Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
SCG, Sydney, Day 1: Australia make progress in the Sydney rain whilst in the New Zealand sunshine, Bangladesh beat the World Champs!
SCG, Sydney, Day 1: Australia make progress in the Sydney rain whilst in the New Zealand sunshine, Bangladesh beat the World Champs!
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 blogs from the opening day of all 3 Test Matches hence far:
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 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
Adelaide Oval, Day 1: Australia 221–2 and with their feet firmly on the throat of a tired looking England.medium.com
Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
MCG, Melbourne, Day 1: England 185 all out. Australia 61–1. Yet another Christmas Test Match and far too many gifts for…medium.com
Well, here we go again and happy New Year everyone!
Deja Vu or masochistic tendencies, an unlikely England comeback and an ounce of respectability to the Series score line, or yet more early morning pain as Australia pound their way toward yet another impending and incoming 5–0 Ashes whitewash? Apart from the “Sprinkler Dance” tour of 2010/2011, other recent Ashes tours have tended to end 4–0 or the ultimately humiliatingly 5–0 in favour of Australia, but whether clouded by Darren Gough’s hat-trick in 1999/2000 or Michael Atherton’s cruel declaration leaving Graeme Hick 98 not out and just 2 from a Test Century, or by a failing memory or one equally clouded by watching this Test Match on virtually every occasion for 35 years, England always seem to be competitive at Sydney even if ultimately both the Ashes is already lost and they also succumb to defeat in this New Year’s Test Match.
At 3–0 down with 2 Tests to come The Ashes are already won and Australia are thoroughly, completely and comprehensively on top. But can England again make this Sydney Test Match competitive even though it’s ultimately in vain even before a ball is bowled?
The weight of past history is not on England’s side having not won a single Test Match in Australia for over 10 years and nor is the recent history of this tour or indeed the build up to this particular New Year’s Test. The virus has seen positive tests in their coaching team(s) and there is the spectre of the Captain, Joe Root, until recently the Number One Batsman in the World, leading run maker by a vast distance compared to his teammates and a particularly pleasing keen and honest orator on his team, and his own game and besieged on all sides, a Captain of a woeful losing team (face facts England fans) and yet desperately, desperately needed to stay as Captain as he’s the only guiding light available. Speculation surrounds his position as Captain which is natural considering recent results, but the ugly truth (and hovering spectre) is that there isn’t anyone else to take his Skippering place. As has been commonplace in recent Ashes tours to Australia, the England cricket team look a shambles, a beaten and bedraggled shambles, and whomever has the final say in such matters has to pressgang their current Captain into staying. Root would stay in the team, obviously, if not the Captain, but he has to stay at the helm for a semblance of normality and forward thinking in this, a currently unnatural and clouded thinking world.
Anyway, after tasting 4 days of the Test Match between New Zealand and Bangladesh as an aperitif (oh to be at the Bay Oval in New Zealand and picking a spot on the grassy oval surrounds and pitching up with your deckchair for a day in the sun), here’s the morning session, in real time, in UK time, and a world away from that beautiful cricketing Oval in New Zealand and the historical beauty that is the Sydney Cricket Ground:
MORNING SESSION: Australia 30–0 (Warner 15 not out)
11.30pm After a 30 minute rain delay Australia won the toss and decided in customary Test Match fashion to bat first which, and without any kind of hindsight as I write these reports in real time, could maybe, just maybe, be an ironic first “win” for England. With the early rain, cloudy conditions, a sweating wicket under the covers and Broad and Anderson both playing, it could be the kind of toss to lose and hopefully the kind of turning luck Joe Root and England have been seeking for so long. Time will tell.
With the 30 minute rain delay, play is now scheduled to start at Midnight which pleasingly means I can swap television channels and hop back to New Zealand as Bangladesh need just 40 runs to defeat the World Champions in their own backyard and for a truly historic win. I have been mightily impressed with Bangladesh. They are excitable, enthusiastic, earnest, crazy, skittish and the absolute embodiment of the “breath of fresh air” cliché and thoroughly deserving of their impending and historic win. Bravo!
