Section:GDN 1N PaGe:41 Edition Date:190724 Edition:03 Zone: Sent at 23/7/2019 23:59 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Wednesday 24 July 2019 The Guardian •••
Sport^41
Australians face off
in race for Ashes team
I
t is not hard to fi nd
amusement in the concept
of Australia’s top cricketers
preparing for the Ashes by
playing a formal match against
one another. An observer
with English cricketing sympathies
might read this as evidence of
Australians thinking they are better
at everything.
That observer might equally
have enjoyed Australia beating up
Australia, before Australia wiped
out Australia in return. On a green
wicket at Southampton with a
battery of fast bowlers using it
perfectly, one half of the squad
rolled the other for 105, before
reaching stumps themselves at 96
for seven.
This was not a situation like 1994-
95, when Australia and Australia A
played a tournament as teams with
distinct identities. A startlingly
forthright banner at the MCG read
“Australia plays with itself. Oh what
a feeling.” The A team had players
like Merv Hughes, Michael Bevan
and Damien Martyn, and quickly
won public support. National
captain Mark Taylor was irritated,
and (so the theory goes) sabotaged
Australia A by promoting their best
bowler Paul Reiff el to run drinks in
the senior team when the two played
off in the tournament fi nal.
In 2019 it is far less formal,
dividing 24 Ashes hopefuls down
the middle, each half under the
tutelage of an assistant coach. It
was initially hard to read the Hick
Twelve as anything but a dozen-
strong banjo choir or a group of
suspects in a murder cult, but it was
Graeme Hick facing off against BradShane Lowry, having comfortably
converted the opportunity that came
his way at the Open Championship,
believes the sight of his name on
leader boards will draw a fresh level
of respect now from the fi nest golfers.
Lowry’s six-shot success at Royal
Portrush on Sunday appeared straight-
forward; he had started the fi nal round
with a four-stroke advantage. More
than eight months have to pass until
the next men’s major, the Masters,
but Lowry naturally glanced forward
when considering how opponents may
treat him diff erently.
“That’s the way it is because people
will know, if my name is on the leader-
board on Sunday in Augusta, that I can
get the job done,” said the Irishman.
“I went out there on Saturday and
shot one of the best rounds of my life
[an eight -under -par 63], probably
under the most pressure that I’ve ever
felt in my whole life. It can’t help but
give me confi dence and hopefully I can
put myself in position.
“The people around me probably
had a little bit more belief in me than I
did myself. But I go about my business
the way I want to. I’m my own person
and I do things the way I want to and,
as long as I feel that’s the right thing, I
can turn up at an event and feel like
I can beat anyone.
“I’ll give you a good example : in
Canada a few weeks ago I think I played
Haddin. One side had Australia’s
fi rst-choice quicks, the other had the
fi erce James Pattinson, the off -spin
of Nathan Lyon, and the batting of
Steve Smith.
In fact the move to all-Australian
preparation was n ot driven by
arrogance. It was simply the lack of
a viable alternative. For years now
the Australian and English boards
have been involved in a reverse arms
race, from water pistols to pop guns
to pointing rubber bananas, as the
home side arranges ever-weaker
opposition for its rival. England
will off er county teams that are
inspecting the fl oorboards under the
second division, Australia counters
with a two-day trip to tackle an
invitational XI in Alice Springs.
In 2015 Australia played Essex,
Northamptonshire and Kent, all of
whom rested their bowlers from fi rst
choice down to about 15th choice,
while preparing the fl attest possible
tracks and asking Australia to bat
fi rst to ensure four days of gate
receipts.
Essex opened the bowling with
the medium seam of batsman Jesse
Ryder, while Northants pulled
in Richard Gleeson from a minor
counties team when his captain had
never seen him bowl. Australia’sTouring squad splits to
contest match brought about
by history of hosts providing
weak county oppositionGeoff Lemon
SouthamptonEwan Murray
GolfEuphoric Lowry warns his
rivals: ‘I can beat anyone’
as he sets sights on Tokyo
Shaun Marsh was able to swell his
slender tally of fi rst-class hundreds,
and was picked for Trent Bridge
where he made two runs in the Test.
