The Daily Telegraph - 29.08.2019

Sport Cricket

Australian is relishing

renewal of Ashes duel

England quick targets

beating Lord’s 96mph

Batsman’s Headingley

heroics yet to sink in

Anderson still to prove

fitness for fourth Test

By Nick Hoult

CRICKET NEWS CORRESPONDENT

Steve Smith insists he will not be

intimidated by facing Jofra Archer

in the showdown that could settle

the Ashes, despite the Englishman

believing he can bowl even faster

than the 96mph spell he unleashed

on Australia’s talisman at Lord’s.

Smith is playing against Derby-

shire this week to prove his fitness

for the fourth Test, having missed

England’s dramatic one-wicket win

at Headingley after suffering a sick-

ening blow from an Archer bouncer

at Lord’s.

The batsman was left flat out on

the pitch after being hit on the back

of the neck and Smith admitted he

was momentarily taken back to the

day Phillip Hughes died as he lay on

the Lord’s turf after the terrifying

incident.

Smith tried to play down the sig-

nificance of facing Archer again but

it is not until he does that the

30-year-old, who struck twin cen-

turies in the first Test and 92 in his

only innings in the second, will

know if there has been any lasting

psychological damage.

“There’s been a bit of talk that

he’s got the wood over me, but he

hasn’t got me out,” Smith said of

Archer. “He hit me on the head on a

wicket that was a bit up and down.

All the other bowlers have had

more success against me, I dare say.

I’ve faced them a bit more but

they’ve all got me out a lot more, so,

yeah, pretty comfortable about

that. If you bowl it up there it means

they can’t nick me off or hit me on

the pad or hit the stumps. With the

Dukes ball, it’s an interesting ploy,

so we’ll see what happens.”

For Archer, it should not be the

blow to the neck that sticks in the

mind but the way Smith flapped

against him in the overs leading up

to his injury. Archer hit him with a

painful blow on the arm, after

which Smith faced just five more

balls from him and looked com-

pletely rattled for the first time in

three Ashes series.

Archer proved in the third Test

that he is about much more than

raw pace but, when asked yester-

day whether he could bowl faster

than the 96mph he reached at

Lord’s, he said: “I’m an optimist, so

I’ll say yes anyway, but, if I don’t,

I’m OK. Bowling fast doesn’t get

people out, you still need to put the

ball in the right area, no matter how

fast or slow it is.

“I’m all for bowling fast but I’m

also here to get wickets. It doesn’t

make sense to just try to bully peo-

ple in England. You have to be

skilled to play in other conditions,

know that if your bouncer is out of

the game, you’ll still be effective. As

Innings will

mean little

if Ashes lost,

says Stokes

By Nick Hoult

Ben Stokes says his Headingley

heroics will count for nothing if

England fail to win back the Ashes.

Stokes is still coming to terms

with his match-winning century on

Sunday that has made him part of

Ashes folklore for the rest of his life.

But with two Tests to go and

Australia consistently exposing

England’s fragile batting line-up,

Stokes knows his performance will

be an empty achievement if his side

do not improve at Old Trafford

next  week.

“I don’t think it’s completely

sunk in; the main reason is we have

two games to go,” Stokes told Sky

Sports News. If we don’t get the

Ashes back, what will it feel like? I

will only take real satisfaction from

the innings if we win back the

Ashes. It was an amazing week in

Headingley and something that will

be very hard to forget, but we still

have a long way to go.

“Momentum is huge in sport and

I’m sure when Stuart Broad got out,

Australia would have thought they

would have the Ashes by the end of

the day, so we go into the next

match with a lot of confidence.”

Stokes praised the contribution

of England’s last man and new cult

hero Jack Leach, who faced 17 deliv-

eries for his one run at Headingley.

“It was a pretty iconic picture,

Jack Leach cleaning his glasses

after every ball and the video of him

running down the pitch has gone

viral as well,” Stokes added.

“He has to take a lot of credit

from the game because the 17 balls

he faced are probably the most cru-

cial he will ever face in his career.”

England will announce the squad

for the fourth Test after James

Anderson’s second-XI match for

Lancashire this week, which ends

tomorrow.

Anderson bowled 20 overs on the

first day against Durham in Chester,

but play was washed out yesterday.

The selectors want to be sure he gets

Why No 22? Jofra’s tribute to Kieswetter

Jofra Archer

has revealed

he wears No 22

in honour of

the player he

once wanted to

copy – Craig

Kieswetter.

In 2010,

Archer was at

the Kensington

Oval in

Barbados to see

wicketkeeper

Kieswetter,

wearing No 22,

blast 63 runs as

England won

the T20 World

Cup final. He

wanted to be a

wicketkeeper/

batsman until

turning to fast

bowling.

Smith: Archer will not scare me –

2 *** Thursday 29 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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