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They say the first session, even the very first ball, of an Ashes series tends to set the tone.
If so, Zak Crawley’s glorious cover-driven boundary off the opening delivery from Australia’s captain Pat Cummins said it all: Welcome to Bazball, mate!
This Edgbaston classic on Friday was a first ball to put alongside some of the great lift-off moments in Ashes annals.
Think Steve Harmison ballooning that crazy, super wide ball that ended up being collected at second slip at The Gabba in 2006. Talking about setting a tone; England went on to famously get whitewashed in that series.
And what about Rory Burns in the 2021-22 series at Brisbane, being uprooted by Mitchell Starc first up? That didn’t end up much better for England, either.
But this had a very different feel. Cummins had been asked at the toss: “England will come at you – that okay?” to which he responded with a grin but a touch of uncertainty too: “I think so…”
The pressure was on.
In 2021, Cummins had been left thankful for Starc’s dazzling start. “Just that pressure release of that first ball, taking a wicket, setting up the whole series,” reflected the captain on the eve of match.
“It was my first ball as captain, so takes the nerves off a bit. It was just one of those iconic Ashes moments which every series seems to have a couple of.
“Harmison still probably cops grief for his first ball. So I’ll see, if I am bowling, maybe I will throw it to someone else down the end and say you create a memory.”
But he didn’t. Cummins shouldered the responsibility but it will still go down in Ashes annals anyway because there can hardly have been a more delicious opening shot to start a series as Crawley, instead of leaving a ball straying outside the offstump, leant into it and caressed it in princely fashion to the cover ropes.
Ben Stokes was left open-mouthed in delight in the England dressing room, and he wasn’t the only one.
“It was a really fantastic start to the day – it sounded pretty good (off the bat),” said Jonny Bairstow, who couldn’t help but compare to the Burns golden duck. “Slightly different to the last series over there … rather pleasing.
“A cover drive of that skill and quality was just what the doctor ordered first ball.”
Even a grizzled old opponent appreciated it. “What a start to an Ashes series!” swooned Ricky Ponting in the commentary box
This from a man who knows a thing or two about opening Ashes salvos, after he got bloodied and battered by Harmison on the opening morning of the 2005 series at Lord’s.
There were also echoes in Crawley’s blow of another Gabba opening in 1994-1995 when Phil DeFreitas came in to bowl to Michael Slater and got his poor ball slapped between gully and point for four.
“The scorebook confides that Slater hit the first ball of the series for four,” wrote Gideon Haigh at the time.
“It relates nothing of how eyes rolled, shoulders sagged and hearts sank among English players, spectators and journalists.” He wasn’t wrong. England went on to lose that series 3-1.
But at Edgbaston, English spirits were sent soaring by Crawley’s gem. And, yes, it really did set the tone perfectly. By the end of this most breathless of opening days, the memory of that first pistol crack still reverberated.
© AAP
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