Mitchell Johnson: Western Australia losing 8-1 was hard to watch – but we’ve all been there

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Mitchell Johnson: Western Australia losing 8-1 was hard to watch – but we’ve all been there

Most cricketers at any level will have a story of either being on the receiving end of a demoralising low total or on the other side of inflicting the damage. Maybe both.

It was hard to watch on Friday when Western Australia lost 8-1 at the WACA Ground to go down to Tasmania in the one-day cup.

I was gutted for the players – six of whom got ducks – but I also know the feeling of being beaten in an embarrassing way.

The WACA pitch looked good, with bounce and plenty of carry and some good pace in it despite some early seam to make it a little tougher for the batters.

Billy Stanlake was getting plenty out of it using his height and extra bounce with good pace to hurry up the batsmen. And Beau Webster asked plenty of questions to continue his stunning emergence as a quality seam-bowling all-rounder with 6/17.

It’s hard to understand why last-placed WA, the three-time defending champions, haven’t hit their straps to start the one-day comp this season.

They have most of their players from the past few seasons still together, a good culture and training discipline along with quality support staff.

With just seven matches for each State in the one-day format, you have to start the season well and being 1-3 makes it very tough for WA now.

Sometimes it can be simply just not being good enough on the day but in the first two matches of the season, WA were in positions to win and normally they take advantage of being in that position.

Have they just come into the season a little under done? It’s hard to think that would be the case because their work ethic is elite.

Sometimes coming into a season, you can be over confident and think it’s just going to happen because of last season. But again, it’s hard to see it that way.

What I have seen, particularly in the match against South Australia a few weeks ago, was a lack of awareness in shot selection and understanding of the situation of the game which was a little bit of a surprise.

Camera IconCooper Connolly and WA were on the wrong end of a hiding. Credit: Will Russell/Getty Images

Collapses like we saw on Friday are a horrible feeling when you’re part of a team. Even though my role was as a bowler, everyone takes some responsibility when you get rolled like WA did.

Or in my case when I was part of the Test team that got bowled out for 47 by South ******* in Cape Town in 2011 and 60 by England at Nottingham in 2015.

I can’t imagine the feeling for a batsman when their job is to try and stop the momentum when it’s happening.

It’s bad enough when you are a tailender and can’t stop the slide. And it’s even worse when you then go out to bowl and can’t return the favour and skittle them!

In the Cape Town Test in 2011 we fought hard to get 284 on the board after being put in to bat first on a green one. It was the game where captain Michael Clarke got absolutely peppered and stood up and fought for a magnificent 151 to get us into that position.

We then rolled the Proteas for 96 and I’m sure in that moment we relaxed and thought we were in a great position.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconMitchell Johnson in Cape Town in 2011. Credit: Gallo Images/Getty Images

We let our guard down enough for Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel to get a sniff and they knocked us over for 47 before easily chasing the required runs in an embarrassing and unforgettable Test match.

Massive collapses are part of cricket. They are hard to take and you can point fingers but that doesn’t change anything.

What players can do is support each other, talk about what happened and why and learn from it in the hope you don’t get yourselves in that mess again.

Credit also goes to South *******, or in Friday’s case, Tassie. It takes two to tango and Tasmania played the conditions, bowled using pressure, used the short ball well and got the ball talking.

They kept the pressure on WA and when they got that sniff of blood in the water, they went for it and now the 8 for 1 and all out for 53 is written in the history books.

One way to look at this is, well surely it can’t get any worse right? It will be a wake-up call for Ashton Turner and his team, a time to reflect but then move on quickly from.

Now is the time to grow, not panic. They will need to do it quickly but they have the experience and talent there to do it.

This WA team has done it for a long time now and if it all starts to click, we know they are more than capable.

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