The Times - UK (2021-12-21)

the times | Tuesday December 21 2021 65

Sport

England’s muddled thinking

Second Test scoreboard

Umpires P Wilson and R Tucker. TV umpire P Reiffel. Reserve umpire S Nogajski. Match referee D Boon. Man of the match M Labuschagne (Australia). Series details Australia lead five-match series 2-0 First Test Australia won by nine wickets. Third Test Dec 26-30, Melbourne (11.30pm, Dec 25). Fourth Test Jan 5-9, Sydney (11.30pm, Jan 4). Fifth Test Jan 14-18, Hobart, 3am. All times GMT

AUSTRALIA First Innings R M S Harris c Buttler b Broad Short ball, scuffed it past leg side

3

D A Warner c Broad b Stokes Short and wide, clattered it

95

M Labuschagne lbw b Robinson Nip off seam, back into knee-roll

103

*S P D Smith lbw b Anderson Good length ball that nipped back

93

T M Head b Root Full toss, played over the top of it

18

C J Green b Stokes Cracking delivery, hit the top of off

2

@A T Carey c Hameed b Anderson Fuller outside off, sliced it to cover

51

M A Starc not out

39

M G Neser c Broad b Stokes A high and mighty towards long-off

35

J A Richardson c Buttler b Woakes Swished across the line, a thin nick

9

Extras (lb 9, nb 11, w 5)

25

TOTAL (9 wkts dec, 150.4 overs) 473

N M Lyon did not bat. Fall of wickets 1-4, 2-176, 3-241, 4-291, 5-294, 6-385, 7-390, 8-448, 9-473. Bowling Anderson 29-10-58-2; Broad 26-6-73-1; Woakes 23.4-6-103-1; Robinson 27-13-45-1; Stokes 25-2-113-3; Root 20-2-72-1.

AUSTRALIA Second Innings R D A Warner run out (Broad/Buttler) Warner stopped after Harris stalled

13

M S Harris c Buttler b Broad Edge, stunningly caught

23

M G Neser b Anderson Off seam, clipped inside edge

3

M Labuschagne c Stokes b Malan Hit long to deep mid-wicket

51

*S P D Smith c Buttler b Robinson Strangled down leg side

6

T M Head c Stokes b Robinson Short, pulled to deep square leg

51

C J Green not out

33

@A T Carey b Root Chopped on to his stumps

6

M A Starc c Pope b Root Holed out to deep mid-wicket

19

J A Richardson c Buttler b Malan Looped up, top-edge straight up

8

Extras (b 3, lb 8, nb 5, w 1)

17

TOTAL (9 wkts dec, 61 overs) 230

Fall of wickets 1-41, 2-48, 3-48, 4-55, 5-144, 6-173, 7-180, 8-216, 9-230. Bowling Anderson 10-6-8-1; Broad 10-3-27-1; Robinson 15-2-54-2; Woakes 12-3-46-0; Root 6-1-27-2; Stokes 2-0-24-0; Malan 6-0-33-2.

ENGLAND First Innings R H Hameed c Starc b Neser Full and angled, chipped to mid on

6

R J Burns c Smith b Starc Edged straight to second slip

4

D J Malan c Smith b Starc Extra pace, slashed to first slip

80

*J E Root c Smith b Green Fat snick to first slip

62

B A Stokes b Green Inside edge onto the stumps

34

O J D Pope c Labuschagne b Lyon Attempted clip flies straight up

5

@J C Buttler c Warner b Starc Thick edge taken at first slip

0

C R Woakes b Lyon Dipping delivery, thin inside-edge

24

O E Robinson lbw b Lyon Huge spin, nailed on the pad, plumb

0

S C J Broad c Head b Starc Backed away, hacked out to cover

9

J M Anderson not out

5

Extras (lb 6, nb 1)

7

TOTAL (84.1 overs) 236

Fall of wickets 1-7, 2-12, 3-150, 4-157, 5-164, 6-169, 7-202, 8-204, 9-220. Bowling Starc 16.1-6-37-4; Richardson 19-4-78-0; Neser 11-0-33-1; Lyon 28-11-58-3; Green 10-3-24-2.