So it made sense this time to
arrange a match where Australia
could control the quality of the
players, and where the jostling for
Ashes places guaranteed they would
compete. It made sense to request a
grassy wicket as chance to get used
to the moving ball. The brains trust
might be questioning the wisdom of
that component though after losing
17 wickets in the day for 201 runs.
Great fun for the seamers but the
batsmen will not have benefi ted
from their string of brief stays, nor
will Lyon or John Holland from
four wicketless overs of spin. The
scores of note were 41 from Marnus
Labuschagne and 29 from Mitchell
Marsh. The two of them may well
be playing off for one spot, with
Labuschagne being talked up as an
all-rounder for his part-time spin.N
othing has been
solved with the
batting, where the
main question is who
of Joe Burns, Marcus
Harris and Cameron
Bancroft will partner David Warner.
Each has his claim: Burns made 180
in his last Test outing, Harris 1,000
runs in the domestic season , while
management will be desperate to
get Bancroft back soon so they can
treat the sandpaper suspensions as
resolved.
The main plus from this chaotic
day was a strong hit-out from
Pattinson, who roared in and bowled
with verve and purpose in a way
that his return of one wicket does
n ot refl ect. There is something
particularly interesting about seeing
a team’s best bowlers take on their
best batsmen. Pattinson to Warner
was one, Patrick Cummins besting
Smith was another.
The fi rst day might have gone to
the bowlers, but as this game goes on
those individual battles could shift.
As long as Pattinson and Cummins
stay fi t, a fast-bowling fi ve where
they sit alongside Mitchell Starc,
Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle
looks inked in. For that alone this
summer, Australia will be well worth
watching no matter whom they are
playing.good enough to win the tournament
but one of the best players in the world
[Rory McIlroy] turned up and, when
they show up, they’re unbelievably
hard to beat.
“So I feel like I can beat anyone on
any given day but, if they turn up with
that game, they’re very hard to beat.
But I’m obviously up there now. I’ve
won a big tournament and, if I can’t
gain confi dence from this, I mean,
what can you [gain it from]?”
Lowry readily admits he is the man
for golf ’s grand occasion. “I just have
always loved playing in big tourna-
ments. I sometimes fi nd the smaller
events harder to get up for,” he said.
He admitted he would relish the
opportunity to carry the Irish fl ag at
another marquee event, the Tokyo
Olympics, as now has to be a live pos-
sibility. “Hopefully I can bring a medal
home,” he said.
After a party which began the
moment formalities were concluded
in Portrush, Lowry carried out exten-
sive media duties in a Dublin hotel
yesterday , followed by evening cel-
ebrations in his home town of Clara,
County Off aly, where his grandmother,
Emily Scanlon, joined the gathering.
Social media footage has been
circulating of a euphoric Lowry cel-
ebrating in various Dublin pubs. But
he did n ot care one iota about that, in
what marks a welcome contrast to the
game’s stuff y image.
“I don’t think golf in Ireland is like
that at all,” Lowry said. “Everybody
can play golf in Ireland. I think Ireland
is one of the only countries in the world
where it’s not seen like that at all. Yeah,
there are still a couple of golf clubs
which are stuff y, but that’s just the
way it happens. Actually they’re not
that stuff y. I’ve been to every ‘stuff y’
golf club in Ireland and you get looked
at very well there. They’re nice places.
And I don’t really care what people
think, to be honest. I’m going to cel-
ebrate this how I want and I’m going
to enjoy this because, who knows, I
might never get to do this again.
“Sitting with the Claret Jug here, it’s
been surreal the last 48 hours. I can’t
believe how lucky I am that it’s hap-
pened to me.”▲ Shane Lowry and his grandmother Emily Scanlon greet the crowds at the
Clara GAA Club in County Off aly yesterday MORGAN TREACY/INPHO/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Cricket▼ The Australian players stretch out
at stumps in Southampton
RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGES‘People will
now know that,
if my name is on
the leaderboard,
then I can get
the job done’
Golfer for the grand occasion
is ready to win big again,
including in the Olympics
▲ David Warner is struck on a day
that was dominated by the ballРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS