England shoot blanks on flat WACA deck

Dec 16, 2017 - 11:38 AM You know you're in trouble as a cricket team when your No.1 plan is to bore the opposition into their own demise.

That is the situation England find themselves in after one of their most-horrendous days in Ashes history.

England snared just one wicket on Saturday at the WACA Ground, as Australia moved to 4-549, in reply to their rival's first-innings total of 403.

Australian skipper Steve Smith feasted on England's one-dimensional attack with an unbeaten 229, while recalled allrounder Mitch Marsh finished day three on 181no.

England's pace quartet of Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Chris Woakes and Craig Overton were powerless to stop the onslaught.

And although spinner Moeen Ali took the wicket of Shaun Marsh for 28, he barely troubled Smith and Mitch Marsh.

Ali has been so impotent this series, Smith rated batsman Dawid Malan the pick of England's spinners on day three at the WACA.

It was a cheeky gibe that didn't go unnoticed by England.

England's Ashes hopes are effectively toast and, deep down, even their coaching team know it.

Assistant Paul Farbrace unleashed some fighting words about trying to save the series after Saturday's horror show.

But his assessment of his team's bowling attack was damning.

"I don't think we've learnt anything from today that we didn't already know," Farbrace said.

"We don't have that extra pace, and we haven't got perhaps the highest quality of magical spin.

"What can we do? We've got what we've got. We've tried various ideas, various plans.

"The majority of our ways of taking wickets with the attack we have is to be monotonous with line and length. We tried that exceptionally hard.

"I don't think we've necessarily been flat from the point of view that it's lacking effort or commitment.

"But perhaps on that wicket, perhaps we haven't got anything else to offer."

England bowlers struggling in enemy conditions that don't offer reverse swing is nothing new.

In fact, it's become a trend so worrying, that England's management have talked openly about the need to bring in bowlers with express pace.

But there's only one problem - there aren't any such bowlers knocking down the door.

"When it comes to flatter pitches, we don't have that express pace," Farbrace said.

"When it's tough, unless we get the ball to reverse, it's quite tough for our bowlers.

"Long term, there is stuff that needs to be done.

"In terms of high-quality pace, we don't have bowlers bowling 90 miles per hour-plus in our set-up, and we don't have too many that are waiting in the wings to come into our set-up in the near future.

"And the one or two that do, can only bowl four-over spells, so they're not exactly ideal for Test cricket."

Source: AAP