled and eventually also drove her way to a maiden Test hundred on debut. Afterwards, he got to celebrate it with her and her England team.”My dad came into the changing-room, which was really nice, and he actually made a little speech, and everyone started crying. So that was really sweet,” Bouchier said at the post-match press conference. “Let’s just say it was along the lines of, ”I’m very proud and I think it was the best day of my life.’ And that’s what got everyone.”Emotions always run high around Tests, given the sense of occasion and history attached to the format, and especially around women’s Tests because of how rare they are. In the England camp, they have a tradition of the nearest debutant presenting the next one with their Test cap, which meant Maia was capped by Danni Wyatt-Hodge, perhaps a little later in her career than she would have hoped.Since Bouchier made her white-ball debut in September 2021, England have played five Tests and she may have thought herself in line for at least one of them. In 2022, she was part of an England A side that played against the touring South Africans but could not displace Emma Lamb in the Test side. Now, on the return leg, so to speak, she was given an opportunity ahead of Sophia Dunkley and there could not have been a better country for it to happen for Maia.Maia Bouchier and her father Anthony after her Test cap presentation•Gallo Images/Getty ImagesAnthony has connections to South Africa and facilitated tours between the English club he founded, Primrose Hill Cricket Club (PHCC), and South African sides in the Western Cape. Maia remembers going on some of those tours as a child, and spending time on cricket grounds in South Africa, at a time when young girls were scarce on the cricket scene. Though Anthony never played at a professional level himself, he has been heavily involved in the business of cricket. In 2000, he was one of the principal investors who created Wisden Online, which, three years later, bought this very website (Cricinfo, as it was called then). At the time, Maia was just four years old and would have known only the basics of her father’s love of the game. As she grew older, she would also have been able to gauge his ambitions for her.”Obviously, this is very special for him because he’s waited a long time for it as well,” she said. “What I remember was us watching Test match cricket together just for five days straight, sitting on the couch and just watching the best players in the world bat for all day. I think that’s what he really wanted me to do. Obviously this is my first Test and to just go out there and play how I did, I’m super proud of myself and I know he’s proud of me. So that’s all I can hope for.”Bouchier played with none of the nerves of a newbie and raced to 43 off the first 45 balls she faced; and 40 of those runs were scored in boundaries. She took advantage of anything full and on the pads, and South Africa offered plenty of both. Then, when South Africa tightened up, she changed gears and showed the patience of a much more experienced long-format player. It took her 25 deliveries of watching and waiting to get to fifty, but then only 54 more to reach 100. By that time, she was finding scoring areas on the off-side as easily as she had earlier found them on the leg-side and her straight six off Tumi Sekhukhune, to get into the 90s, will be a shot to find the image of and frame.Related

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She paced her innings so well that, when Maia brought up her hundred, off 124 balls, she held the record for the fastest Test century scored by an England player. Less than an hour later, she had been overtaken by Nat Sciver-Brunt, who took just 96 balls to score the quickest hundred in all women’s Tests and Maia did not mind at all. “She’s a special player. I’m just so happy for her as well because she’s had a tough time and she’s had a lot going on,” she said. “I’m really proud of her as well. She’s just another level.”Maia has singled out Sciver-Brunt as the player she wants to emulate and, with a first Test century against South Africa, she has already done just that. She’s singled out her father as the person she most wants to make proud. However, she also did allow for a small moment of singling out herself and what this means to her, outside of being a dreamer or a daughter.”It’s the pinnacle,’ she said. “To make my debut and to get a hundred, is top of the charts, really.”

A look at the numbers from his Test career

Sampath Bandarupalli08-May-202512 Hundreds scored by Rohit Sharma in Tests, each coming in a win. No other player has ten or more hundreds in this format, with all coming in wins. Warwick Armstrong (6) and Darren Lehmann (5) are the other players with five or more Test centuries, all of which came in wins.9 Hundreds as an opener in Tests for Rohit. He was elevated to that role for the first time in October 2019, and since then, no other opener has scored as many tons. Overall, only four batters have scored more Test tons than Rohit in this period.

Alan Gardner, Andrew Miller and Vish Ehantharajah get together to chat about the start of the county season

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Apr-2025The County Championship is back in swing, England Men have confirmed Harry Brook as their new white-ball captain, and Charlotte Edwards will take charge of England Women. On this week’s podcast, Alan Gardner, Andrew Miller and Vish Ehantharajah got together to discuss the latest news, including Surrey’s slow start to their title defence and the continuing trials and tribulations of Zak Crawley.

