Broad’s dismissal of Australia’s Usman Khawaja ended his wicketless spell at 69 overs as the under-fire England bowler demonstrated some much-needed threat at the MCGStuart Broad had pitched up at the MCG this week in something of a funk. The big-game Ashes hunter had left Perth more burned than the supporters who had roasted on the hills at the Waca after a career-worst performance that had turned him into a 6ft 5in lightning rod for much of the ire about England’s failed defence of the urn.Boxing Day, when 88,172 supporters flooded into this cricketing colosseum but had very much dispersed to around half the amount by the end, was not an opening of the floodgates for the 31-year-old. To expect...
Since hosting the first ever cricket Test match in 1877 Melbourne has some great memories for England– and a few bad onesEngland have won 36.1% of their 61 matches at Trent Bridge and 36.4% of their 77 Tests at Old Trafford; they have played 55 times at the MCG and won 36.4% of those. If it does not feel quite as homely as Nottingham or Manchester, Melbourne has been the site of many great English moments – as well as, inevitably, a few grisly nightmares.Perhaps the greatest of those 55 Tests, and surely the most thrilling, came in 1982, with England 2-0 down after three matches but the destination of the urn still undecided. It was, the England spinner Geoff...
Steve Smith’s side have taken back the urn from England but no one will dare ease off in front of 100,000 fans at the MCG on Boxing DayThere is no such thing as a dead-rubber Ashes Test match. You are representing your country and whether you are an Australian cricketer or a touring Englishman, the prospect of playing in front of nearly 100,000 fans at the MCG on Boxing Day is reason enough to remember this.Christmas Day might seem a strange thing for a professional cricketer to enjoy with a match looming but it really can be a pretty special time and a welcome distraction in the buildup. During my career we would have lunch at the Crown Casino in...
The ECB is an easy target but skewing the domestic game to produce more spinners and favour limited-overs cricket looks to have backfiredA stock of explanations and excuses is a valuable bit of any cricketer’s kit and should be kept ready, stashed by bat, box and pads. “The sun was in my eyes. I couldn’t pick it up in this light. My foot slipped. Somebody was moving behind the sightscreen.”England, who, after all, have had no shortage of practice at this, have used some particularly ripe examples over the years. Ian Botham blamed the rain that ruined their chances in a group match against Pakistan at the 1992 World Cup on the team chaplain, Andrew Wingfield Digby “You’re useless, you...
While Dawid Malan, Craig Overton and James Vince have pleasantly surprised, senior players are the ones who have underperformed in AustraliaThe Ashes are gone, to begin with. Switch off the TV, dial down the radio and flick over the back pages. Fans back home can console themselves by forgetting all about it and staying in bed late. But for England, adrift in Australia, there’s a hard rearguard ahead as they try to escape from the final two Tests with the team intact. Some will be playing for their places, perhaps even their careers. So far they have been beaten in every key moment by a team that have three faster bowlers, a more commanding captain and a sharper spinner. “They’ve...