Section:GDN 1N PaGe:43 Edition Date:190801 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 31/7/2019 20:20 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 1 August 2019 The Guardian •
431981 England won by 29 runs
Day three began badly for the hosts,
who were eight wickets down and
only 99 runs ahead despite Mike
Gatting’s crucial 39 – but they
soldiered on to reach 219, leaving
Australia 151 to win. The following
morning Bob Willis and Chris Old
had Australia at 29 for three but
Allan Border and Graham Yallop
edged them to 46 runs shy of the
target with the score at 105 for
fi ve. Mike Brearley then called on
his trump card, Ian Botham, and
Beefy conceded one run from his
30 deliveries and cleaned up the
remaining fi ve Australian wickets
in 28 remarkable balls. Edgbaston
erupted. “The crowd has gone
noisily berserk,” Richie Benaud
noted on the TV commentary.1985 England won by an innings
and 118 runs
Botham was at it again four years
later in a rain- aff ected fi fth Test. The
fi rst two days were tight aff airs but,
come the Saturday, Australia were
335 all out and the hosts 355 for one
with Tim Robinson on 140 and David
Gower on 169. When play resumed
on the Monday, England had
reached 572 for four after Gatting
had unleashed a 127-ball century. Up
strode Botham to heap torment on
the young quick Craig McDermott,
smacking 18 in seven balls. England
declared on 595 for fi ve and on the
Tuesday Richard Ellison destroyed
Australia’s top order by taking four
wickets for one run in 15 balls.2001 Australia won by an innings
and 118 runs
Australia’s last victory against
England at the Birmingham bear pit
was a humbling aff air for Nasser
Hussain and his team. Adam
Gilchrist hit a magnifi cent 152 in the
fi rst innings to back up Steve
Waugh and Damien Martyn, who
both scored 105. But it was Shane
Warne who infl icted the serious
pain , taking eight wickets for 100
runs in the match. England were
all out for 294 in their fi rst innings,
even with a 10th-wicket partnership
of 103 from Alec Stewart and Andy
Caddick , and their second eff ort was
even worse – 164 all out. Australia
went on to win the series 4-1 and
retain the Ashes.2005 England won by 2 runs
The fi nal day of the second Test
began with England closing in on
victory and Australia , eight wickets
down, still needing an unlikely 107
runs to win. Brett Lee and Warne
added 45 for the ninth wicket before
Andrew Flintoff dismissed Warne
hit wicket. But Michael Kasprowicz
at No 11 kept the runs ticking over
and it looked bad for England when
Simon Jones dropped him with 15
runs still to get. Eventually, England
breathed a huge sigh of relief when
their other Jones – wicketkeeper
Geraint – caught Kasprowicz three
runs short of the target.Centre stage
How Edgbaston
Tests shaped
Ashes history
necessity for what is essentially a PR
move, not least since it does not take
place before any other Test series. It
now remains to be seen whether the
England captain reluctantly complies
and the handshakes take place before
play this morning.
Asked how he expected Australia’s
players to behave this series, Root
replied: “We’ll see how that unfolds in
the course of the series. To be honest,
their behaviour doesn’t really concern
me. The thing that concerns me is that
we go about things in our own way. I t’s
really important we look after that and
don’t get too wrapped up in how they
play their cricket.”
On a personal level Root is being
driven by the memories of ending
England’s 4-0 defeat in Australia 18
months ago stricken on a sickbed
as he looks to fulfi l a boyhood dream
of becoming an Ashes-winning
captain.
A t a ground that Paine claimed
would not make his top 15 most
intimidating in the world Root named
an XI denying Jofra Archer his debut
with Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad
and Chris Woakes preferred.
As well as explaining his own
move to No 3 as a way of spreading
expe rience in the batting order , Root
recalled the feeling of losing his only
previous Ashes series as captain. It was
a tough ending for him when struck
down by gastroenteritis in Sydney and
forced to retire ill on 58.
Root, who was so poorly he missed
Australia’s players celebrating , said:
“I felt gutted and raw at the end of it.
I never want to be there and lose a bigseries like the Ashes but it does make
you more steely and desperate to go
out and turn things round this time.”
Asked what it would mean to lead
an England side to an Ashes win,
having previously tasted it as a player
in 2015 , he replied: “I dreamt about it
from being a little boy and obviously
it became more real by being put in
a position to have that opportunity.”
A big diff erence from 18 months
ago is the presence of Ben Stokes,
who missed that series during the
fallout from the Bristol incident but
has since returned to the Test side and,
fol lowing his heroics in the World Cup
fi nal, been restored as vice-captain.
Root revealed he had been making
the request for Stokes as his No 2 for
some time and said: “He has the full
respect of everyone because of how
he approaches training and every
big moment. You know he is going to
throw himself into it and he’s never
going to ask something from you that
he wouldn’t expect from himself.
“It’s great to have him asvice-captain again – it’s an opportunity
for him to come to the fore. A s you’ve
seen throughout the World Cup, when
he’s been given added responsibility,
he’s stepped up to it and I expect the
same in this series.”
Archer’s omission will disappoint
those wowed by his World Cup
perfor mances but England feared
he was not yet ready for the physical
exertions of Test cricket following the
side issue that required painkilling
injections during that victorious
campaign.
With Sussex playing only Twenty20
cricket before the Lord’s Test on
14 August, Archer may have to build
up his bowling workloads in the nets
unless England can arrange a loan deal
for the Worcestershire match against
Australia that sits in between.
Such a move is not unprecedented- Andrew Strauss played for Somerset
on loan from Middlesex before the 2011
series with India – but England may
wish to deny Australia’s batsmen the
chance to face Archer early.
Root annoyed
by handshakes –
but delighted for
deputy Stokes
Continued from back page
England
players
pulling
togetherChris Woakes
fi nds a smile
as he and his
teammates
use rope
during a
warmup
exercise
MICHAEL
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