Angelo Mathews has never been the kind who seeks out drama, but it seemed to follow him around at many points in his career

Andrew Fidel Fernando21-Jun-2025Life isn’t perfect. Sri Lanka cricketers’ careers are even less so. Angelo Mathews knows this better than most.Long cricketing lives, the likes of which Mathews has had, rarely pass without incident. But in Sri Lanka, they are further enlivened by fights with the board, fights with coaching staff, galling accusations from ex-players, invites from sleazy politicians, the meddling incompetence of sports ministers, summary sackings from one group of selectors, and summary reappointments when the selectors themselves get sacked. If you’ve gained a little weight, Sri Lanka fans also do irreverence so casually that they will call you fat right to your face.Mathews has never been the kind who seeks out drama. In fact, he feels like an exceptionally uncomplicated player of 119 Tests and captain of 34. He seethes personally, of course – we all do. But usually, he was the guy who was getting sucked into the gravity well of Sri Lankan cricket controversy against his will. The vibe tended to be “why do I have to deal with this?”Related

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And yet, occasionally, there were fires that burned through the ice. The most memorable occasion was one that made the context of his farewell Test a little spicy. We are not going to re-litigate the incident today, but the summary is that in a 2023 World Cup match, Mathews became the first international cricketer in history to be timed out, in what he felt were unacceptable circumstances. In response he poured no little scorn on the Bangladesh team, calling their behaviour “disgraceful” and accusing them of stooping low. It was, by his standards, ludicrously incendiary.But time heals, people mature, and life forces you to move on. Though there had been a little fallout over that timed-out incident in last year’s Sri Lanka tour of Bangladesh, Mathews already seemed to have got over it.Angelo Mathews and Mushfiqur Rahim had a little bit of banter going•AFP/Getty ImagesAnd in this match, the Bangladesh players could not have been sweeter to him, or more gracious. They didn’t quite form two separate guards of honour – one per innings – as Misbah-ul-Haq’s Pakistan (miss those guys) did for Mahela Jayawardene. But they spent many moments of the past five days patting him on the back, shaking his hand, smiling in his direction, speaking glowingly about his achievements, smiling some more.The vibes peaked on day five, while Mathews was playing his final Test innings, batting for a draw. Off the 43rd ball he faced, Bangladesh raised a big lbw appeal, and while they were reviewing the not-out decision, Mushfiqur Rahim came over to Mathews, and had a long, playful conversation, which ended with Mathews stroking Mushfiqur’s beard. After play, Mathews revealed what had been said.”Mushfiq kept chirping, and he wanted me to go for big shots,” Mathews said. “I said, ‘no, Mushfiq, I’ve played with you since Under-19s and I know you very well – and this is not the time for me to go for big shots; obviously, we want to draw this game’.”The subtext to Mushfiqur’s suggestions was that Mathews should be throwing his bat a little bit as this was his final innings. He should be having fun. In the first innings, Mathews had got down into a one-handed sweep that went all the way for six, which felt like a vintage Mathews moment – the kind of shot he would have nailed ten years ago. But here, Sri Lanka’s chances of victory were so remote after the first two wickets fell, the dressing room had wanted caution, and Mathews – maybe the last Sri Lanka cricketer to retire with more than 100 Tests to his name – spent his final afternoon in the format defending.Angelo Mathews meets and greets fans after his final Test•AFP/Getty ImagesIt was fitting in its own way. Where other batters, particularly the younger ones, had developed their attacking games first, Mathews’ aggression always seemed to stem from having a solid defensive technique. His playing of the bouncer was a case in point. Although he was one of the most natural pullers and hookers of the ball in Sri Lanka’s Test history (behind only Aravinda de Silva, perhaps), Mathews was equally good at ducking, weaving, dead-batting steepling bounce, swivel-pulling away for singles, and fending rib-crushers into space.In fact, one of the great low-key cricket (as opposed to Big Three cricket) battles of the past 15 years was Mathews vs Neil Wagner. That short ball was basically the reason for Wagner’s cricketing existence, particularly when New Zealand were hunting for second-innings wickets on pitches that had lost their juice. Mathews was that rare South Asian batter who enjoyed facing short-pitched bowling. One time, in a Dunedin Test in 2015, Wagner out-thunk him – peppering him with nasty short ones before slipping a full one in at the stumps, which Mathews, incredibly, tried to pad away. He got bowled instead. Three years later, Wagner spent all day trying to break through Mathews’ defence on a Wellington track that offered good bounce, but couldn’t, as Mathews and Kusal Mendis defied them in a 109.1-over unbeaten partnership.On his final day of Test cricket, Mathews did not have much short, fast bowling to defuse but did need to see out some spin. Of the potential 222 balls Sri Lanka had to face, Mathews soaked up 45 – about 20%. No one is about to pretend these are great numbers. But life isn’t perfect, Sri Lankan careers even less so, and Mathews knows this.Still, there were the fans who thronged the banks and stuck around to high-five him when he came around after the presentation, the former greats who have paid him public tribute, plus the long (cobra) kite that went up over Galle fort’s ramparts bearing Mathews’ name and jersey number. A Lankan cricketing life is not without its own delights. For a man as averse to drama as Mathews has been, he has lived out an especially storied one.

