2009 Ashes, 1st Test, Day 3: One more perfect day
Day 2 encapsulated everything I love about Ashes cricket. Spectacle, drama, seesawing fortunes and two satisfying sessions of sticking it to the Poms.
The first session was bedlam. The English tail went the tonk and put on 99 runs. What to say about Nathan Hauritz's three wickets? Two of them (Pietersen, Anderson) were because the batsman had no respect for his bowling. So maybe there's something to Ponting's dead marsupial mental disintegration. After all, it bagged Paul Harris a bag of wickets against Australia. As for Monty Panesar, does he even count as a Test wicket?
Finally, the moment I'd been waiting for - Phil Hughes came out to bat. His innings did not disappoint. He was peppered with the short ball but Broad and Anderson's line was too wide, allowing Hughes to crack a flurry of boundaries before lunch. Exhilirating action that you couldn't take your eyes off.
After the lunch break, Flintoff came on as you'd expect. Unlike the wayward, toothless bowling of Broad and Anderson, his first delivery was a fast bouncer over middle and off. He followed up with a volley of sledging. This is what I paid to see! Well, I'm watching free-to-air but you know what I mean. Flintoff's bowling was fast, accurate and relentless. It was like time travelling back to 2005 which both thrilled and concerned me.
I always knew Phil Hughes had questionable technique but this was the first full innings I'd watched. The word "ugly" was bandied freely by all the commentators. He exposed his stumps, slashed at balls any other opener would let through to the keeper and his feet were twitching all over the crease. Just before his dismissal, there was one delivery from Broad where he cleared his front leg like he was premeditating a Twenty20 style tonk. It reminded me of Mick, one of the tailenders in our club side, whose one and only shot is to clear the front leg and slog over mid-on. Fortunately, Hughes has a few more shots that that.
It wasn't a surprise when Flintoff dismissed him - the battle was reminiscent of the air of inevitability when Flintoff took on Gilchrist in 2005. Thank goodness Flintoff only took one wicket. Nothing puts my teeth on edge as much as him standing on the pitch, both arms upraised, in triumph. Thankfully, he only took one wicket. Nevertheless, I was subjected to super slow mo replays not of the wicket but of Flintoff in his gladiator pose for the rest of the day.
In came Punter. Ponting may be a dubious captain but his batting skills are still awesome. His pull shot is still the most glorious stroke in cricket. While he was out there batting, he went past 11,000 Test runs. I wonder what impact that kind of record has on the bowling side? To reach his century on the last ball of the day was reminiscent of Steve Waugh's One Perfect Day. So after a brilliant batting effort, Punter, all is forgiven after your Day 1 stupor. Well, at least until you make all the same mistakes in the second innings. Steve Waugh did go on to lose the Sydney Test despite his perfect day so let's not get ahead of ourselves.
After Ponting's success on Day 2, I noticed a distinctive gap in many commentator's memories. Cricinfo describe Australia's 2009 tour of England as the mission to atone for 2005 and invoke the ghosts of 2005. What, did the 2006/7 whitewash never happen?! It's like some childhood trauma that the English population have collectively expunged from their memory. There's no debt to pay, no sin to atone for. We're not in the red. We're in the black, baby! Any victories from this point are gravy.
And let's not forget Katich, who batted like a boy among men in 2005. Over the last 4 years, he's been dropped, stripped of a Cricket Australia contract, has rebuilt his batting technique and now earned his own Ashes redemption. You'd have to say the big difference between the two sides was the mental application of the Australian batsmen versus the brain melts of the English batsmen on Day 1. One day, England might overcome their nerves on the first day of an Ashes series but Wednesday was not that day.
So Ponting and Katich's partnership was crucial to our run chase but the blow to English morale would've been nearly as important. England would've been delighted with a 400+ first innings total. To turn the tables, forcing them to field through 2 and a bit sessions with only 1 wicket would've taken all the wind out of their sails and sowed those old seeds of Ashes doubt in their mind. Hopefully Australia can come out today and water the seeds with bucketloads of runs.
| Posted by JC on Fri 10 Jul |  7 comments |
As I always say, there's no value to a Pommie first inns until Australia has batted and here is (yet again comms), the proof of that. Turns out the Poms should've got 500...
Well thankfully I'm being spared of the wit and wisdom of the SBS and SKY commentators due to my sleeping arrangements in front of a muted TV on the camp-bed with ABC radio in one ear all night. And I'm here to tell you that the radio coverage isn't as dire as years gone by from the old Dart. The TMS team've got the brutally honest Chappelli, Dizzy and Jim Maxwell and no sign yet of that tool Roebuck or the droning on of the likes of Gooch or Botham - Sky is welcome to 'em. The icing on the cake of course is that I haven't heard Mark 'no-credentials' Nicholas yet this year - and let's hope it stays that way!
Posted by virtualgaz on 2009-07-10 14:44:55
Don't know how you're staying up right till the end of the 3rd session. You've got serious stamina. Day 1, I had a nana nap and that sustained me into the early 3rd session. Day 2, I only just made it to the end of the 2nd session. Tonight, I'm not confident, I might give up mid-2nd session as I've got cricket on Saturday.
Posted by JC on 2009-07-10 16:58:01
Posted by Ajesh Nag on 2009-07-10 17:32:34
Rain is expected to wipe out a large proportion of Day 4, but even if that proves to be the case we could have a game on our hands on the final day.
It will be fascinating. I was really disappointed with our batting on day one, especially from the top five, all of whom failed to cash in on starts. I really think they're much better than they showed (and I don't think that's over confidence) so they will have the chance to atone by batting out the day, or part of the day on Sunday. Having adhered to one unfortunate tradition - first day of Ashes nerves - it would be good if they could avoid another - last day of Ashes Test batting capitulation. They failed once, but can atone by avoiding an Adelaide-style collapse, thus enabling them to move on and start again at Lord's.
First blood Australia though - you may have lost some iconic figures, but the replacements are clearly very solid, if not quite as spectacular.
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