Ashes 2015
England to Australia: this isn’t going to
be a walkover
July 9th 2015
At 44-3 on a benign,
seemingly dead pitch, England fans were fearing the worst. This was every bit
as awful as we imagined. “Here we go again”, said the England fans. One
Australian on CricInfo called England “an embarrassment”, “the worst team in
Test history” and “unable to beat an Australian village U12 side” (and that was
before a ball was bowled). Where was the spirit of the new England?
Mitch Johnson was
licking his lips and the retirement of Ryan Harris meant that Australia could
play Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood who would run through the trembling Poms
just as easily as in 2013/14.
This time though the
script was different. If England fail to win, Brad Haddin may just have
nightmares about dropping Joe Root without scoring. It was not pretty. It was
about as elegant as a 15th Century dentist pulling teeth, but Root
and Ballance hung on and first stabilised the situation, before starting to
push on to the tune of a partnership of 153. It may just be the worst Test half
century that Gary Ballance has made, but the fact is that he made it as the
fans started to suggest that he might just be the one to make way for Jonny
Bairstow having looked horribly out of sorts against New Zealand.
The Australians will
not have had too many nightmares about Joe Root before today. In 9 Tests
against Australia he had passed 30 just three times. Admittedly one of them was
an innings of 180 at Lord’s, but he had been dropped three times and should
never have made it past 20 that day. However, each time he has made it past 30
he has made a 50: in fact, his lowest score after getting past 30 is 68. Australia
committed the cardinal sin of missing him early and paid to the tune of 134
runs scored at a good clip.
Both England and
Australia know that it should have been far worse. At 280-4 after 72 overs with
Root and Stokes well set there a chance of scoring 500 and batting Australia
out of the game. Australia roared back removing both in quick succession only
to see Jos Buttler and the increasingly confident looking Moeen Ali add 50 in
57 balls. Had the pair made it to the Close it would, on balance, have been
England’s day. Buttler though was victim of a soft dismissal just before the
Close and exposed Stuart Broad to the still new ball. Glory be though, Broad
stayed in line, defended his stumps and held firm despite the ball flying
around his ears a lot. The Australians “love” Stuart Broad and if they can be
persuaded to waste their energies and the new ball testing out his ability to
duck, he will have done his job. Broad, for his part, has scored vital 50s
against Australia and needs to stay with Moeen as long as possible tomorrow.
If England can get
380, they will be well satisfied. If it can be stretched to 400, Australia will
have the pressure of knowing that, to make good their boasts, they will need a
huge first innings score and, even then, would face the potential threat of
Moeen on a responsive pitch on the last day.
Australia may yet
make the England score look pathetically inadequate but, at least they are
going to have to work for their win and know that, in this Test, they are in a
brawl. Many England fans scarred by 2013/14 (and others, like me, by series
after series between 1989 and 2003), will settle for that. It is vital for England
that they put in a strong performance in this Test and test some of the
potential cracks in the Australian side.
Oh yes. Mitch-watch:
20-2-87-0.
Those who thought
that Mitch Johnson would be a lesser threat without Ryan Harris to support him are
looking at those figures with interest. It is early days yet, but it has not
been the rout that Mitch Johnson and many of his countrymen were expecting.
Day 1 to Australia…
but narrowly.
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