England's MCG collapse was down to technique, not temperament

If England’s darkest hour of the last three weeks was their capitulation to 90 all out in the final T20I of the series, the opening day’s play in Melbourne should be their most sobering. At the risk of going against the series scoreline, there were moments England could have fought back or taken control of previous matches in the series - after they bowled Australia out for 180 in the second ODI or before they slipped behind the DLS rate in Canberra. At the MCG, however, they were completely outclassed by a side who were able to expose their technical gremlins with ease, particularly those of their top three batters.

Faced with disciplined line and length and gentle movement from Kim Garth and Darcie Brown, it took only 16 overs before England were reduced to 47-3, having lost Maia Bouchier in the first over of the day. Bouchier is averaging 6.8 across formats in this series with one innings to play; if England were hoping a return to the format she scored a century in only two innings ago would restore some of her confidence, they were wrong.

Off the fourth ball of the day, she was caught stuck in her crease, squared up by a back-of-a-length ball from Garth to send a catch to a diving Beth Mooney. Stood rooted to the ground as the ball approached her, awkwardly bringing her bat down from a skewed angle, it was a far cry from the Bouchier who had confidently carved her second and third balls in Test cricket for four just weeks ago. Ashes tours expose every nagging doubt and error in technique, and over six innings across three weeks, Bouchier’s have been bulldozed.

While she’s the most obvious example, she’s far from alone on a tour where few have passed. Tammy Beaumont has been dismissed lbw six times in her 11 Test matches. Today, she was caught by a ball coming back into her, hit on the knee roll lunging far forwards and across the stumps. It was an almost identical dismissal to her previous one in Tests, and to Garth in the second ODI just two weeks ago.

Eight overs later, Knight was also rapped on her front pad, caught on the crease by a ball angled in from Garth. While she opted to review it on the field, the ball was shown to be cannoning into leg stump. When she lost the toss just over an hour before, Knight said she wasn’t unhappy with being put in, and after Garth and Brown’s opening spells, there was nothing to suggest she lost a clanger. Australia’s new ball attack were excellently disciplined in extracting every advantage out of the surface, without being spectacular, but exploiting their opposition’s weaknesses to perfection.

The questions that dogged England over temperament and approach, or the ‘braveness’ of their batting cannot be levied at them today. Nat Sciver-Brunt scored the slowest half-century of her international career, and Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge further tamed their own tempo to the situation England were in during the afternoon session. But they were cut open in the space of an hour by Alana King for the third time in the series - another painful reminder of what Australia possess that England do not. England opted for an extra seamer ahead of play, meaning Ecclestone will have to operate alone on a pitch already turning sharply.

Without those issues of temperament and intent, there is only room for a brutal assessment of how far apart in skills the two sides are. There was little England’s three seamers did wrong at the end of the day, but far fewer chinks in Australia’s armour to exploit and less movement extracted, despite getting to bowl with the pink ball under lights. Whatever post-mortem there is in the wake of this series, and the top-line changes that surely will be made, they must hone in on the core issue of the performance deficit, rather than the surface noise.

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