A three-day session in January with Pravin Amre helped him fine-tune his technique and be more balanced while responding to different types of deliveries

Nagraj Gollapudi02-Jun-20251:53

Moody: Shreyas identified key moments to go into the fifth gear

Since his last-minute inclusion in the first match of the home ODI series against England in February, Shreyas Iyer has been playing match-winning, as well as impact, innings both for India and, in the past two months, in IPL 2025 where he is captain of Punjab Kings. The latest example of that came on Sunday evening in Ahmedabad, where Iyer batted like a man possessed: his undefeated 87 helped PBKS make only their second IPL final, and the first since 2014. It was a remarkable effort as Iyer responded under pressure to bring down five-time champions Mumbai Indians.Iyer was the second-highest run-scorer in both the England ODIs as well as the Champions Trophy, and is now sixth among the leading run-makers in IPL 2025. His success is not by accident.About a week prior to the first ODI against England, played in Nagpur on February 6, Iyer had a three-day session in his hometown of Mumbai with former India batter Pravin Amre, who has been his long-term coach, since when he was 12. The primary focus, Amre said, was to tinker with the basic set-up in Iyer’s stance and make him more balanced to respond to any type of delivery.Related

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“His issue was his base. His back [right] leg was collapsing in his trigger movement,” Amre told ESPNcricinfo in April.As a result of the leg collapsing, Amre pointed out, the head followed automatically, and Iyer lost his balance. What would also end up happening was that his right heel would be dragging outside leg stump and, with his head falling away, Iyer was vulnerable to all threats including failing to play the short delivery well.The challenge, though, was how to adapt to the new technique Amre was suggesting: how could he change something that had been lodged in his muscle memory?Amre assured Iyer that the purpose was not to “disturb” his overall technique, but it was to “add” something that would enhance his batting.”I had to undo that [the set-up]. The word I used was correction. I told him I’m correcting you to get you in better position, so that you get a better feel with the bat while playing the strokes.”While the general impression from outside is that Iyer had opened up his batting stance, allowing him to better tackle the shorter ball, which has been his Achilles heel forever, Amre said that the change was not recent. It was about a year ago when Iyer moved from a side-on to a more open stance. Amre said that had allowed Iyer to watch the ball better and with the tweaked stance, it allowed Iyer to stand tall and respond confidently. “Previously the ball was dominating him; now he can dominate the ball.”2:46

Iyer vs Hazlewood the match-up to watch out?

The best examples of the success of the January work with Amre were the successive sixes Iyer hit off Jofra Archer in the Nagpur ODI. Jos Buttler stood at short leg, so Iyer was aware of the short-ball plan. But when Archer pitched on a hard length on the fifth-stump line, Iyer quickly got in line to pull the ball high over deep midwicket. Next ball, Archer ramped up the pace to nearly 143kph, but it was once again wide outside the stump, so Iyer moved closer to it and, on raised toes, cut hard over the deep-third boundary.Probably because of the new set-up, one distinct change between the 2024 and 2025 IPL seasons is that Iyer is now playing the ball later, especially against fuller and good-length deliveries. According to HawkEye data, his average interception point with the ball in 2024 was 1.65m in front of the stumps. This year, it is 1.50m.During the January sessions, Iyer also fine-tuned his backlift. Unlike the traditional backlift, where the bat comes straight down, Iyer’s bat is now coming down more from the direction of gully. Amre said it was similar to the loop used to hit a forehand in tennis, essentially to derive more power. While it is still work in progress, over the last few months Iyer has dealt with the short ball in white-ball cricket more effectively, including in the IPL, as the numbers below show.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”That is why now you can see he hits the short ball more powerfully.”Amre, who was with Delhi Capitals (DC) until IPL 2024 for nearly a decade, has seen Iyer from his pre-teen years, and has coached him at his academy at Shivaji Park. It was Amre who had convinced the DC thinktank to recruit Iyer as he felt the Mumbai batter, uncapped then in the IPL, could become a long-term player for the franchise. Iyer did lead DC from halfway through the 2018 season and paired successfully with then head coach Ricky Ponting to take the franchise into the playoffs in 2019 and then the final in 2020.During his time as coach at Seattle Orcas in MLC in 2023, Amre noticed how baseball players derived maximum power with a static base. He felt he could utilise some of those observations in his work with Iyer.2:24

