YOU shouldn’t be shocked by Australia’s collapse against South Africa in Hobart. And yet, you should be.
Any time a team is bowled out for 85 in Test cricket it comes as a surprise because historically it is a rare occurrence.
But that hasn’t been the case for Australia recently. Far too often, Aussie fans have watched on in horror as their team has collapsed in a heap in the face of quality bowling.
However there is one thing that sets this batting nightmare apart from all the other ones in recent times.
Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t be shocked by the latest batting horror show, and one reason why you should be.
THREE YEARS OF COLLAPSES
Ten-wicket collapses have become a worrying habit for Australia post-2013. Including Saturday’s horror show, this is the seventh time since the start of 2013 that Australia has lost 10 wickets for 100 runs or fewer.
By comparison, Australia only suffered such collapses 12 times in the 25 years prior to 2013. On average this means Australia suffered this type of collapse less than once every two years in between 1988 and 2013, and nearly twice a year since.
The first of Australia’s 10-wicket-collapses post-2013 came in March, 2013 against India in Hyderabad where the side fell from 0-56 to 10-131. Four months later at Lord’s Australia plummeted from 0-42 to 10-128. Seven months after that the Australians fell from 0-126 to 10-216 at Port Elizabeth against the Proteas, completing a trifecta of 10-wicket sub-100-run collapses in the space of 12 months.
A year later, Michael Clarke’s men were humiliated at Trent Bridge, losing 10-56 — more on that later — and in August this year the Australians fell from 0-77 to 10-160 at Colombo against Sri Lanka.
You don’t have to look back too far for the last time Australia lost 10 batsmen for fewer than 100 runs either.
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IT HAPPENED LAST WEEK
The last time Australia lost 10 wickets for fewer than 100 runs was only last week.
Having knocked the South Africans over for 242 in their first innings at the WACA Ground, Australia looked set to take the Test away from the tourists at 0-158 in reply. Then David Warner fell for 97 and the Australians collapsed to be all out for 244, with Adam Voges (27) and Peter Nevill (23) the only batsmen outside of the top pair to pass 20.
TRENT BRIDGE ALL OVER AGAIN
The comparisons with Trent Bridge came before a ball had even been bowled in Hobart, when Mitchell Marsh was left out of Australia’s XI. The exact same thing happened in the fourth Ashes Test last year, when Shaun Marsh came into the side in place of his younger brother as the selectors sought to boost the batting line-up.
The reasoning appeared sound on both occasions, with overcast skies hovering not too high above a pitch expected to give the fast bowlers some assistance.
Just like Trent Bridge the Aussies lost two early wickets – two in the first over last year, two in the first two overs this time around.
However by far the most obvious comparison came courtesy of a stunning catch by JP Duminy. The South African dive quickly to his left to snare a ripper after Mitchell Starc edged a ball from Kyle Abbott.
Abbott put his hands over his mouth in a show of surprise and delight, almost exactly the same pose struck by Stuart Broad after Ben Stokes took a similar catch to dismiss Adam Voges at Trent Bridge last year.
In the end Saturday’s effort proved not to be quite as bad as the Trent Bridge nightmare, with Steve Smith’s unbeaten 48 taking his side to 85 before they were eventually bowled out by South Africa.
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0:52BINGA THE BENCHMARK
Taking Saturday’s performance into account, Australia has lost wickets at 20.9 runs apiece since the start of the tour of Sri Lanka. That’s just a little better than Brett Lee averaged with the bat across his 76-Test career (20.15).
In that time the Australians have only passed 250 on two occasions and failed to reach 200 five times across nine innings.
Shaun Marsh has the best average of any Australian in this period (57.75 across four innings) and there’s daylight between him and second-placed Steve Smith (41.12 across nine innings).
Marsh, Smith and David Warner (32.88 across nine innings) are the only Australian batsmen to average more than 30 in this period among players who batted on more than once occasion.
A BAD DECADE FOR AUSTRALIA’S BATSMEN
Between the start of 1985 and the end of 2009 Australia was only bowled out for less than 100 once. That was in 2004 on a raging turner in Mumbai against India, limping to 93 all out in the fourth innings.
Since the start of 2010, Australia has been bowled out for fewer than 100 runs five times in 76 Tests.
Including Saturday’s collapse and the 2015 Trent Bridge capitulation, the other three times Australia has failed to make it to 100 this decade are against England at the MCG in 2010 (98 in the first innings), against Pakistan at Leeds in 2010 (88 in the first innings) and against South Africa at Cape Town in 2011 (47 in the second innings).
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4:02WHY IT IS A SURPRISE
There’s one big difference between Saturday’s capitulation and what happened at Trent Bridge last year. This time Australia’s collapse took place at home where prior to this match it had only been dismissed for fewer than 100 four times since World War Two and only once in the first innings of a match.
The last time it happened was in the 2010 Boxing Day Test against England (98) and that was the first time in 16 years.
Boiled down, Australia’s score of 85 is its lowest in a completed innings at home since being knocked over for 76 by the West Indies in 1984 and its second lowest since World War Two.
However prevalent Australia’s batting woes away from home have been this decade, such a collapse on home soil is hugely surprising.
