Section:GDN 1N PaGe:37 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 20:26 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Guardian •
37Gloucestershire were fi elding. The sec-
ond was one of his own team mates,
Jack Carson, a Sussex academy player,
who split the webbing on his left hand
taking a sharp slip catch for the fi nal
wicket of the Gloucestershire innings.
The opposition, a team containing
seven teenagers and only two players
over the age of 20, and the setting, the
leafy Blackstone Academy ground in
rural Sussex, were worlds away from
what Archer will face at Lord’s when
the second Test starts next Wednesday.
However, with the injured James
Anderson out of that match and Eng-
land reeling from a morale-sapping
251-run defeat in the opening Test at
Edgbaston , Archer has provided some
much-needed grounds for optimism.
It now appears inevitable, barring
further injury setbacks, he will make
his Test debut at Lord’s. Given how
well he played in the World Cup, tak-
ing 20 wickets to help England win the
tournament for the fi rst time , his inclu-
sion will hopefully spark an upturn
in confi dence and form for the rest of
the series.
One Australian fully expecting
Archer to play next week is Jason
Gillespie, the Sussex coach, who told
TalkSport: “Look, he’s 100 % fi t, he’s
fi ne and ready to go. Personally I think
England missed a trick by not playing
him [at Edgbaston] but he’ll certainly
play at Lord’s. He has to play. To be
perfectly blunt he had to start the fi rst
Test but the powers that be decided he
wasn’t quite ready.
“I think we all saw what a great
World Cup Jofra Archer had. Pick a guy
when he’s in form and going well, so
for me it’s a no-brainer. He must play
this second Test. He adds another
dimension to this England bowling
attack – he’s got pace, bounce, move-
ment off the seam, through the air.
Four-day cricket, fi ve-day cricket is
his best format to appreciate how good
he is.” That claim stands up to scru-the Australia batsmen on Saturday
night and Sunday morning when
conditions were helpful for fi nger
spinners was critical and soon to
be highlighted by Nathan Lyon’s
performance on the fi nal day.
The recall of Leach would not
be a cast-iron solution. In the past
month he has bowled three overs for
26 runs against Ireland. This is not
the ideal workload going into a vital
Ashes Test – though this situation
will be exacerbated to a far greater
extent next summer, when the
middle three months of the season
will be dominated by the T20 Blast
and the Hundred. One imagines the
ECB has thought of that but prefers
the money. So Leach is hardly in the
groove – and the same would apply
to any batsman Ed Smith might like
to draft into his squad.
There is another snag. The
Australia top six contains four left-
handers, which encourages the
selection of an off -spinner. The
advent of the DRS leads to so many
lbws for the fi nger spinner turning
the ball away from the bat and that
threat changes how the batsmen
play. The stats demonstrate that
the off -spinners, Lyon and Moeen,are much more eff ective against
left-handed batsmen and that was
confi rmed at Edgbaston – when Lyon
was bowling. Leach, a left-armer,
is the obvious option to replace
Moeen, given there is a dearth of
credible off -spinning candidates,
but he is not the ideal one.
There will also be discussions
about England’s batting. The middle
order, an area where England were
supposed to be superior , did not fi re
in the fi rst Test, with Jos Buttler and
Jonny Bairstow both looking out of
sorts. However, it is highly unlikely
that England will dispense with
them so early in the series, especially
since any potential replacements
are currently contemplating how to
clear the nearest boundary.tiny, given Archer’s fi rst-class average
is 23.44, compared with 27.59 in List
A cricket.
He certainly looked ready in this
match, striking twice in his fi rst spell
and peppering the inexperienced
Gloucestershire team with plenty of
short balls.
One interested spectator was Chris
Jordan, Archer’s fellow Barbadian and
Sussex team mate. “He’s been good
ever since the World Cup,” said Jordan.
“He had that week break [in Barbados]
which did him a lot of good, freed his
mind, rested his body and, as you can
see from the couple of T20s he’s played
and a session here today, he’s more
than ready.