ENGLAND Second Innings R R J Burns c Smith b Richardson Full, off seam, caught at second

34

H Hameed c Carey b Richardson Beauty angled in, seamed away

0

D J Malan lbw b Neser Full length, pinged on the pad

20

*J E Root c Carey b Starc Forward to defend, edged behind

24

B A Stokes lbw b Lyon Straighter line, thumps the pad

12

O J D Pope c Smith b Starc Over wicket, nick to second slip

4

@J C Buttler hit wicket b Richardson So deep in his crease, heeled stumps

26

C R Woakes b Richardson Full ball, clean through the gate

44

O E Robinson c Smith b Lyon Good length, great catch at slip

8

S C J Broad not out

9

J M Anderson c Green b Richardson Short, flinched at, scooped up at gully

2

Extras (b 2, lb 3, nb 4)

9

TOTAL (113.1 overs) 192 Fall of wickets 1-4, 2-48, 3-70, 4-82, 5-86, 6-105, 7-166, 8-178, 9-182. Bowling Starc 27-10-43-2; Richardson 19.1-9-42-5; Lyon 39-16-55-2; Neser 13-5-28-1; Green 9-5-9-0; Labuschagne 4-2-10-0; Smith 1-1-0-0; Head 1-1-0-0.

Buttler’s self-denial

Jack Russell, 29* from 235 balls v South Africa, Johannesburg 1995

Jos Buttler, 26 from 207 ball v Australia, Adelaide 2021

Chris Tavare, 35 from 240 balls v India, Chennai 1982

Trevor Bailey, 68 from 427 v Austalia, Brisbane 1958

Bob Taylor, 36 from 200 balls v Pakistan Karachi 1978

Derek Pringle, 45 from 237 balls v West Indies, Edgbaston 1991

Patsy Hendren, 42 from 221 balls v Australia, Headingley 1934

Mark Ramprakash, 42 from 220 balls v Sri Lanka, the Oval, 1998

Slowest innings for England of 200 or more balls by strike rate (runs per 100 balls faced)

12.34

12.56

14.58

15.92

18

18.98

19

19.09

JASON O’BRIEN/PA

series but acknowledged that it would
require “fast learning”.
“I was very proud of the way the guys
fought today — the desire,” he said.
“That’s how we need to go about a
whole Test match. We can’t leave it
until the last day and expect to pull off
an enormous feat. We can’t make the
same mistakes that we have made so
far. We have to have that same attitude
we had today. The disappointing thing
about this week is that we made the
same mistakes as last week. We can’t
afford to do that.
“We need to make bigger scores and
apply ourselves better. We are more
than capable of doing it, but we haven’t
so far and that’s why it’s disappointing.”
Root urged his bowlers to be braver,
pitch the ball up and “accept we are
going to be driven”. “With ball in hand,
we didn’t bowl the right lengths,” he
said. “We needed to bowl fuller. As soon
as we did that in the second innings, we
created chances. That’s frustrating. We
did this four years ago and didn’t learn

Broad defends short bowling tactic

from it. We have to be better.” Stuart Broad obvi- ously disagrees with his captain on this issue and defended their decision not to bowl fuller in his col- umn in The Mail on Sun- day. “I think we held the game well on the open- ing day,” he said. “Austra- lia were 221 for two at the end of play and you would expect it to be something closer to 321 when losing so few wickets. Although there is an argument that we could have bowled fuller because the ball did so little, our economy rates would have gone through the roof.” But Root was also

critical of the basic errors made in the field by his team throughout the match. “The most important thing for me is the number of no-balls we keep bowling and the amount of chances we keep missing,” he said. England now fly to Melb- ourne and will not make any selection decisions until later in the week. Australia will be boosted for the third Test by the return of their captain Pat Cummins and the fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who has rejoined the squad after resting for the second Test with a mild side strain. There is a question mark over the fitness of Mitchell Starc, however, as the fast bowler appeared to tweak a back muscle batting in the second innings.

Root said his team kept making the same errors

continued from back

The Times - UK (2021-12-21)

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