Watching England is not good for your health
These are stirring times. If the result is bottom of the list of priorities for Ben Stokes and having fun top, then the first Ashes Test has met the brief, and there is still a day to go. It has also justified the hype.
England began the fourth day with Joe Root ramping Pat Cummins and closed it with Stuart Broad setting fire to Edgbaston. Showtime, baby.
Yet, at the risk of falling back on old thinking, if there is an English lesson to be learned from all this it is that Bazball might be even more effective were it to add flexibility to its list of attributes. And to accept that responding to circumstances instead of always shaping them is not necessarily a negative move.
Stokes went for broke on that first evening when Root, unbeaten on 118, and Robinson were flying. He chose making Australia squirm for 20 minutes over extra runs.
Australia survived without losing a wicket and England surrendered the chance to augment the total by 50 or so. That could be the difference when the day-five stumps are drawn. The contest is perfectly set, but what is that worth to England should Australia knock off the 173 runs required?
Watching England is not good for your health. The highs overstimulate the heart, the lows drive a spear through it. There is very little in between.
Even the opposition are enthralled by the fury of it all. Australia’s adherence to conventional tactics and defensive fields has identified them as backwoodsmen in this setting. And they arrived the freshly minted world Test champions.
England have dominated almost every hour of every session and at the same time kept Australia in it by either missing chances or donating wickets.
Set 281 to win, a total reached only twice by teams batting fourth in Tests at this ground, Australia began their final knock as favourites, an astonishing position given the difficulties they have had in imposing themselves positively on the contest.
Nathan Lyon has taken eight wickets without bowling a mystery ball. Jonny Bairstow coughed up his wicket twice to Lyon reaching for the stars when a straight bat would have served his purpose. Similarly Joe Root danced down the track late in the morning seeking to put the ball in the neighbouring Birmingham Botanical Gardens instead of maintaining control with judicious hitting. Great fun, but…
Having survived a torrid, weather-induced 10 overs the previous day, which saw the Australian attack jacked up by almost freakish conditions, England faced a serious test of their new attacking credo. If there were any lack of resolve it would be revealed in the early overs of yesterday morning.
What we witnessed was as pure an expression of Bazball theory imaginable, Root meeting the earnest excellence of Australia’s and arguably the world’s finest bowler, Cummins, with a reverse ramp. He failed to make contact. He had, however, made a statement.
Root went on to tear holes in Australia’s plans, messing with convention in a magical hour of escalating plunder.
Though England lost Ollie Pope cheaply, Harry Brook was a willing accomplice in the carnage. With the two of them at the crease it seemed Stokes might declare in mid-afternoon with a lead of 400.
But this is Bazball, and with risk comes pain as well as reward.
Root got himself out and Brook holed out to a blinding catch by Marnus Labuschagne, both gone before lunch.
If in doubt, give it a clout is the motto in this house. The second ball of Cummins’ new spell was met with a charge from Stokes and a slap to cow corner for four.
The third was guided expertly over the slips to the third man boundary as the captain punched through the adrenalin ceiling in pursuit of a defendable total. Vulgarity or refinement, Stokes is comfortable in either zone.
It took a decent ball to get him, delivered by the outstanding Cummins, ramming one past his bat into the pad.
The innings was inevitably racing towards its febrile conclusion, most falling to over-exuberance, apart from Ollie Robinson, who batted well above his station, and Anderson, who had more up his sleeve than a reverse sweep. Drama to the end.
