Some lusty hitting from Ireland’s lower order lit up Lord’s and made England’s bowlers work hard for their victorySteve Waugh’s Australians travelled to Gallipoli to get them in the right mindset for the 2001 Ashes. We must assume that Ireland made a similarly inspirational visit to St Johns Wood High Street on Saturday morning. The usually chi-chi thoroughfare is currently closed off for roadworks, where a hive of workers occupied in major excavations are manning JCBs and laying pipe. And if Ireland were planning to make it past lunch on day three, they were going to have dig even deeper than that.An hour before play, Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker finished their practice on the outfield and walked past the...
A Thursday start means this Test has seen fewer supporters in green than hoped, but those who were at Lord’s did not flagThere weren’t a great number of Ireland fans at Lord’s on Friday, but those that were there made themselves visible. The green shirts picked each other out in the crowd, nodded, waved and offered mutual support. A couple of them, puffing their way to the top of the Warner Stand before play, spotted a man in a splendid shamrock-print suit and altered course to share a rueful word with him. “We thought we’d better come today because it might be all over tomorrow.”Not quite, but it was a day of unremitting flagellation. Throughout the first session, the Irish...
Longer format is struggling outside four walls of Lord’s and tourists’ shoestring operation underlines challenge they faceHigh summer came just a couple of hours late to Lord’s. It arrived roundabout lunch time, when the sun came out from behind the clouds that had blanketed the ground earlier in the day. It was huddle-up and clutch your cuppa weather in the morning, and a thankless time for batting. By lunch, though, the place was en fête. A cream-coated dixieland jazz band was parping brass in the Harris Garden, and that side of the ground was alive with panama hats, cravats, and candy-cane coloured blazers and caps. The Test season had started at last.By then, Ireland’s batting was as good as broken....
Twelve months after debating retirement, the bowler showed promise on the first day of his Test debut against IrelandThe sun came just before lunch, breaking the blanket of cloud which had looked so encouraging as England started the day. “We’re here to score runs, take wickets and win games – and we like to do all three as quickly as we can,” enthused Ben Stokes in the programme, and after winning the toss and taking the briefest glance at the concrete-grey slab that hung over the ground there seemed no doubt that his quickest route to victory lay through unleashing his bowlers to cause chaos with a new ball and a green-tinged pitch.But England actually weren’t just here for that,...
Batter has been given a long run without showing consistency and sound technique – and next up is old foe Tim MurtaghEngland’s summer begins at Lord’s against Ireland on Thursday and even if it is only a starter before the lavish main course of the Ashes I am sure nobody in that dressing room will be taking it lightly. It is, after all, a Test at the home of cricket, a big crowd, a big game and there is lots of competition in the squad.Several players will remember the game against Ireland in 2019, when my old Middlesex teammate Tim Murtagh got five for 13 and England were bowled out for 85 before lunch on the first day. I am...