1st Test on a knife edge as Broad gives England real hope
Ashes Day 4: Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Ashes Day 4: Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Monday 19th June 2023
Stumps Day 4: Australia 107–3 (needing a further 174 runs to win)
I’ve long proselytized as to the mercurial beauty of Test Match cricket and today was yet another shining example as to its enchanting sporting wonder. With talk of Ollie Robinson’s less than subtle “send off” for Usman Khawaja after he finally snagged his wicket yesterday, and his retort at a press conference later that he was overly excited, that it was The Ashes and “the theatre of the game” (together with a jibe or two at Australians of the past for good measure), we’d finally had our first flash point, and some good old fashioned cricketing “sledging” of the series so far. The coarse language used by Robinson to send the Australian batsman on his way certainly isn’t enchanting or beautiful but the aggressive desire to win is and, as asserted by Robinson later at a press conference “the shoe is on the other foot”, for a change perhaps it is, and England need to take every possible advantage they can, be it some heat of the moment sledging, an incredible home Edgbaston crowd desperately trying to cheer and will them to win, a captain trying experimental and inventive field placings, or even an ex captain trying to reverse ramp the very first ball of the morning from Australia’s premier fast bowler and captain.
One ball into today’s play and the magical mystery of Test Match cricket was evident once more and it’s cricket Jim, but not as we know it. Pat Cummins, Australian captain and highly impressive once more today as he came back time and again to grab a vital English wicket to stall their growing lead, would eventually have a last, growling laugh as he ripped out Ollie Pope’s off stump clean from the ground before brilliantly dismissing his opposite number Ben Stokes with a vicious delivery that cut back from this docile wicket, trapping the England captain LBW (Leg Before Wicket). The Aussie skipper would finish with figures of 4 wickets for 63 runs as the magnificent team he captains dismissed England for a 2nd innings total of 273, leaving his team the gettable total on 2nd innings of 281 for victory.
But all of this was for the scorecards later, and after, yet another pulsating day of Test Match cricket.
“Ashes to Ashes”
Out Now! Hot off the Press!medium.com
First, he’d see Joe Root try and reverse ramp the very first ball of the day before shortly thereafter being hoisted for boundary 4’s and 6’s in the same quirky and unorthodox manner by a legend of the game on over 11,000 Test Match runs enjoying the freedom from the shackles of captaincy and thriving under a new revolutionary cricketing leader. Root, like his new revolutionary leader Ben Stokes and youthful Yorkshire protégé Harry Brook, would all score over 40 runs each in consecutive partnerships with each other as well as Jonny Bairstow, but each would fall short of their half century milestones as either Cummins or Nathan Lyon winkled out their wickets, sharing 8 between them. Cummins’ deliveries to Pope and Stokes were befitting of an incredible performance from the Aussie skipper that saw him roar past each batsman as he claimed their sporting scalp. No Robinson verbal tirades, just the captain of the best team in the world determined to show the bowling skills of the number one ranked bowler in the world rampaging his way to a difficult if gettable run chase for victory.
Set 281 runs to win this crucial 1st Ashes Test Match, the 30 year old Aussie skipper from Westmead, New South Wales was no doubt bullish as to his team’s prospects, and at 61–0 with opening batsmen David Warner and Usman Khawaja serenely adding a stream of healthy runs to reduce the match winning total to 220, he must have seen his team, his team of World Test champions, as clear favourites. I certainly did, I still do to a degree and thus, that is another of the alluring, enchanting attractions of this grandest of all games.
I’ve had Australia as either favourites or slightly ahead of the game for three of the four days so far and I have them as slight favourites entering tomorrows fifth and final day despite losing three late wickets and even in spite of England having the cliched “runs on the board”. Usman Khawaja appears comfortably at ease to bat all day, again, and at the fall of their overnight protector and “Night Watchman” in the guise of the pugnacious Scott Boland, Australia have the batting middle order of Travis Head, Cameron Green and Alex Carey to call upon, and all before their big hitting skipper Pat Cummins.
174 runs to win is well within their collective reach tomorrow.
And therein lies the rub and another of the beautiful aspects of Test Match cricket. For those cricketing revolutionaries from England could also lay claim to have been in the box seat of this match, ahead of the game and perhaps, very definitely this evening. 7 wickets to win on a supposedly overcast, rainy Summer’s day in front of a capacity crowd and with the “Hollies Stand” singing and roaring on their heroes to victory? Stuart Broad, seemingly the man for every Ashes occasion, knees and legs pumping as he thunders in to bowl. Or perhaps we’ll have the theatre once more of a pumped up Ollie Robinson or the brilliance of Jimmy Anderson.
174 runs to win for the World Test Champions.
7 wickets to win for the unorthodox revolutionaries.
There are echoes of Edgbaston in 2005 but that could just be my excited mind playing tricks on me. A capacity crowd on the last day of a Test Match awaits the spectacle of an unbelievably important first hour and first session in the morning that will see a victor by late afternoon in what could well be a tight, close, and vital first win in the series.
Therein lies the beauty of Test Match cricket.
Thanks for reading. My daily diary entries for days 1, 2 and 3 can be found here:
Root century but it’s honours even after Day 1 at Edgbaston
Ashes Day 1: Edgbaston, Birmingham.medium.com
Khawaja century edges Aussies ahead in 1st Ashes Test
Ashes Day 2: Edgbaston, Birmingham.medium.com
Aussies on top as the storm clouds gather in Birmingham
Ashes Day 3: Edgbaston, Birmingham.medium.com