Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
Bellerive Oval, Hobart Day 2: England toil against the odds but do they have the firepower to run through Australia and force a shock win?
Bellerive Oval, Hobart Day 2: England toil against the odds but do they have the firepower to run through Australia and force a shock win?
Before we delve into the nitty gritty of the day’s play, can I direct you to (1) the reason why I’m sitting up through the night watching Test Match cricket and (2) my blog from the opening Day of this the final Test Match in this Ashes Series. For all day by day blogs from every Test Match in this series, please see my archives:
A cricketing journey
Why I’m going to Australia at 2am this winter for lunch and why cricket memories never fail to make me smile.medium.com
Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
Bellerive Oval, Hobart, Day 1: Rain tops and tails a day that Travis Head will never forget.medium.com
With Australia starting the day on 241–6 (Alex Carey 10 not out and Mitchell Starc 0 not not), I will be focusing in the main on “Player Watch” with today’s play and in particular one player from each side: Mitchell Starc for the hosts Australia and Zak Crawley for the visiting England team. The reason is simple in that I have a hunch both players may well have a pivotal role today, and to varying cricketing degrees. If Starc smashes some high value quick runs in the morning session that will damage an already fragile England who will then have to face him with a brand new ball, a pink one for this Day/Night Test, and a ball with which he’s regarded as a “specialist”. Crawley on the other hand has always impressed me when he’s batted in his correct manner of an almost old fashioned cricketing style, but with the added ingredient of betting on himself to play attacking cricket too.
I may also throw England Captain Joe Root into the “Player Watch” mix too as I rather admire him and really want him to score a big century, and if anyone follows Travis Head yesterday with a hundred today they’ll have had to play incredibly well doing so. Time will tell.
With an almost Full Moon to greet me on rising at 3am and a traditionally English winter’s tale of heavy, sub zero frost covering the neighbourhood in a shiny white freezing glow, the more important sight to greet me was of high clouds and sunshine above the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, and here’s the first session of the day:
FIRST SESSION: Australia 303 all out. England 34–2 at Lunch
Mitchell Starc watch: The first actor in our cricketing play today had a rather mixed first session and thankfully from an England perspective didn’t clobber those quick runs or gouge any quick wickets either with the new ball when bowling. Starc hit just 3 runs before hooking the lion hearted bowling of Mark Wood but straight into the safe hands of Rory Burns on the boundary. Wood was expensive but also grabbed the wicket of the Aussie Skipper Pat Cummins and thoroughly deserved a little luck as well as these two wickets. Starc then bowled just 3 overs in the hour England batted prior to the Lunch Break but for one over in particular thoroughly tormented a hesitant Rory Burns. He bowled a maiden at Burns and for 6 balls toyed with him with that new and shiny pink ball, but could not dismiss him. I expect Starc to bowl 2 or maybe 3 short bowling bursts in the second session today.
Zak Crawley watch: Crawley snagged his third catch of the Australian innings as he safely pouched the hooking Cummins that gave Mark Wood another deserved wicket, but disaster followed almost immediately when he started the England batting innings with partner Rory Burns. Crawley called his partner for a quick single but with a slight hesitation on both parts, this gave the buzzing Marnus Labuschagne a split second to throw down the stumps and running out Burns by just an inch. It was a poor call from Crawley, poor running from Burns and poor cricket all round from England and with the run out they were already 2–1. The score had reached 29 when Crawley was out for 18 and out to a brilliant reflex and reaction catch from Travis Head at the “Bat and Pad” position as he juggled the deflected shot up into the air before catching it deliberately on the rebound. It was a brilliant catch and due credit falls to the Aussie bowler and indeed Skipper Pat Cummins for having a close in fielder in this position in the first place. Attacking cricket at it’s very best.
Crawley was sadly gone and with the total standing at 29–2 and with 15 minutes left of this opening session, the England Skipper strode to the wicket.
Joe Root watch: Yet again the beleaguered England Skipper was batting so early in the England innings and with so few runs on the scoreboard too. He would safely navigate the 15 or so minutes to the Lunch Break and be 3 not out in the process and with his team on 34–2 at the break and 269 runs behind. Frustratingly for Root, this was 40 or so runs too many at this stage in the Test Match as this morning his team had the very real chance of bowling out Australia for 260, but with only 3 fit bowlers Captain Root had no alternative but to keep flogging the tiring horses of Broad, Woakes and Wood. Nathan Lyon took great delight in hoisting Mark Wood onto “The Hill” for 3 6’s on his way to 31 quick fire runs and with Alex Carey’s 24 and Scott Boland’s 10, this propelled Australia to their 303 run total, and 40+ too many from the England Skipper’s perspective.
As the sun sets and the floodlights take effect this will make for quite the session of Test Match cricket, and I rather hope the England Captain is still batting come the end of the session.
