Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
The Gabba, Brisbane, Day 3: Australia 425 All Out. England 220–2. Against all the odds, the visitors land a huge sucker punch.
The Gabba, Brisbane, Day 3: Australia 425 All Out. England 220–2. Against all the odds, the visitors land a huge sucker punch.
Before I commence with the day’s play, can I please direct you to the following two links that hopefully give you a flavour for the sofa bound, sleep deprived and biscuit munching narrator:
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
The Final Countdown. 2 sleeps. 3 days. 2 nights? I’ve lost count as the battle for the Ashes begins to flicker into…medium.com
MORNING SESSION: Australia 425 All Out. England 23–0 at Lunch.
For nearly an hour this morning Australia scored 51 easy, carefree runs, taking their lead to an imposing and already improbable 247 runs and culminated in a huge six from overnight hero Travis Head off Ben Stokes before Starc holed out to Burns on the boundary for a well made, if relatively easily made 35. Whilst the Australian commentators (and our UK studio bound pairing of Alistair Cook and Steve Harmison) preach, even implore, the English bowlers to show more “fire”, to “rough up” the Australian batsmen and bowl more “bouncers”, the facts must be faced, and the facts are the English attack of Robinson, Wood, Stokes and Woakes are undercooked, underprepared and dead on their feet. Tired. Ailing. In trouble. In the vernacular of our Queen’s fair city and capital of our small isle: they’re “cream crackered”.
Out on their feet, not returning punches, a puncher’s heart without a chance, and with a stinging bee circling them with cricketing glee. The Bees were 413–8 at the morning’s drinks break, and 266 runs way into a distanced lead over a puncher, out of breath and clinging to the ropes.
After the drinks break, Head clobbered another dozen runs before being clean bowled by an ever impressive Mark Wood and with roughly 40 minutes of the morning’s session to play, the hosts were finally all out for 425 and with a lead of 278 runs to flaunt over their visitors. For the 37 minutes until lunch the Aussies were in their element, a vociferous crowd roaring in Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins, bowling to a “ring field” of 3 slips, gully, short mid off and the pressure seemed to tell on England opener Burns as he was given out LBW in the first over but successfully overturned this via a DRS review and with Hameed, ensured England reached lunch without losing a wicket and scoring 23 in the process. In the England “hutch” (English expression for the now batting team), Malan, Root et al would’ve breathed a huge sigh of relief, and their weary bowlers would no doubt have joined them.
At lunch, England trail by 255 runs.
AFTERNOON SESSION: England 107–2 at Tea (Trail by 171)
After fighting to not lose a wicket prior to lunch it is so often the case that a wicket falls straight after a session break, and so it was as Burns got a lifting delivery from Aussie Skipper Cummins and on 61 fellow opener Hameed was “strangled” down the leg side to a soft catch to wicketkeeper Carey and England were tottering. This brought Captain Joe Root to the wicket and after a very circumspect 15/20 deliveries he finally broke into his stride and with Malan surviving a number of misses outside his off stump, the visitors strode purposefully off the field for Tea at 107–2. Cricket is a numbers game and with 2+ hours of play left and the thick end of 30 overs to be bowled today, with a fair wind England should have a total of around 200 runs by the end of play. At this time, that particular number is irrelevant. The relevant number is the wickets down total and England simply can’t afford to lose either Malan or their Skipper before the close of play.
Big session upcoming for England. And for some slightly tiring Australian bowlers.
STUMPS ON DAY 3: England 220–2 (Root 86 Not Out. Malan 80 Not Out)
At Stumps at the end of Day 2 I genuinely worried for England’s bowling attack and those concerns carried through to the first hour of today’s play as they toiled away tiredly and seemed like a boxer clinging to the ropes, waiting for the bell to toll. By the end of today’s play, whilst the Australian bowling attack weren’t exactly in the same hole as England 24 hours previously, they had been sucker punched, and the tired puncher with no hope suddenly landed some haymaking blows and all results are seemingly possible now. The biggest sucker punch of all came in the shape of a 159 run partnership between Captain Root (86) and Dawid Malan (80) and as a tiring Australian bowling unit turned their eyes to the rarely used leg spin of Marnus Labuschagne, the English visitors sucker punched their way to the end of play without losing a wicket and are now just 58 runs behind.
Cricket is indeed a numbers game and as per my pre Evening Session pronouncement, they couldn’t afford to add any further digits to their wickets column, and they accomplished this. To be just 58 runs in deficit is quite the feat and quite the achievement for Malan and Skipper Root, and the numbers game continues as England have 8 wickets left, 2 days in which to play, both Malan and Root have to raise their personal scores into 3 figures (big 3 figures) and then, and only then, can England, the punch drunk rabbits, have an improbable chance of taking 10 Australian wickets for a history smashing victory.
I can’t see how England can achieve this latter part of the numbers game as their bowlers are “dog tired” but with 2 days to play, all results are possible, everything is up for grabs (win, momentum, dispiriting defeat, day 5 mayhem) but most of all, due to some incredible batting from Malan and Root, their collective team is now not hanging on the ropes hoping to land a chance sucker punch, but legitimately back in the fight.
If you’ve enjoyed this ramble through today’s play, can I direct you to my articles on Days 1 and 2 below? Oh, and thanks for reading.
Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
The Gabba, Brisbane, Day 1: England win the unwinnable toss and are bundled out for just 147. Australia on top.medium.com
Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
The Gabba, Brisbane, Day 2: Australia 343–7, leading by 196 and running hot, whilst England are running dangerously…medium.com