One step back

England’s cricketers are up on the High Veldt, not only taking on South Africa in the fourth Test match, but also their own demons as they strive to reinvigorate all the suddenly evaporated boastful optimism about giving the Australians a run for their money in the Ashes contest in the summer. As England fannied and faltered down in the Cape a week ago, the Aussies were looking as relentlessly unbeatable as ever in their home series against a talented Pakistan side. At the press of a Sky-TV button it was chastening to switch from England’s ham-handed, flat-footed exertions at Newlands to Australia’s noisily confident and vibrant strut at Sydney. Suddenly for England, all 2004’s sunny good heart seemed a loony illusion — strike bowler Harmison was trundling down tripe like a tyro and captain Vaughan was batting, as his compatriot Geoffrey Boycott witheringly put it, ‘like my auntie on the beach at Bridlington’.