The old hand of England’s bowling attack looks to be having almost as much fun as the new sensation Jofra ArcherThe locals – experts the lot of them – were packing anoraks, hats, and brollies on Thursday morning, a bad sign for all those out-of-towners who had been foolish enough to trust the weather forecast.“It’s looking a bit black over Bill’s mother’s,” one of them said to another on the short walk up from Burley Park station. It was, too, if you only knew which way Bill’s mother’s was. Somewhere beyond the Western Terrace, you guess, where the horizon was beginning to turn blurry, as though Jack Russell, who was here working on a picture of the grand new stand,...
English morale has been lifted by Jofra Archer’s Lord’s debut but it does not follow that it has dented Australia’sThere has been a distinctly upbeat tone in English cricket during the short leadup to the Headingley Test. For once, the local bowlers do not have to worry about dismissing Steve Smith, the man who has sacked them for 10 Ashes centuries since his first in 2013, but will sit out this week with concussion. England have the cause of that concussion on their side, in the fast bowler Jofra Archer. And, with an hour’s less rain the Lord’s draw could have been an England win, which is an encouraging way to leave a stalemate.Like the Swiss flag, each of those...
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...