as dramatic as 67 all-out, but we’ve all seen the work of demoralised teams resigned to their fate. In this
case, blowing their chance at regaining the Ashes, as they effective did in the first innings.
From the moment Joe Denly walked out at number four, he looked a second away from becoming
Australia’s third victim in a hurry. Off the mark via an edge when trying to leave the ball, he was beaten
routinely, smashed on the badge of the helmet by Pat Cummins when trying to leave a bouncer, nearly out
leg before off the bicep and cut in half twice. When the openers took a break, James Pattinson’s short ball
was ever so close to being fended to gully the Headingley crowd got it, cheering ironically when he passed
12, his team-high score on Friday.
But by doing what nobody could the first time around – absorbing the worst the visitors could throw at him
without giving up his wicket – Denly changed the afternoon. Very quickly, he wasn’t just a wicket the
Australian bowlers needed, but one they felt they had earned several times over. With Joe Root again
looking the class player that he is, the atmospherics changed. Those signs of drift arrived in the hour before
the tea break and into the final hour of the day’s play.
Nathan Lyon’s economy rate at Lord’s reflected the fact that he wasn’t at his best. Forever a confidence
player, the rule of thumb with the prolific off-spinner is when he is giving up runs, he isn’t taking wickets.
Since pulling even with Dennis Lillee as Australia’s third-highest Test wicket-taker on the opening day at
HQ, he hasn’t added to his tally. That he didn’t send down a maiden until his 15th over was also without
precedent since way back in 2014. It was he who Root dispatched from the first ball after tea and then again
with consecutive boundaries to bring up his half-century. The local lad was bringing Leeds alive.
Joe Root at the crease for England (Getty)Misfields banked up too – Usman Khawaja early, Matthew Wade later. Tim Paine wasn’t able to glove a
Lyon delivery that kept low and Denly ran past. Funky fields featured, Cummins immediately employing a
leg slip when returning for a burst after tea, before removing him four balls later. Frustrated chat from the
bowlers was audible and visible, Josh Hazlewood giving Denly a piece of his mind when beating him twice
in a row as the clock struck 6pm. The morning before, everything was hitting the edge and landing with a
catcher. Now, seemed to be.
Appeals became more frequent and frantic, Pattinson pleading early for decisions that were never going his
way; Umpire Gaffaney giving Root leg before on 59 from a ball that was never hitting – and smashed the
inside edge. Lyon gave it his Jazz Hands ask twice in one over against Denly after the Kent veteran passed
50, the second of which wasted a review when Paine took it upstairs. The man least likely wasn’t going to do
something remarkable and go on to post an Ashes ton, was he?
No, he wasn’t. Enter Hazlewood. The over after Lyon’s grilling of his front pad, the biggest of Australia’s
quicks used every bit of his height and leverage to spit a brutal bouncer at Denly’s face, this time ending in