Australia’s key problem heading into the third Test surrounds their best batsman while England have a new special weaponThe respite between Tests is brief but at least there is some scope for measured decisions. For Australia the key problem surrounds their best batsman, Steve Smith.During the Lord’s match there was barely any time for their backroom staff to decide whether he should resume his innings on Saturday afternoon. Citing the fact Smith was desperate to get his name on the famous honours boards in the pavilion, a tradition that feels like an ancient rite when in fact these boards are a relatively recent innovation, he was allowed to return to the crease 40 minutes after retiring hurt, though he could...
The physical threat posed by a fast bowler is a legitimate aspect of cricket and this was an elevated example of a hallowed genreWhile mulling over England’s tactics for what would go down in history as the Bodyline series, Douglas Jardine watched a newsreel of Donald Bradman, his side’s principal adversary, batting at the Oval in 1930. What particularly caught his eye was an incident in which a short ball from Harold Larwood hit the Australia hero on the chest. Examining it again and again, Jardine thought he saw Bradman flinch as the delivery bore down on him at high speed. His daughter remembered his comment. “I’ve got it – he’s yellow,” Jardine exclaimed and made his preparations accordingly. Related:...
England fast bowler has hit 19 batsmen since his international bow and rammed the concussion debate into the spotlightIn the end, it took an act of God to stop Jofra Archer. A thick bank of black cloud blew over the Grand Stand at a quarter-past-seven, and in the twilight of Sunday night, the umpires rightly decided that it was all of a sudden so dark that the Australian batsmen couldn’t safely face him anymore, if they ever could safely face him at all. Archer had already hit Marnus Labuschagne, Tim Paine and Matthew Wade earlier in the day, and that was in bright sunlight. So Archer slapped on his hat, and turned his back from the crease, then strolled off...
Friday’s curtailed Ashes Test was proof that sport is secondary to the sense of belonging conjured by one of the great arenasFrom the darkness of a 5am late-summer Friday morning, a train charged down the spine of a country divided, past paddock and canal, wind turbine and sleeping houses. The only sound, as we passed from Manchester to the Midlands and beyond, was that of nothing at all, the lolling heads of grabbed sleep, the silent music of headphones. Even at Milton Keynes, where London workers piled on in ironed shirt sleeves and shift dresses, the train remained quiet. The silence of the railway carriage, it turns out, is a powerful thing.Just to the north-west of Euston station, where that...
England’s intimidating pace bowler has put Australia’s batting rock into a hard place and their duel may shape Ashes outcomeAt lunch Lord’s looked exactly as you picture it in the dark days of winter. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the bars were buzzing with happy chatter. You wouldn’t have guessed it, then, but there was a storm coming in.Australia were 103 runs behind, had five wickets in hand, and Steve Smith and Tim Paine were in the thick of a 50-run partnership. It felt as if England had 60 minutes left to win the Test. Then the tempest came. In the next hour Steve Smith, the best Test batsman of his generation, and Jofra Archer, the...