McGrath tugs on heart strings

McGrath celebrates the wicket of Ian Bell shortly after tea at the SCG © Getty Images

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Many favourable descriptions have been bestowed upon Glenn McGrath during his Test career, but ‘happy cricketer’ is not one of them.

Whether he has half a dozen cheap wickets to his name or is coming to the end of a fruitless day with the ball, McGrath invariably exhibits the air of a man against whom everything has gone wrong.

A withering look towards the batsman, accompanied more often than not by a few choice words, a disbelieving glance at the umpire, petulant stamp back to his mark or teapot impersonation on the boundary, his mood is almost always on the black side.

For a man who had taken 899 wickets in international cricket going into this game, the 36-year-old McGrath seems to spend a disproportionate amount of time looking angry.

The first day’s play of the final Ashes Test in Sydney was no different but, even accepting that his body language has never been the truest barometer of the state of play, McGrath could be excused his histrionics.

His demeanour for almost all of the day reflected a bowler whose luck had deserted him and, for all the damage he has inflicted on England over the years and the arrogant predictions which precede every Ashes series, only the most cold-hearted of travelling supporters could claim not to have felt a slight twinge of sympathy for a man playing the last Test of a glorious career.

McGrath captures his second wicket in the space of five deliveries © Getty Images

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We may have mocked when he had a seemingly justifiable shout for lbw against Andrew Strauss turned down in his third over; there was more than a hint of irony in the gasps that followed the edge which fell just short of Justin Langer next ball; and when Langer spilled a sharp chance to reprieve Strauss shortly after, self-satisfied chuckles abounded.

You could almost have predicted the next ball being dispatched to the boundary - Strauss duly obliged with a neat clip off his toes - and McGrath’s unlikely transformation from surly fast bowler to hard-done-by old-timer was almost complete by the time Kevin Pietersen began to charge down the wicket with disdain to balls well short of a length.

McGrath, for whom this match on his home ground brings the curtain down on a 124-Test career spanning more than 13 years, led the Australia team out at the start of play and was seranaded with ‘Time to say goodbye’ during the tea interval.

As the prospect of life without McGrath - arguably the finest seam bowler of his generation - began to dawn on English and Australian fans alike, hard-nosed competitive instincts gave way to sentimentality.

Australia three retirees enjoy the tea-time sing song

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How foolish we were. Within minutes of the resumption normal service had been resumed, McGrath inducing an ill-advised hook from Pietersen which found only Mike Hussey at mid-wicket, then jagging an off-cutter through the gate of Ian Bell.

McGrath had had to wait more then 19 overs for a wicket. Now he had two in five balls.

His incursions not only checked England’s momentum as 166 for two became a worrying 167 for four, but served as a flashback to the fourth evening in Perth, when he struck twice in quick succession to effectively end England’s hopes of saving the third Test.

It is true that he is no longer the bowler he was - he lacks more than a yard of his optimum pace and can no longer extract steepling bounce - but he retains that priceless ability to change the course of a match.

When we look back on the outcome of the fifth Test, it may be that history shows McGrath has already done so again.