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.
Adelaide Oval, Day 1: Australia 221–2 and with their feet firmly on the throat of a tired looking England.
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 4 of the 1st Test that sets up this 2nd Test:
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 4: It’s the hope that kills you. Australia take a 1–0 lead in the best of 5 Ashes Series.medium.com
MORNING SESSION: Australia 45–1 at Lunch (Warner 20 not out).
During all of my storied times and early mornings sitting in the dark at 5.15am on a cold midweek morning and watching The Ashes from down under, I haven’t fully experienced a Day/Night Test Match or indeed, a Night/Day Test Match here in cold, rainy and murky England. And here we are, 3.30am UK time, the toss has come down in favour of Australia and we’re half an hour away from a brand new cherry, or rather a pink coloured one, for this Day/Night Test, and two brand new batsmen in the line of cricketing fire.
According to the rumours that I and I alone have circulated for weeks that Steve Smith was indeed the Australian Captain and not the slip catching Vice Captain, the dastardly sandpaper using cheat (and destroyer of his own prodigious Test Cricket dynasty) donned the Skipper’s Jacket and tossed the coin as the official Captain in the wake of Pat Cummins ludicrous exemption due to yet more bizarre virus protocols. The Captain, Cummins that is not Smith, must now isolate for 7 days rather than spending 5 of those days, and indeed nights, at the Adelaide Oval playing his heart out, under the floodlights and amid the cricketing drama of a Day/Night Test Match.
Coupled with the absence of Josh Hazlewood, the oh so reluctant Smith, now official Captain and not the rumoured Skipper I keep proposing, must steer an Australian team without it’s incredibly experienced and incredibly brilliant fast bowling spearhead of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Whisper it, but with the absence, fitness or ludicrous protocol, of Australia’s two fast bowlers must tip the favourite position for this Test Match in favour of England and perhaps Joe Root’s losing of the opening toss redresses a balance in the favourite stakes. The Adelaide Oval wicket looks straw coloured, flat, barely any grass and in cricketing terminology a “road” on which to bat on, and bat on comfortably all day. Time will tell, but at 3.40am and whilst I close this opening before dimming the lights and watching the opening morning’s play, I am rather blooming excited to see what, if any, havoc Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad can conjure up this morning!
At the end of the first hour’s play and the first drinks break of the day, Broad and Anderson hadn’t exactly caused havoc but had both been metronomic and examples of being the world class fast bowlers that they are. There were just 12 overs bowled in the first hour, Australia doggedly scored 15 runs for the loss of opening batsman Harris but the plaudits fell to England’s opening bowlers as the dynamic duo of Broad and Anderson bowled 6 overs between them, conceding just 3 runs from 1 scoring shot before Broad had Harris caught behind the stumps by Buttler and a flying, acrobatic goalkeeping style grab down the leg side. Anderson had openers Harris and Warner playing and missing whilst his Karate Kid style headbanded bowler partner Broad bowled three consecutive maiden overs as well as the priceless wicket of Harris.
The worry I have as an England fan is although restricting Australia to just 15 runs in the opening hour’s play, Woakes and specifically Ollie Robinson look infinitely easier to face for Warner and Marnus Labuschagne. I hope I’m wrong, but Robinson looks spent already, with speeds heavily down on his norm, and I hope he’s concentrating on bowling straight and “line and length” rather than increasing a more usual quicker and more threatening pace.
It’s 6.02am UK time and the morning session comes to an end, and an end to a somewhat attritional, some may say dogged, and dare I say an old fashioned first morning of a Test Match. The much vaunted and cliched desire of an equal contest between bat and ball has been highly evident this morning and it’s made for great and exciting entertainment. David Warner, that flasher and dasher of a cricketing blade has faced 72 balls this morning for his 20 runs and I can remember only 6 or 7 scoring shots within those runs. He has been incredibly circumspect and restrained, as has Labuschagne at the other end, with his 16 runs coming from 54 balls. As a bowling unit England have been outstanding again this morning with Broad leading the way with the only wicket but backed up magnificently by Anderson and a seemingly still struggling Ben Stokes. Robinson continues to worry me as his pace (as well as his face) is way down and he doesn’t look half the bowler he was in the English Summer just past. See above for my “hope I’m wrong” comments.
This afternoon has the prospect of being a humdinger, and that’s even before the floodlights are switched on. Game on.
AFTERNOON SESSION: Australia 125–1 (Warner 65 not out).
