Advantage Watson

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Advantage Watson

 

August 22^nd

 

[09:00 CEST] I stick to my assessment at lunch yesterday: it is far too early to make hasty judgements on this Test. The headlines, sadly, are though about the nightmare start that Simon Kerrigan had. Although he pulled it back a little later, to go for 28 off your first two overs is probably not quite what you have in mind on debut. In fact, after aborting his first spell after 2 overs, Alistair Cook then had to abort has second spell after two overs too. He has currently bowled 8 overs of assorted long-hops, full tosses and balls so wide that the batsman has been hard pressed to reach them to whack them, without a maiden. His one consolation that after a first spell of 2-0-28-0 and a second of 2-0-10-0, his third spell was 4-0-15-0 and he started to get a little control. Plenty of people jumped on the bandwagon to vilify him as not ready, but he has had some wonderful performances for Lancashire in Division 1 even when the rest of their side was struggling in relegation year. What Alistair Cook could not plan for was that he would be so incredibly nervous and that Australia would have a settled batsman at the crease determined to destroy his confidence as fast as possible.

England had another day when things could have gone so much better, but the ball did not quite run for them. There was one, bad dropped catch (by the captain and, to make it worse, it was Watson), various lbw shouts that were very close indeed, edges that fell short, etc. At 144-3 you felt that one more wicket and Australia could just crumble for fewer than 250. There was an intense passage of play where the bowlers applied a straightjacket and the batsmen were fighting for survival, but Watson and Smith got through it and, gradually, the pressure released.

However, Watson fell just before the Close. The new ball is just 8 overs old and an early wicket, particularly if it is Steve Smith, could yet see Australia limited to 350-360, which would be well under par.

At one point yesterday Shane Watson had scored almost 70% of Australia’s runs. He responded to his promotion to bat at 3 with an attacking innings that was, at times, utterly brutal. Targeting the debutants deliberately, he hit both out of the attack. It was a stunning performance. Before the match he had pointed out that, this time, he did not have Tim Bresnan to torment him and he made it pay. When Michael Clarke fell at 144-3, Watson was 98*. On 91 he had been caught full on the neck and floored by a sharp Stuart Broad bouncer. After some treatment though he got up, dusted himself off and got on with the job, although it took him eight overs of painful struggle to get over the line and bring up his century. After facing just two more balls, Jimmy Anderson induced an edge, Alistair Cook went for the catch to his right and dropped it. It cost England 72 runs and, had it been taken, would have left Australia 151-4 and in danger of crumbling. Once let off, Watson though was in no mind to let England off lightly.

Like Simon Kerrigan, Chris Woakes also had a difficult start provoked by Shane Watson but, in his case, came back strongly, even if he did not threaten. After starting with a spell of 5-1-30-0, his next ten overs went for just 22 and he was able to bottle up he scoring successfully to relieve Broad and Anderson. In fact, Woakes was actually significantly more economical over the day than Broad.

Back in 1977 a young all-rounder, not so dissimilar to Chris Woakes, made his debut for England. Greg Chapell found his inaccurate outswing a tempting proposition and he was hit out of the attack after a few expensive overs. Next day, the same bowler came back and took five cheap wickets. Yes, hello Ian Botham!!

England were on a hiding to nothing. Had they not taken advantage of this game to blood talent they would have been condemned as “boring, cautious England”. With the series won, they actually made an attacking move by selecting a fifth bowler, something that many pundits have demanded for a long time. They also decided to look at two of the most promising young cricketers to appear in the country for many years because, sooner or later, a long-term replacement will be needed for such as Jimmy Anderson and Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar’s form this season is well short of Test class.

One accusation levelled against Chris Woakes is that he is not quick enough. In fact, in average speed he was actually exactly equal to Jimmy Anderson and a fraction quicker than Stuart Broad, although it was Broad who bowled the fastest ball of the day. Woakes was quite significantly faster than Jackson Bird had been at Chester-le-Street.

While Simon Kerrigan has shown that his nerves are probably not yet strong enough at this level, Chris Woakes did do the job that England required of him: keep it tight in the channel and choke off the runs, even if you do not take wickets. Opinion seems to be that he is probably not a third seamer for England, although he would be a good fourth seamer. However, he has a chance today to work on the foundations laid yesterday afternoon and to develop into the third seamer that England have asked him to be in this game.

England need a good morning session today. Yesterday they won the afternoon session, but lost the other two. Today they must win the first session to get back to parity.