Ashes 2013
Rain and Ballance Win the Day
August 17th
[11:00 CEST]
The rain that wiped out the morning session made a mockery of this game that
was effectively a 100 overs-a-side, single innings contest. Getting in the full
200 overs would be hard work with two complete days of play in these relaxed
times where players are expected to managed just 16 overs per hour in the County
Championship, or 96 per day (as recently as the 1980s it was 18.5 – 111 overs
per day – and only around 10 years ago the daily requirement in the County Championship
was 117), with play ending an hour early on the final day if there is no chance
of a result. The overs rarely get completed by the Close in the Championship
where the sanction of working overtime and the threat of points deductions are
present. In other words, unless one side collapses, there is not even enough
time to fit in the agreed overs into two days. That Australia bowled 77 overs
in 2 sessions was down to the fact that they had picked only Starc and Fulkner
as quicks, speculating with using Wade as third seamer, if needed and sent down
no less than 47 overs of spin of various kinds from Lyon, Agar, Warner and
Smith.
Australia
picked all six of the players who are harbouring hopes at various levels of a
Test call-up for The Oval. None of them had an especially good day. With the Lions
team full of left-handers, Lyon’s off-spin was the most effective. Smith took
two wickets bowling allsorts – as in the Tests, he found the full toss his most
effective wicket-taking delivery – but Ashton Agar went wicketless. Faulkner
took the only wicket to fall to the new ball.
Just how
much either side learnt from the day’s play is open to speculation. Eoin Morgan
hammered another nil into the coffin of his chances of a Test recall with a
19-ball innings of 5. Last season he managed 171 runs at 19.0 in First Class
cricket. This innings takes his First Class aggregate for 2013 to 64 runs in
three innings. Most of the runs for the Lions were scored by Moeen Ali, who is
making an increasingly strong case for England honours, although where he would
fit into the current side is uncertain, unless it is as an off-spinning
all-rounder and Gary Ballance, who played Nathan Lyon with great security for a
century, before falling to Steve Smith’s cunning high full toss. Ballance has enhanced his growing reputation.
Zimbabwe born, he moved to England and was educated at Harrow, playing for
Derbyshire in 2006 as a 16 year old before moving to the Yorkshire Academy in
2007 and making the definitive shift in loyalties to England.
Alex Lees
played a useful innings in what his only his tenth First Class match, but with
Stokes, Buttler, Morgan and Luke Wells missing the opportunity to make some
high-profile runs, and none of the Australian bowlers having an outstanding day
and today going to be rain-shortened, it has been a little pointless so far.
Both sides, but particularly Australia, will hope that today produces something
a little more useful, with one of the Test candidates making good runs. Phil
Hughes knows that runs today will almost certainly earn him a recall and a good
innings from Ed Cowan or Matt Wade would put them right back in the mix.
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