Iyer on Ponting: ‘I’ve never seen his emotions go up and down’

“Without momentum, the baseball hitters generate great power and the ball goes far. One factor is they work more on the core muscles,” Amre said. “With Shreyas, I wanted him to get optimum power behind his strokes, specifically against spinners, so he could clear the boundary.”To strengthen the core, Amre got Iyer to hit against weighted balls, also known as sandballs, which can weigh between 150-350 grams – as compared to the 163-gram limit set by the MCC for cricket balls – and are harder to hit far. But with practice, batters start to get the power and can hit through the line of the ball farther with faster hand-speed.According to Amre, to enhance the power-hitting ability, he told Iyer to imagine Kieron Pollard was standing at long-on, and the challenge was to clear him. Pollard was among the best fielders in those hot zones where he could intercept boundaries using his height as well as his highly athletic body. “The idea was to help Shreyas in not being afraid to hit over Pollard despite him being the world’s best fielder.”Amre sees himself as a craftsman who will continue to chisel at his work, in this case Iyer, to make him a better batter. And the reason he knows he is doing the right thing is because of what Iyer told him at the end of the January sessions. “I was very happy when Shreyas said, ‘Sir, now I can take on anybody’.”

It’s the hope that kills England, as crushing comedown leaves their bid for immortality on the rocks

Vithushan Ehantharajah22-Nov-20252:13

Stokes defends attacking approach after batting collapse

You know what, this might be the worst one. And there have been some shockers.Certainly, it’s up there with any of England’s previous defeats in Australia. This being their 100th, by the way. With a team mooted as having the best chance of winning a first Test match here for the best part of 15 years.Instead, England’s quest for a historic reclamation of the Ashes has begun with a loss as dispiriting and rancid as they come. It’s a potent mix that will take a long time to shake. Because the worst thing is … about six hours before this had curdled, England were actually winning.Swallow it down, it’s bad for you. And don’t fret about getting the taste out of your mouth. If you’re new to this, this generational flaying from a position of strength will make itself at home, burrowing deep into the sporting DNAs of the lineage of England fans to come.This could be Adelaide 2006-07 for the TikTok generation; the original was a slow-burn four-day tussle which culminated in Shane Warne’s fifth-day punchline. This remake has been condensed for shorter attention spans: hold the screen down if you want to watch England fast-forward from 105 ahead and just one down in the afternoon to an eight-wicket defeat before night-fall. Actually, don’t bother. It was quick enough in normal time.Travis Head blazed Australia to glory in the manner that England prescribe•Getty ImagesOr this could be an AI slop re-imagination of either of the first two Tests of the 1990-91 tour, and given that Graham Gooch described that series as a “fart competing with thunder” it’s a depressing comedown from the high-octane thrills of day one. That opening match at Brisbane trod a similar path to this one – the tourists were ahead by 42 on first innings then, compared to 40 here. The second featured an injury-prone left-armer, Bruce Reid, snaring 13 English batters at the MCG. Mitchell Starc (how can a big quick be this durable? He’s clearly AI) bagged his 10 in 24.5 overs.Or it could be another big-picture reboot from 2006, with the charismatic Travis Head playing the part of Adam Gilchrist’s previous Running Man effort in Perth. Sure, the background scenes were updated (how good does the WACA look with that filter, by the way?) but this one was even more impactful than the original. Mind you, the ending was exactly the same: England comprehensively thrashed.Related

