CRICKET:MITCHELL JOHNSON is a sensitive soul who imagines he is the hard-bitten hero in an Ashes sledging war.
Australia are not about to disabuse him. In one inspired spell of fast bowling he has threatened to turn the Ashes series on its head.
Johnson’s Ashes fantasy involves him rising above adversity, braving cruel jibes from all quarters and emerging in triumph with six England first-innings wickets to his credit. He certainly took the wickets, and quite brilliantly, but he might also have had a touch of the sun.
This is a toughly fought Test and the series has become a little spicy but, sorry Mitch, it is not yet a slanging match.
Before Johnson’s intervention the assumption was growing in England – if not in the England dressingroom – that the Ashes would be retained before Christmas and the St Stephen’s Day Test in Melbourne could be followed in a mood of drunken contentment. After two days at the Waca all these certainties had disappeared.
The same people who had wondered if England would wrap up the third Test in double-quick time, to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series, were now speculating the Ashes series might run until the final hour of the New Year Test in Sydney.
England had got out of jail at The Gabba and played “the perfect Test” to win in Adelaide. They had won eight successive days of Test cricket, against Australia in Australia. Then Johnson, by his own calculation swinging the ball more than he had in his life, took four wickets in a single spell. What had been built over several weeks was undermined in an hour.
Johnson, wicketless in Brisbane and dropped in Adelaide, is beating his chest again. “I guess you look at the times we do play well and we have that bit of fire about us. I spoke to Brad Haddin and Peter Siddle about it. If we can get right in their faces a bit more, it definitely works for us.
“When you look at the times we have played well, there are very fiery games. I don’t mind getting into a bit of a confrontation. We are playing for the Ashes.”
Johnson thinks Australia have gone soft since the infamous Test against India in Sydney two years ago, which degenerated into a race row between Andrew Symonds and spinner Harbhajan Singh.
“I guess we sort of backed off a little bit,” he said. “We cop a bit of stick and then we go back down into our shells a bit. We need to get on and do what we need to and not care about what people say outside.”
If Johnson did claim a sledging victim it was Kevin Pietersen, who for reasons yet to be fully explained asked Johnson to give him his phone number. Johnson shunned the offer. “I was pretty happy to get his wicket,” he said. “I didn’t give him my phone number.
“I didn’t think he was being friendly. I thought he was being a bit of a smart arse. Whether it is joking around, or being cheeky, he gets under some blokes’ skins more than others.”
Pietersen, out for a third-ball duck, tweeted after the play he had put on his Chelsea shorts and turned his attention to football.
Matt Prior also had a second day to forget. He was roughed up by Siddle, who came round the wicket to bang the ball repeatedly short into his chest and eventually bowled him off a glove. Siddle gave him a send-off, Prior gestured that Siddle might like to see him outside and Australia captain Ricky Ponting gave Prior an earful.
Johnson is an oft-docile fast bowler who permanently has to remind himself that he is meant to be tough; Ian Bell is an undemonstrative England batsman who plays in his own bubble. He looked entirely mystified at suggestions of Ashes Armageddon.
“I didn’t even realise it was kicking off,” Bell said. “I thought there was a bit of banter going on. I don’t think Johnson was in our faces as much as he thought he was. I guess a few things were going on but it didn’t feel any different to what has gone on in the first two Test matches.
“It’s one innings. Swing bowling is a massive part of the Waca because of the breeze. Credit has to go to Mitch for swinging the ball at high pace. But now Mitch has got to back it up.”