“You see that every time a challenge
is put in front of him he seems to rise
to it. He’s very competitive and he
sets himself high standards and he’ll
be looking to live up to those. So going
into the second Test, he’ll be a big, big
asset for England.”In the past month
Leach has bowled
three overs.
This is not ideal
Jofra Archer
took six wickets
and scored a
century for
Sussex second
XI against
Gloucestershire
MIKE HEWITT/
GETTY IMAGESSport
In briefGolf
Dane Olesen charged
with sexual assaultThe Ryder Cup winner Thorbjorn
Olesen will appear in court on 21
August after being charged with
sexual assault, being drunk on
an aircraft and common assault.
Olesen, who beat the three-times
major winner Jordan Spieth in
Europe’s triumph over the United
States in Paris last year, was arrested
last week after returning from the
WGC St Jude Invitational on a fl ight
from Nashville to London. Police
were waiting for the fi ve-times
European Tour winner when the
aircraft landed at Heathrow. The
29-year-old Dane was taken into
custody and subsequently released
under investigation. A Metropolitan
Police spokesperson said: “A man
has been charged in connection with
an incident on an inbound fl ight
to Heathrow Airport on Monday,
29 July. Jacob Thorbjorn Olesen,
29, of Redcliff e Road, Kensington
and Chelsea, was charged by postal
requisition on Thursday, 1 August
with sexual assault, being drunk on
an aircraft and common assault.
He is due to appear at Uxbridge
Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday,21 August.” On Monday Olesen’s
lawyer, Paul Morris, released a
statement which read: “Thorbjorn
has cooperated fully with the police
during their investigation but,
while the legal proceedings are still
ongoing, he unfortunately cannot
comment on this matter .” PA MediaTennis
Williams remains top
of the pile in earningsSerena Williams tops Forbes’ list of
highest-paid female athletes for the
fourth year in a row. The 23-times
grand slam singles champion –
who partnered Andy Murray at
Wimbledon – earned $29.2m (£24m)
for the 12 months to 1 June, only
$4.2m of which was in prize money.
Naomi Osaka became only the
fourth woman to earn more than
$20m in a year after Williams, Maria
Sharapova and Li Na. PA MediaSerena Williams lost in
this year’s Wimbledon
fi nal to Simona HalepCyclingTour de Pologne suspends
racing in tribute to Lambrecht
Paul MacInnesRacing in the Tour de Pologne was
suspended yesterday , as cycling paid
tribute to the life of Bjorg Lambrecht,
who died after a crash on Monday.
Lambrecht’s Lotto-Soudal team-
mates came across the fi nish line
together in a neutralised fourth stage,
one also specially adapted to pay
tribute to the Belgian rider.
The stage began with a minute’s
silence and it was followed by another
at 48.5km, the distance at which
Lambrecht had crashed the previous
day. The 22-year-old is understoodto have fallen into a concrete culvert
during the third stage, from Chorzow
to Zabrze.
Riders from diff erent teams, all
wearing black armbands, took it in
turn to lead the stage before ceding
to the Lotto-Soudal riders. They came
together to approach the fi nish before
stepping off their bikes with 50 feet
remaining and observing a third min-
ute’s silence. Eventually, they crossed
through a black fi nishing arch, which
also featured Lambrecht’s name and
his race number, 143.
Lotto-Soudal afterwards paid their
own tribute to Lambrecht. “During the
2016 cycling season, as a fi rst year U23,
everybody was talking about Bjorg,
within and also outside the peloton.
Words like ‘pocket climber’, ‘rough
diamond’, ‘puncher’, ‘Grand Tour
hope’ were used,” the team said in a
statement.
“With playful determination,
he integrated into the world of pro-
fessional cycling. Team mates and
staff appreciated his work ethic and
humility, opponents discovered his
talent, and the media appreciated his
nuanced but clear story.
“All riders and staff of Lotto-Soudal
would sincerely like to thank every-
body for their expressions of sym-
pathy in the usually hard top-level
sports world. But in the fi rst place,
our thoughts go out to the parents,
family and friends of Bjorg, who have
to endure the greatest burden, a life
without Bjorg.”▲ Bjorg Lambrecht’s Lotto-Soudal
teammate Enzo Wouters was in tearsРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS