England arrived with high hopes of reversing their dire recent record in Australia but have been comprehensively outplayed. They have largely abandoned their ultra-attacking approach with the bat: they have scored at 3.79 runs per over across the series compared to Australia’s 4.34 runs per over, which Crawley attributed to the gap in quality between the two teams.
“They’ve bowled very well, and haven’t given us a lot,” Crawley said. “You look at [Scott] Boland, just for one of them. He just very rarely misses, and so it’s hard to play that way that we have in the past, perhaps.
“They have to get credit for that there and they set good fields, in fairness to them. It’s just an attritional style of cricket over here, and they don’t allow it. It’s not as easy to score quickly out here.”
Crawley described Australia’s attack as “phenomenal”, telling TNT Sports: “They’re the best bowling attack that I’ve played against, for sure – especially in these conditions, when it was spinning like that for [Nathan] Lyon. They don’t give you anything, they make the ball move, and they’re relentless.
“We knew that coming in. We knew we had to be at our best, and unfortunately, we’ve been just short of that. But in fairness to them, they’ve been phenomenal for the last three games.”
England’s public response to going two-nil down has focused heavily on their approach and attitude, with Ben Stokes declaring that his dressing room is “not a place for weak men” and demanding more “fight” from his players. But Crawley simply conceded that they are being beaten by a better team.
“It’s been tough. They’re a very, very good side,” he said. “I feel like it was always going to be tough coming up here against them. They were the favorites going into it and they’ve proven why. They’ve played very, very well and made it very hard for us.
“Obviously we’ve been slightly short of our best, but a lot of credit has to go to them: they’ve not allowed us to be our best, really.
“You’re always looking to get better, and find ways that you can compete better. I do like to keep it simple though, and I do just think they’ve been better than us. A lot of the time, especially in England, we look internally and go, ‘Oh, what could we have done better?’
“But they haven’t allowed us to do [that]. They’ve played really well. Obviously we could have been better, and that’s a given, but they’ve made it very hard for us. They’re a top team in their own conditions, and they’ve made it hard for us.”
Crawley was uncharacteristically restrained during his 85, scoring one run in his first 28 balls and ending his innings with a strike rate of 56.29 against a career benchmark of 65.53. But he said that his slower tempo owed only to the relentless accuracy of Australia’s attack, rather than any attempts to change down a gear.
“I was just trying to see-ball and hit-ball, really. I wasn’t purposely a bit slower,” he said. “They bowled well. They didn’t give me a lot early. I was just trying to just play every ball on its merits… it wasn’t on purpose.”
England need another 228 runs with four wickets in hand on the final day to keep the series alive, but Crawley effectively conceded defeat. “It’s disappointing,” he said. “We came here to win the Ashes and we’re staring down the barrel now. There’ll still be plenty to play for [in Melbourne and Sydney] and we’ll definitely view it like that.”
Matt Roller is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