8.40am UK time and with a murky daylight breaking here and in a world away the shadows lengthening and the sun disappearing in Australia, the hosts have taken this second session of the day, and another attritional type session of Test Match cricket it has been, and the longer I’ve pondered on this this morning, the more certain I am that this is an exact Australian plan. Dogged, slow cricket, keeping wickets in hand but more importantly keeping the England fielders cooking in the Adelaide sunshine. Tomorrow is forecasted to be incredibly hot and I believe the Australians are looking to bat until at least this time tomorrow, perhaps a little longer, keeping their opponents on their tiring feet for a couple of straight days and rattling up a large first innings score.
As I wrote continually during the first Test, England look undercooked and underprepared and the longer the days run, the more tired and out on their collective feet they look. This afternoon session culminated in both Warner (65) and Labuschagne (53) passing 50 and their partnership now stands at 125. And counting. Labuschagne got an extra life on 21 after being dropped by Buttler with an easier catch than the spectacular one that actually stuck in his flying gloves earlier. Both Australian batsmen look “set” and apart from the opening 50 minute burst from veterans Broad and Anderson, Australia have “won” every minute and session since.
STUMPS ON DAY 1: Australia 221–2 (Labuschagne 95 not out).
As today’s play meandered to a close under the lights of the Adelaide Oval two words recurred in my mind, “ugly truths”, and here are some of those if you’re an England cricket fan like me:
(1) Apart from the opening spell of 50 minutes in the veteran hands of Broad and Anderson, Australia won the remainder of the day.
(2) Broad (1 wicket for 34 runs) was England’s most effective bowler and in tandem with Anderson (0–29 from 18 probing overs) provided the only real threat, and that threat dissipated quickly as the day wore on.
(3) England plugged away all day, never stopped trying, only went with defensive fields in the middle of the day and with a soft ball, and with a little luck could and should have had 2/3 more wickets, but this would only have papered over the cracks of a leaky, catch dropping, ragged outfit that is undercooked and underprepared.
(4) So underprepared (and falling behind the overs rate) that Captain Cook had to bowl 11 overs and Ben Stokes 13, totalling almost a quarter of the overall overs bowled today. Stokes was magnificent, still carrying an injury of some description but bowled like a short pitch bowling lion and gave his all. Stokes snagged the vital wicket of Warner with a poor long hop, but Broad snaffled it, and it’s in the scorebook, and desperately needed.
(5) But England are undercooked, and by some degrees too. Robinson is stiff legged (on Day One!) and lacks both enthusiasm and pace. Hameed mis-fielded 3/4 simple stops, Stokes was haring around the outfield (stiff legged too) and the word for the English fielding was conclusively “ragged”. Buttler caught a flying catch that was out of this world this morning, this afternoon he dropped a much easier chance, this evening he dropped a cricketing “dolly”.
(6) Easy from a distance of half the world away, but Robinson clearly should have been rested and Wood playing, but he too bowled his heart out in the first Test and one hopes he’s fit and just being rotated to keep him fresh. Chris Woakes too should be rested, but one wonders who would replace him?
(7) Labuschagne was dropped on 21 and 95 and remains on that score overnight, and crucially, not out. With Captain Smith for company and already a 45 run partnership between them, there’s the possibility of the Australians racking up a huge first innings score tomorrow, especially so in the afternoon session as those tired English limbs are left to wilt in the 40 degree Adelaide heat.
(8) I stated earlier that Australia had a game plan from the off today. Regardless of runs, bat all day. Tomorrow, runs will be pushed up the requirement chart a lot more and come the Tea interval and the the setting sun, the Aussies will no doubt be aiming to put the visitors in to bat for an hour under the floodlights, and to turn the metaphorical screw ever tighter.
These of course could all be a simple “immediate reaction” ramble to the day’s play and shot through the prism of tiredness and disappointment, but I don’t think that’s the case. There’s a chasm in difference between the two teams and today it showed. The hosts were happy to go in with just 45 runs at the Lunch break. They were disciplined and with a definite goal of batting the entire day and as the odious cricketing phrase says “when you have your opponent down, stand on his throat”. The Aussies have done that today the old fashioned way today.
I fear Smith, Labuschagne and Travis Head will be gearing themselves up to be not out going into tomorrow’s afternoon session, and then they’ll really go for the juggler.
See you at 4am for more sleep deprived madness!