A Day That Offers Some Hope

 

 

Ashes 2015

 

Hope, But England Make Their Supporters Suffer

 

May 21^st 2015

 

If patrons tuned in to the Test match expecting to suffer, they were not disappointed. New Zealand resent being no more than a warm-up act for their big brother over the Tasman Sea and are keen to score a few brownie points themselves. England wanted to show that change had come and that the closed shop had disappeared: Jordan was sent back to Hove where, hopefully he will be allowed to turn out for Sussex and Mark Wood became the latest in the production line of Durham quicks to win a cap.

When all the pundits were saying that the winner of the toss had to bat, Brendon McCullum had no doubts. He felt that England were there for the taking and that if he took on the top order head-on, it would crumble.

Win toss. Bowl. Behead.

For 43 balls it seemed that perhaps the new England opening combo would restore some sanity to the office. Not a chance. Good ball from Southee. Fine edge. Thanks very much Adam. You have three more innings before the Australian arrive.

29 balls later it was 30-4. Ballance. Cook. Bell. Thanks for turning up, guys.

It was scant consolation that Lyth and Bell got very good balls. We knew that New Zealand had a good attack and that very good balls should not be a great surprise. And given that the fans regularly castigate the England attack for bowling low-80s, there was not a 90mph ball in sight. In fact, there was barely an 85mph ball in sight and Corey Anderson, after making a point with a few 80mph deliveries, settled down to mid-70s pace. If it had been Stuart Broad and Chris Jordan you would have heard the blood vessels of the fans popping with righteous indignation.

Barely two weeks ago England got into this kind of mess against the West Indies and sank without trace. Today, something unexpected happened: Brendon McCullum kept on attacking and runs started to flow. Resistance turned into a full-scale counter-offensive and the counter-offensive threatened to become a rout. Thirty-two overs. One hundred and sixty-one runs. Bowlers being taken apart as fours and sixes flowed. On came the Antipodean answer to Moeen Ali. Ben Stokes showed his elegant leave so as not to throw it away with a century just two hits away. Unfortunately though, the leave would have been much better against a ball that was not quite so straight.

Joe Root was still there and looked a banker to go on to a century. If the Australians think that they are going to meet the nervous, prodding figure of 2013, so much the better because they are in for a nasty surprise. On 98 he went for the cut that would take him to his century, feathered an edge and departed. Since the start of last summer he has: 200*, 15, 13, 31, 154*, 13, 66, 3, 56, 77, 149*, 83, 59, 182*, 33, 1, & 98. That is some serious scoring.

That left two batsmen with questions against them to capitalise. Jos Buttler’s figures for England are excellent, but his protection of the tail in the Caribbean was totally clueless and, arguably, lost England the 3^rd Test given that an extra 20 runs eked out in each innings might have changed the result. Moeen Ali has played 9 Tests and averages just over 30, with 1x100 and 2x50. Given his bowling last summer that has been quite sufficient, but 6-208 in the Caribbean and an array of buffet bowling required something more from the bat. At his best, Moeen is a rich man’s Ashley Giles: a better bowling average, a better batting average, a more imposing figure and capable of scoring centuries. Today, in partnership with Jos Buttler, Moeen batted with increasing confidence.

Buttler went to the last ball of the day and Moeen will now have to shepherd the tail as skilfully as he did at Headingley last year when he was two balls from saving a Test that looked like a lost cause.

At 354-7 England know that they need to get to 400. And then the attack has to be as skilful with the new ball as New Zealand’s was. However, there is very little batting left and the challenge will test every atom of Moeen Ali’s skill. However, as a statement of intent, the riposte to the New Zealand challenge has been a fine one and holds out hope that the summer may be less traumatic than we feared.