Daily Mail - 16.08.2019

QQQ

Daily Mail, Friday, August 16, 2019

87

IN THE WRIGHT PLACE

OUT and about in Notting Hill on

Wednesday, and who should we bump

into but the Gunners goal machine Ian

Wright! Legend. Now, Nasser Hussain,

the former Leeds United fan who

changed allegiance to Arsenal, was

made up, and made a beeline for his

hero to ask for a selfie. Sadly for

Nasser, Wrighty bypassed him and

came straight to me.

AUSSIES MAKE HAY

AUSTRALIA’S strength is their bowling

unit, and it’s clear that England’s

batting is fragile. Jason Roy hasn’t

been able to dictate terms at the top

of the order, Joe Root is at No 3 but

I’m guessing he wants to be at No 4,

Joe Denly is under pressure, Jos

Buttler is short of runs, and Ben Stokes

missed out this time. Australia are

seizing on this vulnerability.

CUMMINS TAKES SPOTLIGHT

WINNING the toss and bowling first

puts an onus on the bowlers, but

Australia responded terrifically as a

unit. They had good pace up front

and bowled a full length, and then

there was a passage of play where

Pat Cummins used every ounce of

energy, hit the pitch hard and tested

the batsman’s resolve with short

bowling. It was very impressive.

LEGENDS CAN STRUGGLE TOO

THE statistical folk at Cricviz tell me

that England’s top six this calendar

year are averaging 26 runs per

wicket, the lowest they’ve averaged

since 1950. You probably think they

were a lousy side back then, but

England’s team included Len Hutton,

Cyril Washbrook, Bill Edrich, Denis

Compton and Trevor Bailey.

Funny old game.

OVER PART

SCOREBOARD

THE ASHES

ROUGHED-UP ARCHER WILL BE OUT FOR REVENGE

Duck for cover: Ben Stokes sways to avoid a bouncer GETTY IMAGES

Feeling the pressure: Root REX

MARTIN SAMUEL

PAGES 84-85

SECOND TEST MATCH

England v Australia

(Day 2 of 5; Today 11am)

LORD’S: Australia, with nine 1st-innings wkts in

hand, are trailing England by 228 runs.

ENGLAND — First Innings

R Burns c Bancroft b Cummins ......................... 53

J Roy c Paine b Hazlewood ................................. 0

*J Root lbw b Hazlewood ................................... 14

J Denly c Paine b Hazlewood ............................ 30

J Buttler c Paine b Siddle .................................. 12

B Stokes lbw b Lyon .......................................... 13

†J Bairstow c Khawaja b Lyon .......................... 52

C Woakes c Paine b Cummins .......................... 32

J Archer c Khawaja b Cummins ........................ 12

S Broad b Lyon .................................................. 11

M Leach not out ................................................... 6

Extras (b12, lb5, w6) ....................................... 23

Total (77.1 overs) .......................................... 258

Fall: 0, 26, 92, 116, 136, 138, 210, 230, 251.

Bowling: Cummins 21-8-61-3, Hazlewood 22-

6-58-3, Siddle 13-2-48-1, Lyon 19.1-2-68-3, Smith

2-0-6-0.

AUSTRALIA — First Innings

C Bancroft not out ............................................... 5

D Warner b Broad ................................................ 3

U Khawaja not out.............................................. 18

Extras (b4) ......................................................... 4

Total (1 wkt 13 overs) ...................................... 30

Fall: 11.

Bowling: Broad 5-0-13-1, Archer 6-3-10-0,

Woakes 2-0-3-0.

From Back Page

JOY OF SIX?

NOT EXACTLY...

ENGLAND’S top six have averaged just 26.1 runs

per wicket in 2019 — the lowest since 1950! Here

are the side’s top 10 and bottom 10 yearly

averages per wicket for the top six since then...

TOP 10 SINCE 1950

1985 61.5

2011 57.9

1962 57.3

1970 50.6

1964 49.6

2004 49.3

1965 48.4

1967 47.4

2010 46.8

2009 45.0

BOTTOM 10 SINCE 1950

1950 23.4

2019 26.1

1972 26.7

1989 27.6

1999 28.3

1980 28.7

1981 29.2

2000 29.5

2018 29.6

1976 29.7

the lights had been switched on

for Australia’s reply. David Warner

was bowled by a beauty from Stu-

art Broad and Jofra Archer pro-

duced a couple of jaffas in his first

taste of Test cricket but Australia

got through to 30 for one and were

able to protect Smith until today.

With clouds — and rain — fore-

cast for today England could yet

bowl their way back into conten-

tion but even if they do the clouds

remain stubbornly hanging over

their batting. And that more than

anything is jeopardising their

Ashes chances.

Duck:

Jason

Roy

the England opener. ‘Nathan

Lyon ran past me this morning

and mentioned it within about

three balls, so I was well versed

in what I’d be getting.

‘Luckily we can dish out some of

our own in this game as well.

We’ve got some boys in our

armoury who can do the same

thing, so it should be quite

interesting.

‘Jofra copped a fair few as well,

so he’s probably looking

forward to getting his own

back.’

Lyon, who took three for 68 in

an impressive bowling display

by the Australians, looked

nonplussed at the suggestion he

had imparted some early

wisdom to Burns, who had also

been bounced out by Cummins

in the first Test at Edgbaston.

And Lyon sounded less than

enthusiastic about the prospect

of facing some short stuff

himself. ‘Mate, I can’t bat,’ he

said. ‘What do you reckon?

We’ve got to come out and bat

long periods of time, but we

know they’ve got a world-class

bowling unit.’

Burns admitted there was a

‘sense of disappointment’ in the

England dressing room after

they slipped from 92 for two to

138 for six.

A half-century from Jonny

Bairstow and 32 by Chris

Woakes, who was pinned on the

helmet during a hostile spell

from Cummins, then dragged

them towards respectability.

But Burns said England drew

heart from Warner’s third

failure of the series, defeated by

a beauty from Broad that went

through the gate before

trimming his leg bail.

‘It was a good ball, wasn’t it?’

said Burns.

‘With the slope here, it was set

to go away from him. To go up

the slope is a pretty handy

delivery.’