Section:GDN 1N PaGe:44 Edition Date:190829 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 28/8/2019 20:16 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Thursday 29 Aug ust 2019
(^44) Sport
Cricket
Sport
In brief
Formula One
Bottas set to remain
with Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas is set to be confi rmed
as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at
Mercedes for next season before
the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix.
The Finn, who turned 30 yesterday,
has seen off the team’s French
reserve driver Esteban Ocon and
the British rookie George Russell
to be alongside Hamilton for 2020.
The Mercedes principal, Toto Wolff ,
has decided to take up the option
on keeping Bottas – with two wins
this season and Hamilton’s closest
challenger – for a fourth consecutive
season. PA Media
Cycling
Lopéz takes over from
Roche at the front
Miguel Ángel López retook the red
jersey of the Vuelta a España from
Nicolas Roche after the race’s fi rst
summit fi nish was claimed by the
Burgos-BH rider Ángel Madrazo. The
Spaniard battled hard after being
dropped by the leading group on
the fi nal climb to the Javalambre
Astrophysical Observatory at the
top of Alto de Javalambre and broke
clear in the last kilometre to fi nish
stage fi ve ahead of his teammate
Jetse Bol , with José Herrada (Cofi dis)
fi nishing third. Further back, López
held off the challenges of Alejandro
Valverde and Primoz Roglic to take
back the Vuelta lead he had lost
on stage two. The Colombian has a
14-second overall lead over Roglic in
the general classifi cation. Valverde’s
teammate Nairo Quintana holds
third place , 23sec back. Roche,
who had led the race for the past
two days, slipped to fi fth, 57sec
behind. Staff and Reuters
▲ Valtteri Bottas will be with
Mercedes for a fourth year
Smith: ‘Archer’s got the
wood over me? He hasn’t
actually got me out ...’
Geoff Lemon
Derby
actually dismissed him yet during this
series, even if he did rule him out of the
Headingley Test with concussion after
hitting him on the neck with a short
ball during the second match of the
series at Lord’s. “Well, I can’t get him
out if he wasn’t there,” Archer said.
“But there’ll be more than ample
time to get him out. I’m not saying I
won’t get him out but if we don’t get
him out there’s 10 other people we
can get out and if he’s stranded on 40
that’s not helping his team too much.
He can’t do it all himself. I’m not here
to get caught up in a contest with one
man. I want to win the Ashes.”
Archer, who also played a starring
role in England’s World Cup win
last month, also belittled Australian
attempts to get under his skin during
the Headingley run chase, the
Barbados-born player falling for 15
when he was caught on the boundary
trying to smash the off -spin of Nathan
Lyon into the Western Terrace.
“It was terrible chat,” he said. “It
Jimmy Anderson, England’s record
wicket-taker who is working his way
back from the calf injury he sustained
on the opening day of the series at
Edgbaston, is also looking to return
for the fourth Ashes Test at his home
ground of Old Traff ord. “Hopefully he
can do his thing and we can be off the
fi eld a bit quicker,” Archer said.
The fast bowler also refused
to confirm he had been given a
pain killing injection for the side strain
that aff ected him during the World Cup
before bowling England’s super over
during the fi nal against New Zealand
at Lord’s last month. “Sorry, but how
does that coincide with anything that
was going on?” he said. “What I would
say is that I’m fully fi t and I’ve been
that way from the start of the series.”
As for the atmosphere in England’s
dressing room during the Headingley
run chase, Archer spoke of the moment
when, with England needing two to
win, Lyon bungled a simple run-out
chance to dismiss Jack Leach. “All
I can say is that that last game was
special,” he said.
“When Lyon fumbled the run-out,
you could hear a heartbeat in the
dressing room. There were so many
emotions fl ying around. When the
scores were level, it was just a big
cheer. At least we knew the series was
not over!”
Specsavers is the offi cial Test partner
of the England cricket team
Continued from back page
‘I’m not getting
caught up in a
contest with
one man’
Steve Smith returns to action today for
the fi rst time since Jofra Archer con-
cussed him with a short ball during
the second Test. Their battle at Old
Traff ord next week will be at least as
anticipated as whatever Ben Stokes
does next b ut , as he prepared to face
Derbyshire in a three-day tour match ,
Smith was in no mood to be deferential
to the England fast bowler.
