Bucking the Trend Page 14

  No one had seen me play like this at international level, but it was reminiscent of numerous days I’d had with Middlesex, dictating terms with good placement and timing. For a fleeting moment I actually thought a hundred before lunch was plausible, but when an excellent diving stop by Kevin Pietersen was closely followed by Shane’s wicket I settled back down. Swann came on and slowed my momentum, before he had Usman given out caught behind, in a decision I still cannot believe. Standing up the other end, I could see daylight between bat and ball, and there was uproar when his decision review was turned down.

  Michael approached the crease wide-eyed and bamboozled, not quite sure what he had just witnessed. I urged him to focus and get through to lunch, even offering to take the whole last over even if a single was on offer. He declined and did his job, setting the basis for his best innings on the series.

  After lunch, on the outskirts of a hundred, I was stopped by the distraction of movement up behind the bowler’s arm. Unknown to me it was my Melbourne district-club teammate Dan Salpietro causing the commotion, as I waved for an unaffected line of sight. In truth the incident was no excuse for my subsequent dismissal, playing around a straight one from Swann, but it soon got weird. After I came off the field I saw replays of it all, including the sight of someone waving at me from the pavilion. I exclaimed, ‘That’s Dan Salpietro. My teammate from Prahran.’ Soon it was going around the world, and he was getting interviewed as ‘the guy who stopped Chris Rogers’ hundred’. That night he sent me a message of apology. After stringing him along for a while I said it didn’t actually make any difference.

  It was a watershed moment – and one I’m perhaps as proud of as any in my time wearing the Baggy Green. The side had been down and out and mocked by everyone after Lord’s. Yet after an hour in the first session of the next Test, I had 59 off 54 balls and had Australia on the front foot, our spirits lifted. As I’d said in so many captain speeches over the years, these are the times when you need players to stand up and be counted – and Michael’s 187 rightly earned him man of the match.

  From there we outplayed England over five days, held up only by rain in our pursuit of a surprise victory. While the draw meant England had retained the Ashes, we felt much better for how we had performed, and felt that it was another step closing the gap between the teams. Next up we got to Durham, on a pitch that looked like it would be the most helpful one for the seamers all series. At a moment when everyone was pondering a low-scoring game, Darren came up to me and said, ‘You’re getting 150 in this game.’ To say I looked surprised would be an understatement, but it steeled my resolve to make a hundred, knowing he was in my corner. If I fell short of that mark, the three figures I scored were sweet enough – especially after those excruciating 19 balls on 96.

  Apart from getting the century and helping us to a first-innings lead, there was one other very satisfying aspect. I’d been picked for England because of my knowledge of English conditions. The first three Tests had been on dry pitches, but way up in England’s north-east, Durham was a typical green seamer. I’d shown in the last Test I could play shots on a good pitch, now here was a chance to show I could play in English conditions.

  Stuart Broad is a wonderful bowler in such conditions, and battling him, Jimmy Anderson and Tim Bresnan was as tough an assignment as I have ever had. Yes, I had some luck go my way. I was given out twice on the same delivery and reprieved twice – the third umpire overruled a caught behind decision, but then ruled me out lbw only to have the on-field umpire overrule him under the (since-changed) law that there could only be one appeal per delivery. Amazing stuff! But as I’d hoped and dreamed of doing, there I was holding the fort for Australia, as wickets tumbled around me.

  A most satisfying comment came from Steve Waugh, who was quoted as saying words like ‘Rogers getting from 15 to 50 should be a text book for every young aspiring cricketer of how to bat in difficult conditions’. And at season’s end, former England captain Michael Atherton, now widely regarded as England’s finest commentator and writer, voted it the best innings of the series.

  Alongside Michael’s century at Old Trafford, I felt proud that innings helped to open a door for everyone in the batting order. At The Oval Shane and Steve followed up with big hundreds of their own, and suddenly we had some momentum as a batting group. Even though a second-innings collapse at Durham was briefly traumatic, we’d shown we could make hundreds against these guys. That sense moved through the dressing room, that England’s bowlers weren’t as invincible as either we or they had thought they were. At the same time Ryan Harris had delivered a series of clinics on how to bowl to their top order, and they did not reach 400 in any of the Tests. By the end of the last Test we felt strongly that if we could get enough runs at home, our bowlers would do the job. In short, we did not feel like 3–0 losers.

  My battle with James Anderson was giving me more and more confidence. He’d dismissed me twice in the First Test and even signalled to the change room after a slower ball had caused my downfall. Naturally he was the bowler most feared, as his skill with the new ball is incredible but what I started to notice was he was almost too perfect. He would obtain copious amounts of swing, but I’d started to read which way he was going. Not only were there small indicators in his different actions for the in- and outswinger, but his seam was always in a beautifully pronounced and consistent position. If it was swinging in to me, I could see the seam directed at a leg slip and the other way, at second slip.

  I found Stuart Broad harder to read because his wobble-seam deliveries would often have the ball ‘nipping’ in a different direction to the swing. With Anderson it just became a test of holding my stance in a neutral position long enough to adapt to which direction the ball was swinging.