SECOND SESSION: England 124–6 (Trail by 179 runs).
Mitchell Starc watch: As with the first session, Starc only bowled a minimal amount of overs in this middle session and his five overs were costly, wayward, ragged, fast and like so much of this Ashes Series so far if you’re an Australian, successful. Starc looked frankly ineffective and the England batsmen all scored from his bowling but it was a perfect summation of the cricketing fortunes of this Ashes series when Ben Stokes cracked the cover off a ball from Starc’s bowling only to find his hard strike went low and fast at Nathan Lyon at “Point” and he made a difficult catch look incredibly easy, Stokes was out for just 4, and Mitchell Starc had his wicket.
Joe Root watch:
JOE ROOT lbw bowled Cummins (34).
Alas, the century was not to be. This innings was oh so typical for England’s Skipper as he looked calm, assured and in good touch before he survived a Leg Before Wicket appeal from Mitchell Starc when on 25 runs. He would score a further 9 before falling to his opposite number and Aussie Captain Pat Cummins for 34 well played runs but it was same old story for Root. He had played himself in, scored runs and looked comfortable but throughout the tour he has either then (a) played a loose stroke or (b) received an unplayable delivery that led to his dismissal. Today it was the latter and Pat Cummins won their individual Captain v Captain battle with a brilliant delivery that jagged back off the wicket and crashed into Root’s pads right in front of the stumps. In the vernacular of cricket, Root was “plumb”, “dead” or “Salmon and Trout”.
Out. Gone. Dismissed. Another 30+ score. Another century dream dashed.
And another seeming and looming England batting collapse, as when together with Dawid Malan (partnership 49 runs), England were solid and progressing in the game with the score at 78–2. Malan, Root and Stokes (England’s 3, 4 and 5 batsmen) all tumbled quickly and they were suddenly 85–5 and collapsing again. Ollie Pope dashed a quick 14 runs before loosely giving a simple catch to Carey behind the stumps, Scott Boland had a deserved wicket and England were 110–6. Billings (19) and Woakes (5) inched England to 124–6 at the Tea Break but the sobering thought is that England could and should have already been bowled out, and in double quick time too. Just 37 overs have been bowled in their innings hence far and the Aussies have gifted England an easy drop catch (Warner) and two stone cold “outs” they didn’t appeal for or review. Another sobering thought is that the most difficult session of the day is upcoming, under the lights and with a baying crowd sensing English blood.
Stumps on Day 2: England 188 all out. Australia 37–3 and leading by 152.
Mitchell Starc watch: The final session of the day followed the template set down earlier as the Aussie fast bowler only bowled two overs in which he leaked a few runs but crucially grabbed two wickets in five balls. First up he had Chris Woakes “strangled” (cricket vernacular) down the leg side for a simple catch to Alex Carey and a loose and disappointing end to a fine rear guard performance from the Englishman with the bat as he scored 36 valuable runs. Four balls later, and after tormenting Stuart Broad with three difficult deliveries, he clean bowled the English veteran and then watched as his bowling partners Scott Boland and Pat Cummins (VERY impressive) wrapped up the England innings for a disappointing if predictably under par total of 188.
Joe Root watch: The England Skipper had quite some day. He batted very well until he got a “Jaffa” from opposing Skipper Cummins and watched and martialled his side who never gave in and tried all day for their Skipper and their team. Chris Woakes has been in and out of the team in his own singular dance of the Hokey Cokey but he scored runs (36) and snagged the late evening wicket of Marnus Labuschagne. Mark Wood was expensive but bowled his heart out as usual, took wickets and scored a handful of valuable runs. Broad too took wickets and bowled well and there were batting starts for Malan, Crawley and debutant Sam Billings and even Ollie Robinson surprisingly returned to bowl this evening, so his players are giving their all.
Under the late night lights his bowlers had Australia reeling at 0–1 and 5–2 before they closed on day 2 on 37–3 and here’s the two pronged rub:
(1) Australia have an overnight lead of 152 runs. If they add a further 100 runs to this lead (as they surely will), then England are toast.
(2) Unless Stuart Broad takes a bagful of wickets in the first session tomorrow I don’t see how England can bowl out their Australian hosts, or certainly within a competitive distance. Robinson certainly isn’t fit (but tried tonight) and Stokes can’t bowl, so that leaves Root himself, Woakes and Wood to dismiss Australia quickly enough so that their lead isn’t ridiculously sky high and simply out of sight.
This is just the end of day 2 but we are already well into the final third of this Test Match and tomorrow’s first session is, as it always seems to be in cricket, absolutely crucial. By the time lunch is taken after the first 2 and a half hours of play either England are bowling their way into a difficult run chase or Australia are batting them into an impossible one.
Time, as it always does, will tell.