Tea and Biscuits at The Ashes
SCG, Sydney, Day 2: Deja Vu as Australia bat all day and England are snookered and behind the 8 Ball. Again.
SCG, Sydney, Day 2: Deja Vu as Australia bat all day and England are snookered and behind the 8 Ball. Again.
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 Day 1 of this, the 4th Test. Please also refer to my archives for my session by session reviews of every day of every Test in the series 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
SCG, Sydney, Day 1: Australia make progress in the Sydney rain whilst in the New Zealand sunshine, Bangladesh beat the…medium.com
Throughout The Ashes so far I’ve tended to write my appraisals of the day’s play in 3 broad categories (1) Session by Session (2) Blanket free form writing of the day as a whole or (3) Itemised events categorised by the time they occurred as well as a little added flavour for the crazy hour of the morning in which they occur here in the UK. For today’s play I am planning to colour commentate on just three intrinsic and essential actors in our cricketing play down under, and here’s who and indeed why:
Steve Smith (Australia Captain, pardon me, Vice Captain).
Smith returns to the crease this morning unbeaten on 4 runs and a whole day ahead and looming large for his incredibly unorthodox but highly effective batting style. Smith has undergone quite the transformation from the sandpaper using cheat and ex Captain of Australia and although yet to register a huge score in the series is still the 3rd best rated batsman in the world and despite my labelling him a “Club Cricketer” when he first burst onto the National cricketing scene and now has over 7,000 Test Match runs. My lack of cricketing scouting abilities has been duly noted and officially posted here for posterity!
Joe Root (England Captain).
As I noted in yesterday’s review of the day, the England cricket team are currently many things and I’ll add tired, uninspiring and insipid to the roll call today. They also have a losing Captain in the shape of Joe Root but paradoxically, whomever calls the shots currently in the higher echelons of English Cricket must, must do all they can to ensure that Skipper Root remains that, the Skip, the Captain, the Leader come the end of this disappointing Ashes tour. In cricketing terms he appears to be the exact opposite of Steve Smith (above) in as much as he’s technically about the best there is with a bat in hand, closing in on 10,000 Test Match runs and the team’s absolute Leader. But where he differs from Smith in terms of technical and batting approaches he also differs as he has a somewhat flat and outgunned team behind him (Smith has a wonderful team surrounding him) and whilst Root shouldn’t be batting today, if he is, then we have a real chance of a positive victory for either side in 2/3 days time.
Jimmy Anderson (England Fast/Medium Bowler).
Jimmy is approaching his 40th Birthday, has 640 Test Match wickets and has played the second most matches in Test Match history. I selfishly adore watching Jimmy bowl as over the years he’s developed that Glenn McGrath type knack of metronomically bowling on a postage stamp, in that famed “Corridor of Uncertainty” and makes batsmen play shots they otherwise wouldn’t. He draws them in, frustrates them, pushes them and, as his Test career statistics show, he normally gets a wicket and gets his man in the process.
Written at 7pm and a full 4 hours before the start of play, the above is my intention so let’s see how it goes. From a biased perspective I hope Smith is bowled first ball by Anderson, Jimmy then skittles the Australian team in quick order and Root knocks a quick 50 before the close of the day’s play! We can all hope!
Here’s the action from today’s play, with Australia resuming on their overnight total of 126–3.
MORNING SESSION: Australia 209–3 at Lunch (Smith 51 not out)
The first hour of play had an intriguing mix of all things cricket and all things suitable for this particular blog. Alas though, no Australian wickets falling, never even a real tangible chance of a falling wicket and Australia look set for a long afternoon’s batting at the SCG.
Joe Root watch: Captain Root started the day’s play with Stuart Broad and Mark Wood and whilst I heartily approved I was also immediately infuriated as he only employed 2 slips and a relatively defensive field. Please attack Joe! 3 slips are a must for his quicker bowlers and when the “Mad Professor” (Jack Leach) came on to bowl his spinners in the first session he had an incredibly defensive field and there were easy runs to be had. Far too easy. With Usman Khawaja on 29 runs Root dropped a difficult catch at slip off the bowling of Leach as the ball flicked off wicket keeper Buttler, deflecting it away from the grasping hand of England’s Captain who almost held onto a difficult chance. It rather summed up the Skipper’s morning, and the team he leads.
Kerry O’Keeffe on Fox Sports Australia’s excellent commentary stated that “Jack Leach is being set a field for bad bowling” and a damning statement it is too.
Steve Smith watch: Smith has added a carefree 47 runs in the morning’s session in his own distinctively and irritating style, reached a personal half century and took his partnership with Usman Khawaja to 92 runs. In the cricketing vernacular, Smith is “booked in for bed and breakfast”, meaning that he is absolutely rock solid, relaxed, unrushed, unhurried, and looking to bat, and bat big, all day. At Lunch, Smith looks in ominous form and England need to dismiss him early with the new ball otherwise, well, he may indeed bat all day.
