Ashes 2013
Australia Come Roaring Back
August 3rd
[10:00 CEST]
Thanks to a mixture of some gritty batting and a late DRS brainfade Australia are
right on top in this match.
The day was marked by two quite extraordinary uses of DRS. First, David Warner
confirmed his pantomime villain status by making a DRS challenge to a thick
edge to slip. Quite what possessed him to review was not obvious. Just why his
captain at the other end allowed him to waste a challenge in that way was even
less obvious, but led to a lot of ribald speculation that Warner had threatened
to show his captain that a spell in South Africa had benefitted his boxing
skills as well as his batting, particularly as Michael Clarke was as aware as
anyone else that Warner had hit the ball hard. The England fans have taken to
David Warner even more warmly than the Barmy Army did to Mitch Johnson and
enjoyed watching the replays make him look pretty silly.
In the
evening though, with England having made their best start of the series – this is
not saying much as Cook and Root still have not made a 50 partnership – one thing
that England could not afford was to lose a second wicket. So, when Root edged
behind, who better than Tim Bresnan to replace him as nightwatchman? Except
that, after facing 15 balls for just a single, a delivery from Siddle flicked
his trouser pocket. Australia went up and the catch was given. Everyone assumed
that Bresnan would review and be reprieved. He did not review. Even with the
erratic responses to reviews coming from the TV umpire’s room in this series,
he surely could not have been out on review. Such is the state of disbelief
though that Tim Bresnan may have thought that having missed the ball by some
distance was no reasonable grounds for reviewing a catch.
With
three days to go Australia have an excellent chance to win this match if they
can take a couple of wickets this morning and leave England under pressure.
Right now England desperately need Cook to make a big score and show that the
captaincy is not affecting him. Even though Root’s big century has sealed his
position, the whole idea of dropping Compton was to ensure good starts:: a best
opening partnership of 47 in 5 attempts is just not good enough. If England
avoid the follow-on a draw should ensue. However, the words “Adelaide 2006”
have been mentioned. That was a freak result but, it shows that strange things
can and do happen if a side relaxes too much thinking that a draw is certain
after a big first innings total.
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