  I loved the battles with Anderson. In his conditions, he can be the best and to say I had the better of our battles is such a privilege, as few openers do.

  Over the course of the series there was a mounting sense of just how much we really wanted to beat England. We’d copped a lot of sledging from them in the middle, which only increased our appetite. There was a merciless streak about that team, whether it was in targeting us verbally or the bowlers remonstrating with their own fielders in the event of a dropped catch. More than once one of us uttered the words ‘these guys need to be put in their place’. I’d been sledged quite a bit by Anderson, who made a habit of calling me an old so and so, before he gave up on it midway through the series. I asked him after the fifth Test at The Oval why that was, and he smiled and said he wasn’t witty enough to call me anything else. This crystallised how I’d gained some English respect, but like the others I was desperate to be an Ashes winner.

  Perhaps this was also to do with my relative civility. Something Darren and Michael had stressed to us before the series was that they didn’t want to see us conversing with the opposition. Most of the guys followed that to the letter, not offering greetings, let alone small talk. But a bit like when I couldn’t withstand the intensity of a Justin Langer, I couldn’t keep up the cold war charade. So I continued to say hello and speak to guys here and there. While this was against the management’s view, it didn’t stop me going out and fighting tooth and nail. No doubt it works for some guys, but to be honest I was too old for all that.

  CHAPTER 11

  DANCING DAYS

  Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Port Elizabeth

  PERCEPTION CAN MEAN a lot in cricket, either adding to a player’s success or detracting from it. For Chris, his long-delayed entry into the Australian side came with a few perceptions to defy. To countless observers at cricket grounds and their press boxes, he was seen as a battler, a nicker and nudger. To a generation of Australian cricketers, he had acquired a reputation as something of a waster, someone not making the most of his talent. When Shane Watson first laid eyes on Chris at training before the series in England began, he held that very view.

  ‘My take on Chris before I started playing with him in 2013 was from bein
g on an Australia A tour with him in 2006. I was 25 and very single-minded with what I wanted to do. I’d played for Australia for a bit, my whole focus was to play for Australia. Chris wasn’t playing so he certainly enjoyed himself off the field and that was my take, that he didn’t really want to be there, he didn’t want to make the most of the opportunity the way I did. The times I played against him he was always very effective at scoring runs, no doubt about that. He’s always known no matter what conditions, no matter who’s bowling, how to score runs. I always appreciated that he was able to do that but I looked at him as someone who was happiest enjoying the social scene.’

  Watson had found in 2006 that others shared his view. A sweeping judgment appeared to have been cast after Chris’ one previous Test in 2008.

  ‘He wasn’t your stereotypical Australian cricketer, and that was why also I think he rubbed a few people up the wrong way at times in his career, which I think really influenced his ability to get picked for Australia. I heard stories along the way, particularly after his first Test in Perth, that people were saying “he just hasn’t got what it takes to be an international cricketer”. I don’t know whether they were talking technically or about how he was off the field. That perception of him ran through Australian cricket.’

  By 2013, Australia was in no position to worry about those perceptions anymore. What mattered to a new selection panel was that Chris had exceptionally deep experience of playing in England.

  ‘Chris made his name for scoring runs around the world, and in the end where the team was at, it was irresistible for the selectors. He knew how to score runs and there’s not many guys nowadays who have an opportunity to play county cricket and understand English conditions.’

  Among the roles Chris took on with the Australian side was to share his knowledge with others. Watson felt this effect when they were cast as opening batsmen together, and they struck up a rapport.

  ‘I got to know Buck very well and absolutely loved his company on the field, because I knew he always knew the situation of the game, how he was going to play it to the best of his ability. I loved batting with him Where I was at in my career I felt he was able to really help me when I was batting, whereas most other people I batted with at that stage, because I was more senior, guys didn’t really talk to me about my batting or about a bowler or how to approach a certain situation. Buck was able to do that.’

  More widely valuable was a contribution to the side’s culture. Ironically, given that earlier perception, the Australian team actually needed a social agent or two to help get the players more comfortable in the company of each other. In this, Chris served as an able lieutenant to new coach Darren Lehmann.

  ‘What the team needed was to be able to socialise together. Whether you had a beer or not didn’t matter, it was more actually getting to know each other and enjoying the privilege of doing what we were doing. Buck and Boof together was perfect because that’s how both of those guys are, they’ve always played their cricket and lived their lives like that. Before that it had been like walking on eggshells, certainly no enjoyment off the field at all as individuals but also as a group.

  ‘My favourite memory was after we won the Ashes in Australia in Sydney, and seeing Buck enjoying that. As soon as you’d walk into a bar or a club or whatever it is, it’s just like this energy comes out of him. He’s very social, knows a lot of people and certainly loves the dance floor. He’s certainly got skills there.