“There’s been a bit of talk that he’s
got the wood over me, but he hasn’t
actually got me out,” said Smith. “He
hit me on the head on a wicket that was
a bit up and down at Lord’s. All the other
bowlers have had more success against
me, I daresay ”
As for a short-ball attack, Smith
replied archly. “If they’re bowling up
there it means they can’t nick me off ,
or hit me on the pad or hit the stumps. ”
Smith certainly did not back away
that day at Lord’s, repeatedly hook-
ing Archer before one kept low and hit
him on the side of the neck. There was
alarm as Smith fell forward on to his
face, as happened when batsman Phil-
lip Hughes was fatally hit on the back
of his neck during a domestic match
in 2014. It wasn’t only onlookers who
thought of that moment.
“I had a few things running through
my head, particularly where I got hit,”
Smith said. “That was probably the
fi rst thing I thought about. Then I was
like, ‘I’m OK here. ’ ”
Smith’s concussion has started a
broader conversation around safety.
While making the point that a neck
protector would not have prevented
his injury, Smith said that he would
have to get over his sense of claus-
trophobia when wearing one on the
assumption that they would soon
become mandatory.
As for the fact that he initially
resumed his innings before being diag-
nosed the next day with concussion,
he noted the complexity of such situ-
ations. “I felt pretty good, passed all
my tests and was able to go and bat and
then it wasn’t until later that evening
that it hit me.
“As we’ve seen this series there have
been so many head knocks already.
Marnus [Labuschagne] has been hit a
few times, Jos [Buttler] got hit at one
point, Stokesy’s been hit. ”
Once his concussion was con-
fi rmed, a cautious medical route ruled
him out of the third Test. “It was a bit
of a slow process, you’ve got to tick
off a few diff erent boxes, so I had to
get through a brisk walk on the fi rst
morning of the game. I did some run-
ning on the treadmill... and was OK,
so I progressed into some high-speed
running, and faced a few of the fl ick-
ers, and then faced bowlers. [I faced]
Mitch Marsh and [Michael] Neser in
the nets, so reasonable pace. I felt like
I had plenty of time and everything
felt normal.”
Plenty of time is ominous for
England, given Smith looked utterly
unhurried through his Ashes innings
of 144 and 142 at Edgbaston, before
Archer ruffl ed him towards the end
of his 92 at Lord’s.
“Edgbaston was just: fi rst game
back, fresh, and I just wanted to bat,
I didn’t want to stop batting... All my
movement patterns and the way I feel
was really good so I’m comfortable
with that, and hopefully I can ramp
up my training over the next few days. ”
Y ou could sense Sm ith’s impatience to
be playing, after both agonising over
and admiring Stokes’s matchwinning
performance. “He completely turned
the series on its head,” said Smith.
“Even if you go back to two nights
before, when he bowled 14 overs
straight. I rocked up to the ground next
day and someone said that on average
he bowled the quickest for the day as
well, over those 14 overs.
“You could just see the passion that
he showed and the fi ght. He never gave
up. You look at him, and I really admire
this about him, when he scored a hun-
dred he didn’t even celebrate, didn’t
care. He had one thing on his mind and
that was getting England over the line.”
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Chelmsford City 1.30 Hashtagmetoo 2.00 Solar
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Sedgefield 4.50 Mrs Davies 5.20 Ringaringarosie
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Greg Wood’s tips
made me laugh. I think it was either
Tim Paine or [Matthew] Wade when it
was going off [checking his dismissal].
Someone said: ‘That is a great shot,
Jof.’ If it did go for six it would have
been. I thought I had messed the series
up so I was very relieved we are still
alive and fi ghting. It doesn’t matter
how many wickets we won by. It
doesn’t matter how we got there. The
point was that we did.”
There was gratitude for Stokes, too,
with Archer saying: “Yes, he did give
us a second life in this series. Everyone
would like to win the World Cup and
the Ashes as well so there’s no reason
why we shouldn’t go and do it now.”
As for Australia’s batsmen, against
whom he has taken 13 wickets at an
average of 13.53 in his fi rst two Tests,
Archer said: “We might actually
get them out for 67 – who knows?
Everyone’s been bowling well, eve-
ryone’s got wickets, so that’s good.
It’s not just one person taking all the
wickets.”
Steve Smith
Australia
‘When Stokes
reached 100 he
didn’t celebrate – I
really admire this’
Jofra Archer
‘We might get them
out for 67 – who
knows? Everyone’s
been bowling well’
▼ Jofra Archer’s short ball
kept low and caught Steve
Smith on the neck at Lord’s
TOM JENKINS/THE GUARDIAN
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