Which way will The Ashes swing this time?
Roar Pro By Benjamin Conkey, 30 Jun 2009 Benjamin Conkey is a Roar Pro
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- Australian Cricket, Cricket, english cricket, The Ashes
Australia's bowler Stuart Clark celebrates the wicket of West Indies batsman Dwayne Bravo. AP Photo/Andres Leighton
It might be a little simplistic to say that swing will decide the Ashes, but that’s exactly what happened four years ago. Australia was undone by Jones, Flintoff and Hoggard, who made the Duke ball talk with reverse swing.
England was then completely outplayed in the 2006-07 series.
What was most interesting was their lack of swing with the Kookaburra ball.
Flintoff was economical, but nowhere near as threatening, and Hoggard was fodder for the batsmen, without any movement in the air.
It’s one of the percularities of cricket. No two cricket balls are the same. Even when you have the same brand of ball, you can expect differences.
Four years ago, England swung the Duke ball consistently. Australia didn’t.
It was irrelevant in the first Test because Glenn McGrath moved it prodigiously off the pitch. But when he was injured, suddenly it did matter. Suddenly, England scored 400 runs on the first day!
Australia have one final opportunity against the England Lions before the first Test. It’s hardly an adequate hit out for bowlers or batsmen, which is why Phil Hughes took the smart step of playing a couple of months of county cricket.
Stuart Clark has the opportunity to play the McGrath role and should be a handful, if he gets a chance.
But will any of our bowlers swing it? If Johnson does, I’m predicting a Bob Massie type performance. On the other side, James Anderson has been in stunning form.
He produced some incredible swing bowling against the Windies.
Ryan Sidebottom has the advantage of being a left-armer, he’s economical, and gets the odd one to move back into the right-hander.
Throw in Flintoff, the ever reliable Paul Collingwood, and the unpredictable Stuart Broad, and England’s fast bowling line-up looks solid.
But when you think about it, 2005 was just out of the ordinary.
I’m not sure how long England has played with the Duke ball, but Australia hasn’t had too many problems in England prior to 2005.
Perhaps it was the four-pronged attack, whereas in the past batsmen could see off the likes of Darren Gough and pile on the runs against the lesser bowlers.
Australia handled South Africa’s pace attack well this year, but something tells me the Duke ball under English conditions will create a sense of de ja vu.
Hopefully, for Australia’s sake, they will be better equipped to deal with it this time around.
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June 30th 2009 @ 3:26pm
Benjamin Conkey said | June 30th 2009 @ 3:26pm | Report comment
Yeah good points Jameswm. In terms of impatience in that series Michael Clarke was also a serial offender. All the England bowlers had to do was nag away outside off stump and he eventually took the bait. But he has matured a lot as a batsman after he was dropped from the side.
Vinay, I remember in Junior cricket (under 12s) having a hard time as a bowler. The first match of the season was fine. Brand new composition ball with the plastic seam. But the problem was..the ball had to last all season! You can imagine by the last game it was like bowling with a bit of concrete. Perhaps, not only was it a cost-saving measure by our school..but a way of helping us learn the hardships bowlers must face if they wish to succeed.
July 1st 2009 @ 8:51am
Jameswm said | July 1st 2009 @ 8:51am | Report comment
I agree Benjamin
Michael Clarke may have fallen way out of form as a T20 and one-day cricketer esp as a one-day opener), but he has looked good int he tests lately, where the pressure is off him to score quickly. He is not that strong or a big hitter, and he should just graft away and work the ball around as he gets set. Beware the straight one trapping him in front early on – do not try to work it to leg!
Hussey has looked ugly in the tests though and I wish we had a backup batsman there in case, in the first test, Hussey looks completely out of sorts, scoring 1 off 19 and 12 off 56. I’d rather Ferguson, but I’d begrudgingly take Hodge as a replacement.
Vinay I fully expect Hughes to score runs, though have a couple of failures along the way. Katich has been solid as a rock for 18 months. If Ponting gets his head right (and yes I mean slowing things down early on), we’ll score a lot of runs at the top of the order, and this will take the pressure off Haddin, North and Johnson. And Hussey, more importantly. I do also hope Johnson knuckles down and builds an innings, rather than slogging once he gets to 15.
I think Johnson, Siddle and Clark will be a fantastic first three bowlers, but I have no idea which way they’ll go with the 4th. It could be Watson, MacDonald, Hauritz, Lee or Hilfenhaus.
Just one other thing about Ponting – often he comes out ande scores 15 off his first 9 balls, with theee fours, then settles down. It must be the adrenaline pumping as he goes for it early. It tears you apart watching – half of you wants him to knuckle down and not get out, and the other half wants him to keep ripping them apart! Soft hands early on is the key though…
July 1st 2009 @ 12:01pm
vinay verma said | July 1st 2009 @ 12:01pm | Report comment
James-The Australian selectors have shown their hand with the team to play Worcester today. The top 8 for this game are Ponting,Hughes,Katich,Clarke,Hussey,North,Haddin and Johnson. You can lock in Siddle as he is being rested. Stuark Clark in my book is a certainity. So thats ten locked in. Macdonald can eat pancakes as he is not even in consideration and Watson can go and get his hair permed. So theres three fighting for one spot…Lee,Hilfenhaus and Hauritz. Unless Lee and Hauritz get a bagfull it will be Hilfenhaus.
Katich is a very underated batsman. I described him in January as a batsman who kills with a thousand cuts. He will be good for hughes.
July 1st 2009 @ 3:03pm
FIsher Price said | July 1st 2009 @ 3:03pm | Report comment
Hodge should be in the side. full stop.
Rogers, Hughes, Katich (c), Ponting, Hodge, Clarke.
July 1st 2009 @ 9:15pm
Viscount Crouchback said | July 1st 2009 @ 9:15pm | Report comment
“The old cricket adage is: ‘You should think about putting the other side into bat if the conditions are dodgy, and then don’t do it.’ Vinay or Kersi will know the statistics on this but putting the other side into bat isn’t the best gamble a captain can make”.
Actually, Spiro, this is something of a myth. Wisden researched this topic a couple of years ago and found that teams which put the opposition in to bat are more successful than one is led to believe. It also found that Steve Waugh, for instance, chose to bowl first about 22% of the time (more often than one would expect) and was very successful when doing so.
The terrible clangers – e.g. Ponting at Edgbaston, Hussain at Brisbane – tend to overshadow the more numerous successes. It takes a brave captain to buck the trend, but it can be well worth doing.