(^) Daily Mail, Thursday, August 29, 2019
Archer on how the tourists blew it in
Leeds, how defeat will hurt them and
why their sledging made him laugh
80 ASHES SENSATION
THE AUSSIES
PANICKED
J
ofra archer has
admitted fearing he cost
england the ashes after he
was caught out on the
boundary during Sunday’s
pulsating finish at headingley
— but says it was australia who
ended up panicking.
archer was mocked by the australian
fielders after his attempted swipe for
six off Nathan Lyon was caught at deep
midwicket by Travis head, leaving eng-
land 286 for eight as they chased 359 to
square the series. Thanks to the heroics
of Ben Stokes and Jack Leach, they
managed to do just that, but archer’s
dismissal for 15 had appeared to spell
the beginning of the end.
‘I wanted to make it less hard work for
Ben, but I got out,’ he said. ‘I thought I
had messed the series up — not just the
game but the series, so I am very
relieved that we are still alive.
‘Your coach always tells you, ‘‘Don’t
leave it for anyone else’’. I tried to do as
much of it as I could. We have all seen
enough cricket to know 80 to win with
just one wicket left against the austral-
ian bowling attack... we were very
grateful to be on the winning side, that
is all I can say.’
a few days on from arguably the great-
est finish Test cricket has ever seen,
england’s new fast-bowling find was
still trying to make sense of it all as he
sat in the pavilion at hove, home of his
county side Sussex.
all was peaceful outside, a world away
from the headingley mayhem where
the crowd was going berserk and the
australians were giving him grief.
‘Yes, terrible chat,’ confirmed archer.
‘Nothing to worry about. It made me
laugh. one of them said: “That is a great
shot, Jof ”. If it did go for six, it
would have been. all I can say
is we got over the line.’
archer believes australia’s
agonising near miss could
affect the way they approach
next week’s fourth Test in
Manchester.
‘Never get complacent,’ he
said. ‘To be fair to
them, 350 runs is a
lot. But the crowd
started getting on
their backs and I
think they panicked
ENGLAND’S demon fast bowler Jofra
Archer has revealed that he came
to wear the No 22 shirt during the
World Cup because it once belonged
to white-ball batsman Craig
Kieswetter. Archer attended the
2010 World T20 final in his home
town of Bridgetown in Barbados,
where England beat Australia.
Each of his schoolmates chose a
player to identify with and changed
their Facebook name accordingly,
and Archer chose Kieswetter (right)
— who was man of the match after
his 63 off 49 balls helped England to
a seven-wicket win.
‘When someone asked what
number I wanted, I didn’t know if
Kieswetter had retired,’ said
Archer. ‘I probably would have
rung him up and asked him if he
could do me the honour, but he
actually had (retired) ... so there
was no need to.’
a bit. They thought they would have
rolled us after getting quick early wick-
ets but they did not go through us. The
upcoming games they will think twice. I
don’t think they will declare now. I don’t
think they will be too attacking. The
way they play might be a bit different.’
archer has already made some telling
interventions during an ashes series
beautifully poised at 1-1 going into
Wednesday’s game.
he marked his Test debut by hitting
Steve Smith on the neck with a delivery
at Lord’s, forcing him out of australia’s
second innings and the whole of the
third Test. archer followed five wickets
there with eight at headingley, includ-
ing first-innings figures of six for 45.
With Smith set to return at old Traf-
ford, the battle between the world’s
best Test batsman and most exciting
fast bowler will add yet more spice to an
already fiery series. Is archer looking
forward to bowling to him again? ‘Yes,
why wouldn’t I be?’
archer was concerned enough after
hitting Smith at Lord’s to visit the aus-
tralian dressing room, but the bats-
man had already gone for a scan.
and he responded to Smith’s
suggestion yesterday that
archer is yet to dismiss him
with a smile and a shrug:
‘Well, I can’t get him out
if he wasn’t there.’
The mood now is of a bowler on a mis-
sion to complete the greatest summer
in the history of english cricket by mak-
ing it a World cup-ashes double.
fretting about hitting Smith — a
moment that briefly took spectators
back to the Phillip hughes tragedy
in November 2014 — is not going to help
anyone.
‘We’ve got a job on our hands,’ said
archer. ‘I’ve seen him (Smith) around,
but you’re not going to pull up a chair
and have a deep conversation, are you?’
archer has been an international
cricketer for barely four months, but he
was thrown into the World cup and has
already had more thrills than some
players experience in a lifetime.
‘I still watch the World cup highlights,’
he said. ‘But all I can say is that head-
ingley game was special. When Lyon
fumbled the run-out, you could hear a
heartbeat in the dressing room.
‘It just shows our fight. No one rolled
over and played dead, everyone wanted
to win, even the No 11 (Leach, left) was
very keen to get stuck in. he will be
called upon again at some point in the
series. We got a taste of what it’s like to
win from nowhere, so I guess we can
take that on with us.’
Specsavers are the Official Test Partner
of the England cricket team. Jofra
Archer was speaking ahead of the
fourth Specsavers Ashes Test match.
THE BARBADOS BOY’S
KIESWETTER TRIBUTE
New ball
threat:
Archer is
ready to
go again
PA
INTERVIEW
by Lawrence Booth
Wisden Editor
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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