the ashes
2015
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The Third Test
After the horror that was Day 4 of the 2nd Ashes Test at Lords I
headed to Birmingham with a level of trepidation. It was highly
unlikely that we’d see a repeat of England capitulating in an
afternoon, but could they bounce back from a record defeat?
The two captains came to the wicket and again Michael Clarke
won the toss; there’s an expectation for this series that the team
winning the toss will win the match - so that was a big blow!
Michael Clarke elected to bat as he did at Lords - would we see the
same superb batting display by his team?
Chris Rogers and David Warner opened the batting - Rogers had
retired ‘hurt’ at Lords, going down very suddenly early in the day,
it was a huge concern that he was back at the crease so quickly.
In spite of the fact that the Australian camp are adamant that his
symptoms have not been caused by concussion it’s hard to see
past that.
England had made one well publicised change to their lineup,
with Gary Ballance taking the brunt of the criticism for a whole
team failure and being dropped - Jonny Bairstow a fellow
Yorkshireman replaced him.
I was surprised, yet pleased to see the towering figure of Steven
Finn in the field in place of Mark Wood, that change I hadn’t heard
of. He’d been treated very badly in Australia in 2013, with his
action being messed about with, he saw no Ashes play at all! In
this ‘New England’ set up it would be interesting to see how he
responded.
Jimmy Anderson with no wickets to his name at Lords made
an early break through when he took the wicket of Warner, a
loud appeal for LBW was rewarded by a prompt lift of the finger,
Warner reviewed but to no avail. Australia were 7 for 1, not the
best of starts.
With the best batsman in the world coming in at 3 that shouldn’t
have been an issue, however Steve Smith had faced only 18 balls
before Alastair Cook in the slips took a great catch from the
bowling of Finn! Cue ecstasy for the lively crowd at Edgbaston was it going to be another day of jumping out of our seats as it had
been in Cardiff?
Michael Clarke a man under a lot of pressure as a batsman was
next up - he was also the next to fall. I’d judge that the number of
times we see stumps flying as a player is clean bowled is becoming
a fairly rare sight; however on his 10th ball Clarke was dispatched
by Finn, bails flying! Clarke had made 10 and Australia were on
34 for 3!
This was all very reminiscent of Lords but rather than despair it of
course brought ecstasy for the home fans. Adam Voges who hasn’t
fired yet in the Ashes wasn’t to make his mark again - Anderson
added to his tally as Buttler caught Voges for 16. 77 for 4!
The theme continued as England demolished the Australian
batting line up, Jimmy Anderson took 6 for 47 a superb response
to the criticism he faced after a dry spell at Lords.
Chris Rogers battled through as he saw wicket after wicket fall,
he scored 52 before he was deemed to be LBW from the bowling of
Stuart Broad. He was the only batsman to pass 20. Australia were
all out for an amazing 136!
Adam Lyth - given another chance, and Alastair Cook opened
the batting for England. Lyth hasn’t managed a decent score in his
test career so far and could be considered lucky to be in the team;
unfortunately he failed again, scoring only 10 runs before being
caught by Voges from the bowling of Josh Hazlewood. England
were 19 for 1 - were we going to see another England collapse?
Ian Bell joined Cook, playing on his home ground Bell was also
in need of runs having had a torrid time in recent seasons. He and
Cook took the score to 76 before Cook fell to an amazing catch by
Voges from the bowling of Nathan Lyon; it was a shot Cook didn’t
need to make, but he was unlucky with the catch.
The ever popular Joe Root was next up, he and Bell looked solid
at the crease. However, there seems to be something about the
slower bowler that makes batsmen want to go for the big shot -
12 Issue 09