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Those waking up in the UK on Saturday morning got to take in all such horrors. And no, we’re not talking about TNT’s coverage, although some of the broadcast’s lamentable problems were probably welcome now. With the commentary frequently out of sync with the pictures, at least those of a sensitive disposition were offered trigger warnings for incoming England wickets and then Head boundaries.For the same bowlers who had covered for the batters after their first-innings collapse of 5 for 12 were all too quickly back out there as fodder for Head and, latterly, Marnus Labuschagne. Lightning struck for England when they managed to get all of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse on the park at the same time, even as Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were missing for Australia. But none of them could summon another significant strike 24 hours later, even against an Australian team whose one banker opener continued to not open.Joe Root dragged a drive on to his stumps•Getty ImagesEngland’s quartet could point out that more than 35 overs of rest would have allowed them to replenish the necessary energy to be as accurate and relentless as they had been on Friday. They might also note that their combined contribution of 66 runs on Saturday dwarfed the tally of most of their more seasoned and celebrated batters across both innings. Zak Crawley – backed explicitly because his technique was expected to suit Australian pitches – bagged a pair. More gallingly, Joe Root’s 0 and 8 made it seven single-digit scores for England’s top six.Root’s failures, however familiar in Australia, also came with a modern, debilitating twist, and that was before his solitary over of offspin (which put him four runs in deficit for the game) had brought the scores level ahead of Steve Smith’s winning boundary.England’s greatest batter was the last man to fall in a post-lunch collapse of 3 for 0 in six deliveries, which capped an overall slump of 9 for 99 to close the second innings. Root’s inside-edge into his stumps off Mitchell Starc came as he looked to drive on the up through the covers, despite the fact that Ollie Pope (caught behind) and Harry Brook (caught first slip) had just fallen to that exact shot in Scott Boland’s previous over. The thing about Root in this team is he knows better. But he didn’t when it mattered today.

They came to Australia searching for immortality. And no one will forget what they did here today.

Boland was a bowler reborn overnight, digging a trench on his usual six-to-eight metre length. England’s batters had made merry with him in their first innings, knocking him off his usual strides, forcing him to bowl fuller, and punishing his 10 overs to the tune of 0 for 62. Crucially, they had not been trying to hit the ball square on the off side with the bounce so steep.Maybe this is not what England fans want to read so soon after their side has lost 20 wickets in 67.3 overs… but were they too timid?Ben Stokes thought so, as he pointed out that the successful batters on a tasty Perth deck – Head, and to a lesser extent, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith with their respective 52 and 33 on day one – had succeeded in disrupting rhythms and off-setting routines by taking chances.Without naming names, Stokes had suggested the responsibility to do so should have fallen to the person with his eye in, which brings Pope’s second innings under the microscope. England’s No.3 looked solid in this match, particularly when driving down the ground. But after reaching 18 off 24 in his second innings, he came to a standstill. A run of 25 dots in his next 32 balls culminated in his dismissal to Boland, who had been responsible for 14 of them.Harry Brook walks off after making a duck•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesDid Pope get bogged down? Maybe Boland, simply, bowled well, and was worthy of the calm? England ensured he would get his rewards, as he finished with 4 for 33 and kept that home bowling average low at 13.47. The rest of the team vibed off their popular quick’s thrust. And that is when England became footnotes in a story they had been writing.The small- and big-picture ramifications of such a defeat will be just as infuriating. Batting first here was predicated on getting the best of batting conditions, using India’s victory at the Optus Stadium last year as a template.The first innings followed the identical script. But they totally flunked the next, most important bit. Whereas India saw out day two, closing on 172 for 0, England were instead left sitting shellshocked in the away dressing-room.Never mind, at least Head put the better conditions to historic use. The most Bazball batter imaginable out-Bazball-ed the Bazballers. And not only that, Travball brought up three figures in just 69 deliveries, quicker than Gilbert Jessop, achieving the side-quest that has been a white whale for these English batters. He scored the runs that could have been theirs, and in the manner that they dream of … if only they could have made it through that sticky post-lunch period, into a movement-free afternoon and a 40-over-old ball …England have played with freedom. The pressure has been lifted off them for the past three years. And while they have admittedly had a decent amount of success, and won some spectacular Test matches along the way, they still haven’t achieved anything that could be classed as truly great.This was supposed to be the start of that. The first of the three necessary steps for the biggest crowning glory of all. Now they must wear one of England’s most inglorious defeats on Australian soil, and that is something they may never be able to shed.They came to Australia searching for immortality. And no one will forget what they did here today.