Jimmy Anderson watch: 30 minutes into the day’s play and we have the match up that I selfishly want to see: Anderson versus Smith and Jimmy’s first delivery is a cricketing “Jaffa”, an unplayable ball that Smith does well to miss. Aside from this, Jimmy is used sparingly this morning and the battle will recommence this afternoon when England’s talismanic fast bowler has a brand new “cherry” in his hand.
Weather watch: Drizzle was intermittent at the SCG for the first 90 minutes of play and the players continually hopped on and off the field and much to the consternation of your humble narrator, the Sydney crowd and the Fox Sports commentators and especially so Shane Warne of whom I could listen talk cricket all day long. But the major highlight of the entire morning’s cricket wasn’t actually the cricket at all, but it falls to Max and Paddy, two Australian groundsmen who were engaged in their own form of fun and entertainment as they came tearing onto the field to cover up the wicket from the falling rain. Yes. The major entertainment of the morning was two Aussie groundsmen sprinting onto the field! Max and Paddy are gaining cult hero status due to Fox’s Television coverage and it’s a lovely highlight, but let’s have more sunshine and cricket please!
AFTERNOON SESSION: Australia 321–6 at Tea (Khawaja 102 not out)
Steve Smith watch: Smith added a quick 16 runs in the early overs against the new ball before strangely leaving a straight ball from Stuart Broad which crashed into his pads and despite my early morning scream of “OUT!” the ball missed his stumps by a cigarette paper on the Umpire review. But just two minutes later he edged another Broad delivery through to Jos Buttler for an easy catch and after such promise he was out for 67 and a rather limp dismissal considering the amount of runs on offer in the middle of the Sydney Cricket Ground. He punched his bat as he walked disconsolately back to the dressing room, leaving Australia on 232–4.
STEVE SMITH caught Buttler bowled Broad (67).
Jimmy Anderson watch: The anticipated tussle between Smith and Anderson didn’t materialise and in the main due to Anderson only bowling a couple of overs with the new “cherry” and then only bowling 4 overs later and well after Smith had departed. Jimmy was efficient, did not leak any runs but didn’t threaten to take a wicket either and finished his bowling spell looking tired. Well, he is nearly 40!
Joe Root watch: Well the England Skipper has seen yet another of those afternoon’s in charge of his tiring and bedraggled team. Stuart Broad and Mark Wood bowled their hearts out for him, Wood criminally without any luck whatsoever and Broad absolutely magnificently. Coupled with Root’s more attacking fields with the new ball, he took my advice(!) and had a 3rd slip and a Gully and this was immediately rewarded with the wicket of Cameron Green as he edged the brilliant Broad to Zak Crawley. At 3rd slip! Broad was superb in this afternoon session and Wood passed the edge of the bat on numerous occasions but with Anderson a little under par and Jack Leach being milked for runs, “Golden Arm” himself, Joe Root, bowled his part time spinners and in the cricketing vernacular turned over his “golden arm” and snagged the wicket of Alex Carey courtesy of a brilliant running catch from Jonny Bairstow.
At 285–6 Australia were already well in control and beginning to assert real dominance over Root’s tiring bowlers and fielders. Aussie Skipper Pat Cummins joined Usman Khawaja and 30 minutes and 37 runs later, Australia departed for the Tea Break at a commanding and dominant 321–6 and Khawaja had batted all day so far, commandingly so and only giving one half chance to Root at slip when he was only on 29 runs. Now at Tea, Khawaja walked off with his Skipper 102 not out and we have the prospect of what I’ve trademarked via my cricketing mole Horseman as “carnage” upcoming. The Aussies will go for some quick runs, “throw the bat” as they say in cricketing circles before leaving a tricky 30 minutes perhaps for England to bat this evening. Australia are again in the ascendancy.
Stumps on Day 2: Australia 416–8 declared. England 13–0.
Well the final session wasn’t quite carnage but it wasn’t pretty either and there was nothing either Skipper Root or legendary bowler Anderson could do about it. Australia added a further 95 runs in the final session, Khawaja top scored with a magnificent 137, Stuart Broad continued to bowl his heart out and picked up 5 wickets in the process and aside from a very real scare for Zak Crawley (given a “life” on 0 when caught by Warner in the slips but off a no ball bowled by Mitchell Starc), England faced 5 hostile overs at the denouement of the day’s play and limped to 13 without loss.
Usman Khawaja was the star of the day, eclipsing his original batting partner Steve Smith to an almost trouble free and imperious at times 137 runs and the concurrent theme of the series: Deja Vu reared it’s predictable head by the time the Umpires flicked the bails from the stumps to signal the end of the day’s play. Root and his England side gave their all today and aside from one difficult dropped catch and some bewilderingly defensive field placements they couldn’t have collectively done anymore for their cause. They’ve been outplayed again by a better team on home soil and with the home comforts of knowing they haven’t lost a Test Match to this England team in over ten years in their own backyard and that won’t be changing any time soon at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Deja Vu. Again. Tomorrow, England will have that all important first session of the day to navigate. Again. Will they crumble and collapse in the afternoon session? Again?. Or will England finally counter attack and make a real competitive game out of this Test Match?
It was a riveting day’s Test Match cricket. Again. And your humble narrator can’t wait for battle to recommence later today.