68
QQQ Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 7, 201968 THE ASHES
SPORT IN BRIEF
THE BURNING AS
HITTING THE
WORLD CUP WALL
All that investment and prioritis-
ing of white-ball cricket was justi-
fied in spectacular fashion in the
World Cup final, but it is clear now
that there is a hangover.
Ashley Giles admitted before the
first Test that England need to
switch their attention back to the
red-ball game — which has clearly
suffered — but the question is
whether that can be done in time
to salvage the Ashes.
It is no surprise that the mental
exertions have caught up with
a few; Jos Buttler and Jonny
Bairstow look out on their feet.
The pair scored just 20 runs in six
innings between them against
Ireland and Australia, and Buttler
has one century in 18 innings,
Bairstow just one in 24. England
coach Trevor Bayliss concedes the
issue but only up to a point.
‘That might have been the case
against Ireland,’ said Bayliss when
asked if his World Cup players
were frazzled. ‘But the intensity
we approached everything with
in this match didn’t give me any
indication of that.’
There was also an insistence
from Bayliss that Bairstow, who
was not at his best with the gloves
either at Edgbaston, will bounce
back. ‘Jonny has a bit in the bank
and he’s at his best when he has a
point to prove,’ said the coach.
‘This is the time he usually comes
back at the top of his game.’
Bairstow is determined to be an
all-rounder, so he will have to look
over his shoulder at Ben Foakes
the longer his lean spell goes on.CAPTAIN ROOT’S LIMP
LEADERSHIP
JoE RooT’s leadership, as well
as his failure to convert starts like
steve smith, must come under
scrutiny. His captaincy was a little
limp at Edgbaston in comparison
to that of smith, who was clearly
leading Australia on the field just
as much as he did with the bat.
The England captain did not
stick to any one plan against
smith, and his leadership was
summed up on the fourth dayAfter the Edgbaston annihilation, the problems
when he ignored Chris Woakes
throughout the morning, only to
bring him on to bowl immediately
after lunch. If you were charitable
you could say Root was saving
Woakes for lord’s, where his
record is outstanding.
The conspiracy theorists would
have you believe that Woakes, who
only last winter was struggling
with a ‘chronic’ knee problem, is
again battling injury. or maybe it
was just poor captaincy.
Whatever the truth, England
need their best batsman to start
scoring big runs like his contem-
poraries smith, Virat Kohli and
Kane Williamson tend to do once
they pass 50. And Root needs to
sharpen up his captaincy, or it will
become an issue soon.FRANCHISE FEVER
EnGlAnd expect far too
much from their star players and
nothing is being done to ease
workloads. How on earth could
they be expected to play a Test
against Ireland between the World
Cup and the Ashes, while Australia
had a little warm-up game between
themselves rather than play a
weakened county?
Have we learned nothing from
the way the last great England
team crashed and burned? Every
cricket administrator should
watch the brilliant film The Edge
before they squeeze every last
drop out of their best assets.
There is one thing I will say —
and whenever I say it I’m slammedfor being a dinosaur. But here goes.
Why do our stars insist on playing
franchise cricket even when they
are incredibly busy and very well
rewarded by their country?
Edgbaston flops Buttler and
Bairstow were at the IPl before
the biggest summer of their inter-
national lives. And why did Root
begin the year at the Big Bash
when he, more than any player,
could have done with a break?
We are always told their games
improve by mixing with the best
players from around the world.
But is it at the expense of their
England form? As it stands, they
will have to be rested for more and
more England games, starting
with the autumn tour of new
Zealand. That is far from ideal.PITCH LESS
THAN PERFECT
so muCH for England beating
Australia with seam and swing
from the 2018 dukes ball on help-
ful pitches. Edgbaston was dry
and flat and the ball did very
little. ‘I would have liked to have
seen a bit more live green grass on
the wicket to get the ball to move
sideways,’ admitted Bayliss.
now Root is faced with the
delicate situation of having to ask
lord’s groundsman Karl mcder-
mott for a pitch that will suit
England’s attack just a fortnight
after slamming him for the sort of
surface England could perhaps do
with now. And any assistance they
do get will have to be gainedLANGER HAS HIS SIDE ON SONG
THE ASHES
PAUL
NEWMAN
Cricket
CorrespondentPoint to prove: Jonny Bairstow GETTY IMAGES IPL fatigue: Jos Buttler looks shattered REUTERS Overworked: skipper Joe RootAUSTRALIA had the
perfect tune to
accompany their first Test
victory in their Edgbaston
dressing room.
The Aussies sang along to
Sweet Caroline, pinching
the Neil Diamond classic
that has become
synonymous with our own
Bumble and the good
times in English cricket
never feeling so good.
Their feelgood factor will
extend to Worcester today
where Australia will have
the luxury of leaving out
Steve Smith, David Warner,
Nathan Lyon and Pat
Cummins from their tourmatch and provide red-ball
practice for those who
missed out in Birmingham.
Clearly there is no need
for Smith to practise after
producing one of the
great Ashes performances
in his comeback Test.
‘I said during our summer
that Virat Kohli is the best
player I’ve ever seen but
that’s just another
level,’ said Australia
coach Justin Langer
yesterday of Smith.‘To play the way he did
here with all the pressure
and everything on him
was not only great skill
but enormous courage
and character. He had
all the traits of a truly
great player.’
There was also praise for
one of the least-heralded
figures in their camp, Tim
Paine, who clearly has the
full backing of his coach.
