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Khawaja adds the final exclamation mark to his storied comeback | Geoff Lemon

Australia opener proves another point with a Test century against England that fills the one remaining gap in his recordYou have to start at the end. The celebration is unlike any other. Usman Khawaja starts recognisably, jumping as he crosses for a run, brandishing the bat like a fist pump with custom extensions. But the feeling boils up in him, something frothing its way to the top and over.He throws his bat away, one arm up involuntarily like the jukebox just hit the chorus of Don’t Stop Believin’. It’s not a clean throw, no mic-drop drama, not planned. The bat tumbles from his hand to the ground because his body flails, a physical expostulation as response to a feeling that...

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Stuart Broad conjures up ball with Marnus Labuschagne’s name on

The England bowler devised delivery to dismiss Australia batter, but cannot have expected police assistancePerhaps the best part of the big Stuart Broad set-piece on the second morning at Edgbaston, one of those moments where the wind seems to change, the dogs miaow, the birds fly backwards through the sky and the clock strikes Broad o’clock, was the introduction of mimicry, physical comedy, improv into the usual routine.Broad was always going to do this at some point. He’s a montage bowler. Every Ashes has its sequence, from failing to walk, to Brisbane T-shirts, to hands-over-the-face human-meme stuff at Trent Bridge. This time the talk will be mainly about the dismissal of David Warner, because this has been the chief pre-series...

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I was confident England would win the Ashes … and then I saw the Aussies | Mark Ramprakash

Doubts have crept in after England lost Jack Leach while Pat Cummins’ side enjoyed ideal preparation for the first Test at Edgbaston in their defeat of IndiaUntil a couple of weeks ago I was pretty confident about England’s chances of winning the Ashes, but a combination of Jack Leach’s injury and watching Australia win the World Test Championship final has got all sorts of doubts creeping in. Still, I can’t wait for the series to start and I’m delighted that it’s happening at Edgbaston, home of the raucous Hollies stand. It’s going to be buzzing and Ben Stokes’s team will absolutely love that sense of occasion.The visitors will get plenty of stick, which won’t be anything new for most members...

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England’s Existential Cricket is not fun and carefree but therapy for years of cruelty | Barney Ronay

Bazball has been hailed as a joyous reinvention of how Test cricket is played but in reality it is an angry reaction to past painThis week I watched, in covert late night instalments, the entire day-by-day extended highlights of England’s 1994 five-Test tour of the West Indies. This wasn’t meant to happen. But as Rick James famously said, Sky Cricket Greats is a hell of a drug. In the event it just turned out to be one of those strangely moreish spectacles.A lot of things happened very slowly and then happened suddenly with dramatic jumps forward. Mike Atherton top-scored across the series but still seemed to be continually walking off looking soulful and wronged, sawn off by another grubber. Alex...

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Beware, England: Steve Smith looks like a batting immortal again | Geoff Lemon

Australian’s dominant century in the World Test Championship final against India strikes an ominous note before the AshesFrom time to time around the Oval press box, little English-accented groans of annoyance burbled through the quiet. “Oh God. Here we go again.” Steve Smith was the cause, across the first two days of the World Test Championship final. Through the tinted windows placed just behind the bowler’s arm at the Vauxhall End was the perfect view of him, ball after ball: setting up outside leg stump, stepping across, nudging off his pads for a run on his way to 121.For British scribes who covered their last home Ashes in 2019, it was simply Smith picking up where he left off. They...

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