  ‘The other celebration I remember was we had a function at Doc Brukner’s place in Liverpool during the Ashes in 2013. Everyone was trying to get Buck to dance because he’s a decent dancer and he thinks he’s Michael Jackson. He had a beer in his hand and everyone was telling him to dance. He thought “oh well I need the floor to be slippery, otherwise I can’t pull off my moves”. So on the floorboards of Doc’s apartment he just poured some beer on the floorboards to be able to make sure the dance floor had the right quality to dance on, and then cut a few moves. I’d never seen that before!’

  TEST CRICKET’S TRUE toll didn’t actually hit me until a few days after the series in England was over. I had agreed to go back to Middlesex for the last part of the domestic season, thinking it would simply be a matter of fronting up again. But after a day or two to relax, I was still feeling incredibly drained, like I’d hit the wall, marathon style. In my first match back against Surrey, teammate Dawid Malan hit one to a deep mid-off with me at the non-striker’s end and called me through. Trying to run, I simply could not get out of first gear and was run out easily – I was running slower than Boof in his 100 metre sprint with Mark Richardson. Any other day I would have been in by several yards.

  Things picked up a little from there, but it was a real lesson in how much the pinnacle of the game really does take out of you. Apart from helping me know better how to handle it next time, this filled me with further admiration for the guys who had played 50 Tests and more. Coping with that cycle of heightened, adrenaline-driven performance for weeks, dropping right off and then coming up again, has to be a shredder of nerves as well as bodies. The only time I didn’t feel this sense of exhaustion was after my final series, when it was as if I’d made a clean break from the cycle.

  On my return home to Australia, the wheels were quickly rolling towards Brisbane. Darren had made a few changes to the team support staff, bringing in Craig McDermott to work with the bowlers and Damian Mednis as our strength and conditioning expert. The selectors were careful who they chose for a one-day tour of India, leaving David Warner and Steve Smith at home to play Shield cricket while Mitchell Johnson came home early. His work in the one-dayers against England after the Ashes, bowling fast and clearly troubling a few of their guys, had put him squarely at the centre of our plans for the summer.

  I trained at the National Cricket Centre meanwhile, before we played two Sheffield Shield games. The second of these was against New South Wales at the MCG, where I battled to an ugly 88 before Davey and Steve both made much more entertaining hundreds. In the second innings Rob Quiney and I had a decent opening stand and this time I did get to a hundred, battling away again. Davey took great relish in light-heartedly sledging me as I struggled to hit the ball off the square at times, before both sides butted heads a bit when NSW declined to go after their second-innings target. We had a good competitive edge against each other, which was nice to take into Brisbane.

  The main thing to me about the lead-up was how positive Darren was, even more so than usual. Mitch Johnson was bowling thunderbolts in the nets and practising bouncers against the top order. He was very scary in that situation, bowling bouncers that seemed to arrow in at your ribs, armpit and head – every ball he pitched up was almost cause for an audible sigh of relief. As batsmen we were all in a hurry to rotate out of his net. There were two Mitchell Johnsons to me: the one who got his arm up and wrist behind the ball and swing it late. And the Mitch with the arm low and slingy, which created another problem, as the ball skidded back into you on a shorter length. I felt it was important not to get too far across to his short ball, although that obviously meant the fuller deliveries became more dangerous.

  For all his threat, we still felt that England were favourites, and we weren’t sure if we were quite ready to beat them. That all changed in one moment. Day one had been difficult for us. I was out early to a Stuart Broad ball that climbed sharply at me, before Brad Haddin and Mitch got us out of trouble in the last session and helped us up to 295. During the innings break I was feeling as though we didn’t have enough, because like a few others I could remember how England’s batsmen had been so dominant in Australia three years before. With the exception of Boxing Day that summer, Australia’s totals weren’t completely terrible, but Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen had just bulldozed the bowlers. Those guys were all back again.

  Ryan Harris was having none of that, and had Cook out with a good one early. But the instant in which I felt the whole series tilted was when Mitch bowled to Trott with a l
eg slip and a deep backward square leg. Up to that point his first five overs had gone for 26 and the rest of the script was anyone’s guess. But Mitch’s first ball was a short one right on the money that Trott played awkwardly with his gloves, and the first ball of the next over brought a glove down the leg side and into the gloves of ‘Hadds’. This had all been a plan by Darren and Michael to Trott, glimpsed a little in the England one-dayers, and to see it work in the first innings of the series gave us all a huge lift. That was the moment we knew we were a really good chance, because when plans start coming together you gain so much belief. You see weaknesses in batsmen who’d previously hurt you, and your own confidence grows.

  Not long after that, Pietersen tried to hook a bouncer from Mitch that was just too fast. We saw him react as if to say ‘shit, that was quick’, and though it didn’t get him out, the effect was pretty clear. From there England’s innings fell apart, and we won the match by all of 381 runs. All of a sudden, we were surging … and singing. While we’d got close in England, because of where the side had come from in India, there was almost no belief in how to get over the line in a Test match. So to actually notch a win, and recognise that Mitch, Rhino, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon were a world-class attack, meant we weren’t just in this series, but capable of dominating it.