‘He’s a brilliant leader, a
great bloke and the best
keeper in the world,’ said
Langer. ‘There’s no way
he’s going to let this slip
now and I guarantee I
won’t either.’PAUL NEWMAN
Cricket CorrespondentTHE ASHESEFL CUP 1ST ROUND
PORTSMOUTH ......(2) 3 BIRMINGHAM .........(0) 0
Harrison 30, 54
Close 40
9,913
LEASING.COM TROPHY — North, Group H:
Rotherham 0 Man Utd U21 2. South, Group F:
Swindon 2 Chelsea U21 3.
VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE: AFC Fylde 0
Chorley 0, Barrow 0 Harrogate Town 3, Bore-
ham Wood 2 Wrexham 2, Bromley 3 Ebbsfleet
United 1, Dover 1 Dag & Red 2, FC Halifax 2
Hartlepool 0, Maidenhead Utd 1 Chesterfield
1, Notts County 1 Stockport County 1, Solihull
Moors 3 Torquay 0, Sutton Utd 1 Barnet 1,
Woking 0 Aldershot 1, Yeovil 1 Eastleigh 0.
North: AFC Telford 2 Kidderminster 0,
Alfreton Town 1 Boston Utd 1, Bradford P A 0
Guiseley 5, Chester FC 1 Altrincham 1, Glouces-
ter 0 Hereford FC 2, King’s Lynn Town 2 Ket-
tering 1, Leamington 2 Brackley 0, Southport
0 Curzon Ashton 0, York 0 Farsley Celtic 0.
South: Braintree Town 2 Billericay 3, Chip-
penham 1 Oxford City 1, Concord Rangers 2
Chelmsford 1, Dartford 1 St Albans 1, Dorking
Wanderers 3 Hemel Hempstead 1, Dulwich
1 Wealdstone 0, Eastbourne Borough 2
Tonbridge Angels 0, Hampton & Richmond 3
Havant and W 4, Hungerford Town 1 Slough 0,
Welling 1 Maidstone Utd 0, Weymouth 1 Bath
City 1.CHAMPIONS LGE — 3rd qfying rnd 1st leg:
PAOK 2 Ajax 2, Club Brugge 1 Dynamo Kiev 0,
Dinamo Zagreb 1 Ferencvaros 1, Apoel Nicosia
1 Karabakh 2, RS Belgrade 1 FC Copenhagen 1.
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE THIRD QUALIFYING
ROUND FIRST LEG: Ararat Armenia 1 Saburtalo
Tbilisi 2, Sutjeska 1 Linfield 2, Riga FC 1 HJK 1.
÷CRICKET
T20 BLAST - SOUTH GROUP — Hove, Glamorgan
146-9 (20.0 overs, D Lloyd 50), Sussex 150-1 (13.5
overs, P Salt 78no, L Wright 56). Sussex (2pts)
beat Glamorgan by 9 wickets.
3RD T20 INTERNATIONAL — Providence, West
Indies 146-6 (K Pollard 58), India 150-3 (R Pant
65no, V Kohli 59). India won by 7 wickets.
÷SNOOKER
INTERNATIONAL CH’SHIP (Daqing China) — 2nd
rd: M Allen (NIrl) bt M Davis (Eng) 6-1; J Perry
(Eng) bt S Maguire (Sco) 6-2; A Carter (Eng) bt
K Maflin (Nor) 6-3; S Murphy (Eng) bt Y Bingtao
(Chn) 6-4; D Gilbert (Eng) bt A McGill (Sco) 6-1;
J Trump (Eng) bt S Donaldson (Sco) 6-4; G Dott
(Sco) bt S Bingham (Eng) 6-3. D Junhui (Chn) bt
X Guodong (Chn) 6-1; J Jones (Eng) bt R Milkins
(Eng) 6-3; M Selby (Eng) bt B Woollaston (Eng) 6-
3; G Wilson (Eng) bt L Brecel (Bel) 6-2; J Higgins
(Sco) bt E Slessor (Eng) 6-3; L Wenbo (Chn) bt D
Wells (Wal) 6-4; T Ford (Eng) bt K Wilson (Eng)
6-5; A Higginson (Eng) bt J Robertson (Eng) 6-4;
N Robertson (A) bt R Walden (Eng) 6-5.÷TENNIS
ROGERS CUP — Men 1st rnd (Montreal): D Evans
(GB) bt A De Minaur (A) 6-4 7-6 (8-6); R Albot
(Mol) bt G Simon (F) 6-4 6-2; (12) J Isner (US) bt J
Thompson (A) 3-6 6-3 7-6 (8-6); (14) M Cilic (Cro)
bt B Klahn (US) 6-3 7-6 (9-7).
Women 1st rnd (Toronto): V Azarenka (Blr)
bt C Giorgi (It) 6-2 6-2; C Suarez Navarro (Sp)
bt V Williams (US) 6-4 6-2; S Zhang (Chn) bt (10)
A Sevastova (Lat) 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.÷TODAY’S ACTION
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
3RD QUALIFYING ROUND 1ST LEG
CFR Cluj v Celtic ............................................(7.0)
Live on Premier 1
EUROPA LEAGUE
3RD QUALIFYING ROUND 1ST LEG
Slovan Bratislava v Dundalk ......................(7.15)
LEASING.COM TROPHY — North, Group B:
Oldham v Liverpool U-21 (7.0).
VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE — North:
Darlington v Gateshead.
CRICKET — Tour Match—day 1 of 3: Worces-
tershire v Australia (New Road, 11.00am). T20
Blast - North Group: Leicestershire v Warwick-
shire (Grace Road, 6.30pm). Northamptonshire
v Durham (Northampton, 6.30pm). South
Group: Essex v Somerset (Chelmsford, 7.00pm).
Gloucestershire v Kent (Bristol, 6.30pm).РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS