Despite some new faces and a surprise dismissal, Australia showed no pity, remorse or fear against England in Ashes TestCricket is an organic experience. Players wander around a green field, their day unfolding subject to the vagaries of sun and rain, time and tide. Before the Women’s Ashes Test here, the greenness of the pitch stood out, the freshness of the air, making the England captain, Heather Knight, want to bowl. Then into this pastoral scene came Australia: the rise of the machines.If you’re not up to date with your Terminator references, fair enough. But that describes their style and they followed it again. Win the toss. Bat first. Start piling up runs. Win everything in sight at all costs....
Bowler broke a national record and picked up the prize wicket of Elysse Perry on her first appearance for her countryIt was one of those moments where the needle scratches on the record; when the usual rhythms of red-ball cricket are suddenly altered by a disturbance, prompting backsides on to the edges of seats and eyes to laser in on the action.Things had seemed so sedate too. On a sunny morning at Trent Bridge, as Australia’s mighty women’s team began their multi-format Ashes defence in this one-off Test match, it did not take long for a sense of normal service having resumed. Continue reading...
Slater has re-instilled the Maroons’ famed State of Origin resilience but there are some tough questions about Blues coach Brad FittlerQueensland’s back-to-back State of Origin series wins – their first since 2017 – thanks to a dominant 32-6 Game Two win at Suncorp in front of a delirious home crowd will only add to Maroons lore. Yet for New South Wales, it was a humiliating and self-inflicted defeat, which has taken the Blues to a crossroads at which some difficult decisions need to be made.The tortoise and the hare is an appropriate parable for both this series and the Billy Slater-Brad Fittler coaching rivalry. For two years, Slater has been deliberate and methodical in his approach – in planning and...
This first Test is reminiscent of 2013 as David Warner gave Australia a flying start before Broad delivered one of his Ashes specialsSmoking Jesus. Take a moment to collect yourself. If you were watching that final day at Edgbaston, you deserve to let your nerves unspool. They must be clenched to raging little clusters of data. Do some deep breathing. Take your shoes off and walk on the lawn. Fists with your toes. Even if you’re not invested in either team, close Test cricket can make you sick, when awaiting each delivery feels like you’ve just chugged a large chocolate milk before jumping on Magic Mountain.If you’ve paid any attention to coverage over the past five days, you might have...
As Australia won the first Ashes Test, England did not act like a team that had just lost a game they probably should have wonOf course it all came down to the declaration didn’t it? Just like the man on the radio phone-in said it would. Ben Stokes’s bold/braindead decision (note to subeditors: I’m on deadline, so please delete as appropriate) to call his batsmen in early in the first innings turned out to be a truly inspired/idiotic bit of captaincy. Joe Root was on 118 at the time, and Ollie Robinson had 17, the two of them were rattling along and common sense dictated they should be left to get on with it. But Stokes thought differently.Well, the handful...