England’s success or failure on day five at the Oval serves as a referendum on the wider story of the Ashes summerThere was once a dream that was Bazball. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish. And one way or another, it was always coming down to this.By the time play was abandoned in the afternoon mulch, with Australia on 135-0 in their fourth‑innings chase, the sense of creeping jeopardy could hardly have been greater. Roll on Monday, final staging point in this five‑Test ride. One day left to save the English Ashes summer; and to save a few other things too. Continue reading...
England quick wanted one last shot at Australia so he created a new delivery and got inside David Warner’s head for all timeStuart Broad came into this Ashes armed with 582 Test wickets, a burning desire to stick it to the Australians one last time, just enough bluster to disguise the fact that these days he bowls an 80mph bouncer, and a bandana. You mustn’t forget the bandana. It was a lockdown thing. Other people came out of those months with a breadmaker and a repertoire of sourdough-loaf recipes, a newfound appreciation for their children’s primary school teachers, or any one of a number of debilitating social complexes, but Broad emerged from them with the inspiration for his latest character,...
The GWS forward has walked a troubled track over the years but when at his brilliant best, like at the weekend, all the pain is worth itOne of the most extraordinary quarters of the 2023 season began with a pitiful sight, as a buckled Josh Bruce was assisted around the boundary line by two Western Bulldogs trainers. Sportspeople who tear their ACL for the first time often don’t immediately grasp the severity of it. Last week, Adelaide’s Nick Murray was doing mobility drills, giving the thumbs up to medicos and seemingly good to go. Not long after, he was tapped on the shoulder. See you in 12 months.But Bruce had been there before. He knew. He recently described the video...
Australia’s coach can draw hope from a hot half hour at the MCG when they led the Bledisloe Cup Test but time is running out with the World Cup loomingPainful as Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup defeat was for the Wallabies, and frustrating as the Eddie Jones’s team were, they cannot afford to drop their heads. They must fly into Dunedin on Sunday and prepare for an All Blacks rematch on Saturday. Jones says they will “train on the plane” if they must. “Transforming a team from where they are now to a team that’s capable of beating New Zealand takes a lot of hard work. The clock’s ticking.”Ever louder for Jones himself. His grand reboot of Australian rugby is still in...
Tourists pay dearly for belief that if they bowled their normal stuff, a normal England innings would followAs the 2023 Ashes moved to within two days of its scheduled close, there was no escaping the reality for Australia that it was happening again. That feeling of being slapped around the chops, too dazed to get the thread of what to do next. England with the bat running the game in their own way, setting the terms that Australia had to respond to. This, above all, has been the idea behind Bazball: not all about hitting sixes or bowling bouncers, but making opponents react rather than act.It was there on the first day of the series at Edgbaston, when England made...