12.19am and in the beautiful sunshine enveloping the Bay Oval in New Zealand, Bangladesh knock off the 40 runs required to beat their World Champion hosts in an astonishing Test Match victory and I couldn’t be more pleased for them. Bravo again!
12.21am and with just 21 minutes of the day’s play so far the sunshine of New Zealand is replaced with the falling rain again in Sydney and with Australia on 8–0 (or 8 runs for 0 wickets), there is a rain delay and the first of several predicted for today. From the sunshine in New Zealand to the rain in Australia and from here, a light dusting of snow in a near freezing zero temperature, this just reinforces the bizarre nature of the time Matrix we all live in!
1am and with yet another dusting of snow here in the UK we’re back under way in Sydney!
1.34am and yet another heavy rain shower halts play with Australia at 30–0 and David Warner in particular looking rock solid and self assured and ominously for England, in great touch. Due to rain stopping play, and irritatingly so again, an early Lunch is taken.
AFTERNOON SESSION: Australia 56–1 at the Tea Break
2.30am After an early Lunch is taken play resumes with fingers and toes crossed for no further stoppages for rain.
3am 50 Partnership for Australia and from 19 overs they stand at 50–0 with David Warner imperious and solid with 30 runs and opening partner Marcus Harris a dogged and unfussy 13 runs so far.
3.09am DAVID WARNER caught Crawley bowled Broad (31).
Stuart Broad finally tempts Warner to a drive to a moving ball and he edges a difficult catch which Crawley clung on to. Australia are 51–1 and England have an incredibly vital wicket. Game on.
3.15am Rain Stopped Play. Again. Bummer! After an early Lunch was taken, now similarly an early Tea Break and providing the rain clears we have the prospect of an elongated final session of a stop/start day.
STUMPS ON DAY ONE: Australia 126–3
6.40am Since the resumption of play after the heavy rain shower and an early Tea Australia, and batters Marcus Harris and Marnus Labuschagne, have been magnificent. At this Drinks Break the hosts are 108–1 and Marcus Harris (solid, dogged and unhurried) has 37 runs to his name and Marnus Labuschagne has been his typically loud, brash and refreshingly, if annoyingly, entertaining, as he’s raced to 22 runs and these two Australians have added a further 50 run partnership to that compiled by Harris and Warner earlier. With an hour and 20 minutes of play left today, Australia look in yet another formidable position.
6.46am MARCUS HARRIS caught Root bowled Anderson (38).
Just 6 minutes after the resumption of play following the Drinks Break and with Harris adding just 1 further run to his total he edges a fantastic delivery from England talisman Jimmy Anderson into the safe hands of his Skipper Joe Root at 1st slip. A wicket from nowhere, but thoroughly deserved. Australia are now 111–2 and the (in)famous score of “Nelson” (111) strikes again in a cricketing sense and England have a foothold in the Test Match.
6.53am MARNUS LABUSCHAGNE caught Buttler bowled Wood (28).
7 minutes later and England strike again through the impressive Mark Wood as he snags the invaluable wicket of Labuschagne and England are well and truly in the game with Australia now on 117–3 and with two fresh batsmen at the wicket.
7.25am Rain Stopped Play. Again! And this time it’s final for the day, stumps are drawn and Day One ends with Australia just about winning the day as they end on 126–3.
A brief capsule re-cap would be simply that rain has quite literally dampened the overall cricketing day and although Australia have the slight upper hand, England have snagged three valuable wickets and with the dangerous Steve Smith already at the crease and having to start afresh tomorrow morning, if they can remove him early, the game and the Test Match will be well and truly on.
If only the Sydney rain would stay away, this could unfold into quite some Test Match. Time, as ever, will tell.
See you tomorrow!