Day 2: Tales of the Unexpected; England Threaten to Dominate

 

 

Ashes 2015

 

England threaten to dominate Australia

 

July 10^th 2015

I wonder what that Australian fan on CricInfo who yesterday called England “an embarrassment”, “the worst team in Test history” and “unable to beat an Australian village U12 side” is thinking now?

At the Close of play Chris Rogers, who has kept Australia in the game with his innings today, admitted that England are on top after two days and voiced caution about the difficulty of chasing a target batting last. That last snippet should tell England fans what they wanted to hear: Moeen Ali and the Beard that is Feared are back.

England have a lot of hard work to do yet, but they have a real opening to put Australia under pressure and, possibly, even to set up a winning position. Yesterday most people seemed to think that a draw or, possibly, an Australian win were the most likely results; today a positive result is beginning to look more and more likely.

With Australia 166 behind, five wickets down and a nightwatchman in, England will be disappointed if they cannot manage a significant lead in the morning. Provided that they stick to the basics of plugging away, keeping the bowling tight and taking their catches, a lead of around 50 is possible. Of course, with Shane Watson still there, Brad Haddin to come next – was he insulted to be protected by a nightwatchman? – and the volatile Mitch Johnson with his hurt pride to come, Australia will still be convinced that they can get up to around 500. We have seen them come back so many times when we thought that England were in the ascendency. Why is today different?

Yesterday, the feeling was that England had not batted as well as they might and that they had given away wickets. Today, that was put a little in perspective: this is not the easiest wicket to bat on and England have bowled better on it. Like various of the England batsmen, several of the Australians have given away their wicket because the pitch demands caution. Australia got partnerships going, but never dominated and never managed to keep partnerships going to grind down the bowlers.

While the two Mitches topped 93mph on the speed gun, significantly faster than any of the England attack and Josh Hazlewood was also faster than Broad or Wood, the key was quality pace. Mitch Johnson’s rather sad figures showed that it does not matter how fast you bowl if your line and/or length are wrong.

The story of the day was set by the first half hour. Old England would have folded tamely for around 350, meekly surrendering the initiative. You felt that England were either going to crumble quickly, or get to around 420. What happened was gloriously unexpected: Broad and Moeen Ali attacked, putting on 52 in 68 balls. Stuart Broad stayed firm and, when he got the chance, hit hard, launching Hazlewood for a glorious six before trying to launch Nathan Lyon out of the ground and edging to Brad Haddin who, wisely, did not drop it this time. Moeen kept on attacking before, with a century there for the taking, slashed the ball straight to Shane Watson at slip who had only two options: catch it, or swallow it! Perhaps not trusting British dentists, he took the catch. Moeen should feel more annoyed about the 23 runs that he failed to get than the 77 that he did managed but is beginning to offer a real sting in England’s tail, despite the indignity of batting at 8.

At 43-3, England would have bitten your hand off to get 430 and scored at a good pace.

Of course, not everyone saw that positively. Some England supporters just felt that scoring rapidly would give Australia more time to bat England out of the game with a huge total. It makes you want to weep!!

Australia then put England’s batting effort in perspective: four fifty partnerships, but only one of them larger than 52 – the 77 of Rogers and Smith for the 2^nd wicket. Every time that Australia threatened to put together a big partnership and take control, a wicket fell. Only Chris Rogers managed to get past 38.

Before the match the cynics felt that Moeen Ali’s field would have two men on the banks of the River Taff outside the stadium and one in mid-stream for the miss-cue. Instead, perhaps emboldened by his batting (his is comfortably the highest strike rate in the match so far), although a little expensive, Moeen bowled better than he has done in months and went home with the not inconsiderable scalps of Smith and Clarke. No one did manage to attack him successfully and thoughts are now turning to what he may do with the ball on the fifth day.

Anderson, Wood and Stokes all took wickets, with Stokes’s removal of Voges just before the Close making it indisputably England’s day. Poor Stuart Broad: bowled really well, but nothing to show for it.

The mission for England on Day 3 is to remove the nightwatchman and the remaining wickets as cheaply as possible and set about building a lead. If England are batting again by Lunch, things will be looking very rosy; if Australia are still batting at Tea, the efforts of Days 1 & 2 will have been wasted.

England cannot afford a bad first session. Up to now, they have been really very good.

Mitch-watch: 25-3-111-0.

Already the talk is starting about whether or not he will survive the series. It seems incredibly premature but, in 2009, as the new sensation of Australian pace bowling, he was dropped before the end of the series. Compare Mitch J.’s figures to those of his less illustrious namesake: 24.1-4-114-5. Without Mitch Starc the Australians might well have been up the creek without a paddle.

Day 2 to England… quite clearly.