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How valuable was George Bailey’s half century under pressure? What is a par score on this new drop-in pitch? Will England’s unexpected selections pay off?
These are some of the issues which emerged from the opening day of the second Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval.
Australia frittered away a strong start with a patented batting collapse before recovering to end the day at 5-273.
How valuable was George Bailey’s half century under pressure?
England will be ruing the dropped catches which allowed George Bailey, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin to survive nervy starts to their innings.
Bailey was on 10 when he was defeated in the flight by Monty Panesar and stroked the ball directly back to the bowler at a comfortable height, only for it to be fumbled by the spinner.
Just six overs later, Joe Root shelled a far more difficult chance at full stretch after Clarke, on 18, tried to clip Graeme Swann through mid wicket.
Just before stumps, gun England fieldsman Michael Carberry bungled a catch which could scarcely have been more elemental, allowing Brad Haddin to bat on.
By stumps those missed opportunities had cost England 75 runs.
Bailey gleefully accepted his reprieve and batted with the maturity and assuredness Australia had hoped he would bring to the side.
The Tasmanian clearly was more comfortable on the sleepy Adelaide deck than on the quick Gabba pitch he encountered on debut.
A strong back-foot player, Bailey also enjoyed the shorter length employed against him by the English bowlers.
When England’s quicks targeted a full length on or outside off Bailey looked vulnerable.
A bigger challenge awaits him at Perth on what is predicted to be a lightning WACA pitch.
He was unlucky to be dismissed today after nailing a pull shot off Stuart Broad only to fall victim to a stunning catch by Graeme Swann at square leg.
But, for now at least, he should have silenced much of the talk about his suitability for Test cricket.
The debate about Bailey’s place in the Australians side centred on the fact he had earned his baggy green almost entirely off the back of runs in one-day internationals.
Bailey has not completely shed the swashbuckling approach for which he is known at limited overs level.
One-third of his 90 runs in Tests have come from sixes.
Today he cleared the boundary three times, including a pair of sweetly-timed lofted drives down the ground off the spinners.
The Australians will be disappointed Bailey became the fourth batsman for the day to lose their wicket once well set.
But having come to the crease at 4-174 amid a collapse of 3-19, his half century was invaluable.
What is a par score on this new drop-in pitch?
Adelaide Oval has been one of the highest-scoring venues in Test cricket over the past decade.
The average score by teams batting first has been 473, with six of those 10 totals exceeding 500.
But this is not the same Adelaide pitch, literally or figuratively.
The new drop-in surface was not nearly as conducive to free-flowing batting as the previous pitch.
Curator Damian Hough had himself sent mixed messages about the deck in the past week.
He was first reported as suggesting it would offer assistance to Mitchell Johnson and little to the spinners.
Days later he predicted the tweakers would be a major factor.
Finally he said he had tried to produce a “typical Adelaide Oval pitch, something that is going to be good to bat on and something that will hopefully spin as the game goes on”.
“We think it’s pretty close to what we have had in previous years, it might be a little bit slower this year being brand new,” Hough said
He was correct in his guess the pitch would be sluggish.
Few deliveries came onto the bat as well as they typically do on a first day Adelaide deck.
There was scant seam movement for the quicks although James Anderson, in particular, earned some reverse swing, something which was rarely sighted at the Gabba.
England tweakers Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar both extracted turn, but it was of the slow variety which is easier for batsmen to counter.
Logically the pitch should offer greater assistance to that pair in Australia’s second dig.
My gut feeling is that a first inning total of about 400 is par on a pitch which is hard work for the bowlers but hardly the batting utopia it was previously.
Will England’s unexpected selections pay off?
England produced a double-selection surprise by plumping for two spinners and handing a debut to batting all-rounder Ben Stokes.
Most of the British press has suggested in the lead up to the match that seamer Tim Bresnan would play ahead of Panesar, while Gary Ballance was favoured to bat at six.
It seems the English selectors were rightly concerned about Bresnan’s lack of match fitness.
The influential bowling all-rounder had played only one match, against the Queensland second XI last week, since suffering stress fractures of the back more than three months ago.
On the evidence of the first day’s play the selectors have been vindicated.
Panesar was loose at times, which was not surprising given his lack of preparation – he had sent down just 19 overs in the middle since his final county match 10 weeks ago.
But he also produced many searching deliveries and few of Australia’s right handers looked at ease against his left arm offerings.
Swann, meanwhile, displayed marked improvement on his limp display at Brisbane, where he was manhandled by the Australian batsmen.
Imparting a greater degree of overspin on the ball, he achieved better loop and drift.
He and Panesar will present a significant challenge to the Australian in their second innings on a dry, wearing deck.
The decision to play two spinners seemingly gifted a debut to Ben Stokes, who had taken just one wicket and scored 32 runs in England’s warm up matches.
The English selectors would have been wary of the risk of having only two pace options on a somewhat mysterious pitch.
Stokes was not required to do a great deal of work but showed in his eight overs that he has not insignificant talent with ball in hand.
Possessed of a strong, high action, the 22-year-old generated decent pace and produced subtle reverse swing with the old ball.
England will have been pleased by what they saw.