From ‘good areas’ to ‘death bowling’, phrases come and go in the cricket lexicon. Four years ago, English cricket fans invested Steve Waugh’s neologism ‘mental disintegration’ with an abracadabra quality; now it is seldom heard. On this fourth day at Cardiff, it has made a subtle reappearance, not in its vernacular sense as a straightforward synonym for sledging, but in its original conception, of pushing an opposition team beyond the extent of its endurance. According to Allan Border, the phrase was coined at the Oval Test 20 years ago by Carl Rackemann, who coincidentally has popped up on Sky this week, looking every bit the cattle king, reminiscing about his career. It was Rackemann who, while teammates kicked around declaration targets on the final morning, urged ruthlessness. ‘Full mental and physical disintegration’ would only occur if Australia batted so long that England’s exertions with the ball and in the field were rendered futile. Border did not call his batsmen in until lunch, and 393 in 65 overs he set England almost did the trick: bad light ruled out the last 20 overs with England 143 for 5.

Australia kept England in the field more than 12 hours in this Test, by the end of which the hosts were bowling only because people kept throwing the ball back to them, not out of any expectation it would avail them. Bowlers with one eye on the radar, and the other on the visitors’ balcony, are unlikely to achieve any sort of accuracy. Batsmen who have spent hours aware that they might be minutes away from batting do not come to the crease fresh and firing. Ricky Ponting’s declaration was then timed to a nicety, with just enough time to hurt England, and not quite long enough for England to hurt back; from their nothing to gain, everything to lose position, they stumbled quickly to 21 for 2. Ravi Bopara was assuredly unlikely, but, in contrast to when England bowled, there was the heady waft of wickets in the air, and it won’t have abated by morning. You can expect a few more decisions to go Australia’s way tomorrow. Momentum carries umpires as well as players. And ‘mental disintegration’ is decidedly contagious.

Every summer Saturday at home playing for my club, the Yarras, it’s the same story. Left-hander comes in, takes a single, and my teammates and I begin the ritual of rejigging the field, which in our physical conditions is as laborious as dragging scenery around a stage for a set change. The mutinous mutter spreads: ‘Bloody left-handers, spoiling the game etc.’

England will be feeling similarly malcontented after their travails these last couple of days. For fewer than 20 overs of Australia’s 179-over entrenchment were they not molested by combinations of left- and –right-handers, which showed up in their constant errors of line, and today also their over rate: just 42 overs in 200 minutes, despite 22 of these being bowled by Swann, Panesar and Collingwood. England, of course, would have been hastening nowhere by bowling their overs any faster, but the resemblance to the Yarras grew more and more pronounced – and, believe me, that’s not good.