1 week ago
12
As the rain fell on the Sydney Cricket Ground, cutting the opening day of this fifth Ashes Test into exactly half the number of allotted overs, you could practically hear the champagne corks being popped in the Cricket Australia offices. Perhaps the groundsman’s hut also.
The huge losses incurred by the two-dayers in Perth and Melbourne put CA and the SCG on red alert as regards a repeat. Unless something absurd were to happen on the second day – England had reached 211 for three when play was eventually abandoned at 5pm on the first – this series finale should last a fair bit longer.
Another cause for administrative optimism was the ease with which Joe Root and Harry Brook built an unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 154 runs. The top order crumbled to 57 for three – nothing new there – but then an Australia attack without a spinner in Sydney for the first time since the days of Queen Victoria began to look short of ideas.
Perhaps this should have been expected. Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon were absent for the hosts, while Root and Brook are one and two respectively in the Test batting rankings. Handed first use of a surface offering far less movement than its predecessor, there was every reason to expect runs to flow.
But on a tour that has seen English batters in a funk and invited questions about their methods more broadly, nothing could be taken for granted. Root’s crisp 72, and a more restless 78 from Brook, established a foothold in the contest, even if the bad light and showers that struck from 3pm left it short of being conclusive.
The 45 overs witnessed were decent fare for the latest bumper crowd in this series. Folks hoping to see a better balance between bat and ball got just that. Australia struck three times inside the first 90 minutes before Root and Brook began working the ball through gaps and forcing plans to change.
Australia named an unusual attack here, with stand-in captain Steve Smith claiming the brains trust had been “pushed into a corner” as regards the lack of a spinner. If anything it looked like a fudge: a clear desire to keep the misfiring Cameron Green, but also give Beau Webster a belated chance. The upshot was two all-rounders in the XI and thus a diet of right-arm fast-medium beyond Mitchell Starc.
After the SCG laid on a stirring tribute to the victims of the Bondi terror attacks and the first responders before play, and Ben Stokes won the toss, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett started brightly enough. Starc found some early swing but Duckett in particular was soon clipping and slapping boundaries to hint at a personal corner being turned.
It was just the latest in a string of cameos, however, Duckett once again pushing away from his body on 27 to hand Starc his 27th wicket of the series. When Crawley fell lbw to Neser on 16 playing around one, similarly doing so the next ball after finding the rope, England had slipped to 51 for two inside the 12th over.
Jacob Bethell did his usual first innings thing here, which was to very much look the part and yet very much fail with just 10 to his name. This smart work was from Scott Boland, at least, the metronome switching to over the wicket and sliding a length ball past the left-hander for a flicker of wood and a second catch by Alex Carey.
What followed from 57 for three was a stand of contrasts from the two Yorkshiremen. Root was enjoying this relatively slow pitch, drilling cover drives, pinching singles, and even guiding balls down past backward point. But Brook was not nearly so fluent, with Boland in particular seeing two inside edges fly close to the stumps.
And yet by the early close the pair had amassed the highest stand of England’s tour – just their third past three figures – and Brook had his personal best on tour. Green was his mark here as 114 for three at lunch was followed by 97 more runs without further loss in the afternoon. The Australia all-rounder’s eight overs saw lengths missed and were taken for 57.
The shot of the day was probably Brook swivel-pulling Green over deep backward square for a 97m six, even if a couple of Root’s effortless drives would like a word here. More broadly, a run-rate of 4.6 was more familiar for the England supporters on tour.
On one level this only furthered their frustration with the team’s performances during the first three; inviting more questions as to why a set-up that claims to be designed to help players deal with pressure has only seen them deliver once that pressure was released.
Still, it certainly felt closer to Test cricket than the casino of Melbourne and the bean counters at CA could breathe easier.
