QQQ Daily Mail, Friday, August 16, 201986 THE ASHES SECOND TEST
THE ASHES
PAUL
NEWMAN
Cricket Correspondent
at Lord’sBUMBLE
AT THE TEST
By DAVID LLOYD
I SHARE YOUR PAINE
YOU wouldn’t believe it, but I
was refused entry to Lord’s on
day one. Eventually, a senior
ECB official gave me the thumbs
up but I gather a similar
experience befell the sister of
Australian captain Tim Paine. She
told the security man: ‘I’m Tim
Paine’s sister.’ His response?
‘Who’s Tim Paine?’GROUCHO STILL ON LIST
I MENTIONED in my pre-match
guide to Lord’s that I would really
like to visit the Groucho Club in
Soho. I received a curt missive
from Michael Henderson, formerly
of this parish, warning me not to
head for the Groucho and insisted
he was glad he’d been banned for
life. Which only strengthens my
resolve to pay the joint a visit...MORNING, CAMPERS!
WASN’T it marvellous to see the
support for the Ruth Strauss
Foundation? Lord’s became a sea
of red, and I’m sure a substantial
sum was raised for sufferers of
rare forms of cancer. We were
resplendent in our red jackets,
but if anybody else shouts ‘Hi-de-
hi!’ to me, I’ll consult my MP.
LORD’S GOES RED FOR RUTH: P13A
t least one England
batsman, Jonny
Bairstow, seems to
have shrugged off
his World Cup hang-
over. the others are still
searching desperately for a
cure after another brittle
performance yesterday gave
Australia the edge in this
shortened second test.
No batsmen epitomise the
fragility of a line-up that simply
must toughen up more than two of
the biggest heroes of that World
Cup victory — Jason Roy and
Jos Buttler. they simply cannot
buy big red-ball Ashes runs.
there is no question both are
special talents who should play in
every England game in all formats
but whether they are mentally
exhausted, technically challenged
or both, they are badly struggling
in this most important of all
test series.
It might have been expected that
Roy would take stock after his
horrible dismissal to Nathan Lyon
on the last day of the first
test and at least try to
temper the attacking
methods that have
made him one of
the world’s most
destructive white-
ball batsmen.
Far from it. Here at
Lord’s in what has
become a four-day test
he tried even harder to
get his side off to a rapid
start after tim Paine had chal-
lenged England to bat. But Roy
succeeded only in providing evi-
dence for Nasser Hussain’s insist-
ence in these pages that he should
bat further down the order.
He tried an expansive
cut to his — and Josh
Hazlewood’s — first
ball and missed.
then he pushed at
his second out-
side off-stump
and missed
again before
playing at his
third when he
did not need
to and edging
through to Paine.
He is clearly still find-
ing his way and it would
not be right to jettison
him from test cricket
already but he needs
to find the balance he
displayed to an extent
in his second testCup final, he does not look like
finding a way out of his malaise
any time soon. What he really
could do with is a rest but that
must clearly wait.
the good news for England is
that Rory Burns backed up his
century at Edgbaston with another
impressive display of character
and temperament that suggests
he can solve at least one problem
in this troublesome line-up.
Yes, Burns should have been
taken in the gully by Usman Kha-
waja off Siddle on 16, while he also
survived a difficult diving chance
to Paine off the same bowler, but it
took a spectacular short-leg catch
by Cameron Bancroft off Cummins
to dismiss him on 53.IT’S THE HANG
Bairstow aside, the
World Cup heroes
are stuck in a rut
innings against Ireland if he is
to succeed against Australia’s
big guns.
A negative tone had been set
yet again by England with the bat
and Hazlewood, who had warned
Roy before the series how tough
test cricket would be before being
left out of the first test himself,
was off and running with a quite
outstanding opening spell.
It is Australia’s depth of fast
bowling options as much as the
impregnable batting of Steve
Smith that has given them the
edge so far in this Specsavers
series and how Hazlewood proved
it here after being preferred to
Mitchell Starc, the World Cup’s
leading wicket-taker, once they
had decided to protect the fragile
James Pattinson.
Just as impressive on a
pitch that offered very
little assistance, and in
sunshine providing
excellent batting con-
ditions, was the world’s
No 1 ranked bowler
Pat Cummins.
Once the pair of fast
bowlers had worked out
there would be little seam
or swing for them they
instead concentrated on
working England over, and in
Cummins’ case roughing them
up, and met with frustratingly
little resistance.
While Hazlewood and
Cummins took six wick-
ets between them and
ripped the heart out of
England’s batting, it was
left to the Australian
workhorse Peter Siddle
(left) to put Buttler out
of his misery and provide
a major middle order
headache for England.
All Siddle did was bowl
a straight ball in the
early 80s outside off
stump and Buttler,
surprisingly batting
above Ben Stokes,
timidly pushed at it and
edged to Paine.
there is no one better
than Buttler out there
for England to turn to
but, having scaled his
Everest in the World53 and out:
Burns falls
to a superb
catch from
Bancroft
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sportthere was another start for the
batsman with most to prove at
this level. Joe Denly was preferred
to Sam Curran but after doing the
hard work getting through to 30
he succumbed to a beauty from
Hazlewood.
At least Bairstow, out of sorts
against Ireland and at Edgbaston
last week, relocated the right
touch and tempo for the test
game in marshalling the lower
order towards at least a semblance
of respectability.
England looked destined for a
woefully under-par score when
Stokes became the first of three
victims for Nathan Lyon to leave
them perilously placed on 138 for
six but Bairstow found a willingaccomplice in the Lord’s specialist
Chris Woakes.
the pair added 72 before Woakes,
struggling against the short ball,
was struck a nasty blow on the
head by Cummins ducking into
one that did not get up before
falling in the same over.
With Woakes’s dismissal went
England’s last chance of building
a commanding score, Bairstow
falling to Lyon for 52 trying to clear
the ropes once left with only Jack
Leach for company.
It was a waste of what are likely
to be the best batting conditions
of the match and England will be
similarly frustrated at only gaining
one wicket in an hour of bowling
once the clouds had rolled in and