Ashes 2013
A Tale of Two Warm-Ups
July 3rd
If people were unhappy about England’s warm-up v Essex on
the first evening, the situation going into the final day is infinitely worse.
While Australia rack up runs, wickets and victories with an efficiency that
should alarm England fans (forget the opposition, they can only play what they
have in front), England’s preparations are looking definitely amateurish in
comparison. Essex ended the third day without their opening new ball pairing of
David Masters (Achilles tendon) and Tymal Mills (hamstring), followed by
part-time spinner Tom Westley dislocating a finger. Essex,
who had refused England’s request to play both Reece Topley and Ben Foakes –
two likely Test candidates of the near future – in the starting XI were hardly
likely to remember this game with any affection when the wave of injuries
forced them into back-tracking and bringing-in Topley after all to reinforce
their threadbare attack. Given that Chelmsford was full and that the patrons had paid
to see competitive, First Class cricket, it was not so surprising that there
was considerable dissatisfaction with the outcome. And, of course, the match
was been shown live by Sky Sports, ensuring that a much wider public could
follow everything in glorious detail.
Credit where credit is due. Once it became obvious that
Essex were unable to sustain the match as a contest the ECB acted quickly to obtain
permission from Warwickshire to play Boyd Rankin and from Essex to bring in
Reece Topley, although even Reece’s dad, Don, said that he felt sorry for Tom
Craddock losing his deserved 5-for as the match lost its First Class status.
Topley and Rankin will give the batsmen better practice than the surviving
Essex bowlers, but anyone who thinks that they will be bowling with the same
intensity as in a normal county match is a born optimist.
Contrast this to the Australian side. An albeit rather weak
Worcestershire attack (although reportedly only Alan Richardson was missing
from their previous County Championship attack) was put mercilessly to the
sword by a team that suddenly looks more united, more focussed and more
dangerous than it did two weeks ago. If England underestimate this Australian
side they may come a nasty cropper. Right now there is more than a suspicion
that England are not taking the challenge that they pose sufficiently
seriously.
[Later]
In the end, England wrapped up a huge win with considerable
ease. 72 runs were added for the loss of Jonny Bairstow – another who will be
less than satisfied with his match haul of 23 and 28, bowled by Sajid Mahmood
in the first innings and by Boyd Rankin in the second. Once Rutherford and
Mickleburgh, who put on 91 for the first wicket, had been separated, the rest of
the batting succumbed rapidly. Graeme Swann, who has been short of bowling, got
a long bowl and a 5-for to dispel any fears about his fitness and readiness for
the Test and Graham Onions, who had a horrific winter, continued his
rehabilitation with four cheap wickets. To some peoples’ bewilderment, David
Masters, who had been substituted by Reece Topley because of his injury, did
bat, but Topley did not, while Greg Smith batted in place of Tom Westley. To
add to the confusion, Tymal Mills did not come out to bat at the fall of the
ninth wicket, so the innings ended with nine down. Such
was the situation that one would not have been surprised if Kevin Pietersen had
been sent sprinting to the dressing room at the fall of the eighth wicket to come
out and bat against his own side. At least the bowlers, two of them
likely reserves, two of them certain starters, had a good workout, so the last
day ended up serving more of a purpose than yesterday’s play had.
A lot of interest was focussed to the west where Australia’s
brutal dismantling of Worcestershire’s attack lasted two balls short of sixteen
overs more in the morning before their bowlers entered the spotlight. At 180-2
after Tea, with Nick Compton approaching a century, the Australian attack –
probably none of them will be in the starting XI for the 1st Test –
seemed to be getting badly bruised. Jackson Bird’s dismissal of Nick Compton
for 79 sparked a collapse and 180-2 disintegrated into 187-6. Just as Nick
Compton was heaping pressure on the selectors to go with him to open in the 1st
Test, he was out. A century would surely have been enough to see him make his
point unarguable. Right now though, the selectors have an interesting
conundrum: Joe Root scored fewer in his two innings (67) against Essex that
Nick Compton has in a single knock against Australia, to add to his excellent
return, including a first innings fifty, when Somerset played Australia. If
Root opens, the selectors have to go with Jonny Bairstow at six. Not everyone
is convinced that plugging one perceived weakness at the top of the order will
not create two new ones. The fact that Bairstow was bowled in both innings for
a score in the twenties will do little to convince people that he will be an
adequate replacement for Joe Root in the Tests, especially having hardly played
recently.
Similarly, it is a truism of cricket that if a player is
doing well in his current position, you do not move him in the order. Will Root
opening and Bairstow at 6 sum more runs than Compton opening and Root at 6? I believe
that I am not alone in doubting it.
All that though is by the by: Australia look seriously
useful and the long odds on them to win the 1st Test look like a
rare error by the bookies.
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