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Oh we of little faith! There we were, thinking that Bazball was a busted flush, no more than a teenage fantasy, grown men getting carried away by the elixir of the moment, the possibilities, the thrill, the adrenalin and all of that.
And, yes, England have lost. Again. In the Ashes. 2-0 down. And history is now against them. But in the ashes of those Ashes, there is a faint ember of light, a sense that England might yet be capable of finding a Middle Way, a means of tempering their gung-ho approach to be smart and calculating to find a way to the tape ahead of the rest of the field.
Ben Stokes is the epitome of the Middle Way. The England captain was all caution and restraint when he came to the wicket after Australia had blown away the mainstream batters ahead of him to leave England 4-45 and their arses hanging out. Game over it seemed.
Cue Ben. Cue the whirring of one of the finest cricketing brains in the business. God, it was good. Even if you were an Aussie with chewed-down fingernails. Stokes is one of those rare sportsmen/women who make it worth getting out of bed for.
Yes, Stokes did give it plenty of ya-hoo larrup once Jonny Bairstow had been undone by his own casualness and Australia’s bad-ass attitude. His assault on the Australia bowling attack was mesmerising, But it was also well thought-out. It was not wild abandon that took him and England to within 70 runs of the most unlikely of victories.
Pat Cummins speaks with Ben Stokes after Jonny Bairstow was given out. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
This is what Bazball ought to be. A lack of fear about being castigated for what might appear to be a heave-ho shot. Bazball ought not to give you untrammelled free rein to do what you like. That is what England had done through the guts of the game. And that was wrong.
England’s first innings performance had made doubters of even the most fervent of believers. Bazball appeared as if it would soon be passe. All the talk mid-match was of Baseball cricket or Oddball cricket or Brainless Cricket. No wonder high up in the Lord’s stands Geoffrey Boycott held his head in his hands. England were throwing it away.
The Lord’s Test is supposed to be one of the high points of the summer landscape, a time when the sport is in the spotlight. In a week when there was such gloomy introspection over the 317-page publication into the ‘racist, sexist, elitist’ ways of English cricket, the need for some uplift on the field of play itself felt more urgent than ever.
And, yes, you would be right to argue that Lord’s itself, the home of the MCC, packed with stuffy ageing white men with their egg-and-bacon ties, is the very epitome of those traits. Their barracking of the Australian team as they came off the field at the end of play, the boos and cat-calls as sharp and venom-loaded as if they were coming from Chelsea’s Shed, told you all you needed to know about the English class system. They don’t like it up ‘em. Hypocrisy is at the centre of that power structure. And as the Tory government has shown here across the last 13 years, that smug, elitist type are as vicious and unforgiving as any football supporter on the terraces.
That said, my own view is that Australia will come to regret the Bairstow ‘run-out’. There is no doubt that the appeal, and Carey’s instinctive action, was 100% within the laws. And in the heat of the moment it would have taken a captain of immense sangfroid to have stood back from the situation to have with withdrawn the appeal. Afterwards, Ben Stokes said that he would have done so. Maybe he would. Stokes really is an exceptional individual. And not just as his oh-so-close innings of 155 showed. But even so.
Cummins is a decent type, too. But just as Jack Nicklaus once ceded a Ryder Cup putt to Tony Jacklin so ought Cummins to have called Bairstow back. And, no, it was not some sort of payback for the Mitchell Starc so-called catch. That was 100% not out. He decked it. A schoolboy cricketer would know that. And Glenn McGrath ought to apologise to BBC radio Test Match Special listeners for his original intemperate outburst.
England were architects of their own downfall. Of course we are in a Sliding Doors situation. Who knows how Stokes would have batted if the bear had not been poked by Bairstow’s dismissal.
England didn’t get turned over on Friday morning because they insisted on chasing the ace. They fell, one and all, to terrible shot-making. Harry Brook was the most culpable of the lot, a classy batsman reduced to a ploughed-field hacker, staggering and flailing as he holed out to an understandably gleeful Cummins who was to snare another one a few minutes later when Jonny Bairstow chipped one into his midriff.
So, should England go back to their old ways? No, emphatically not. It would be a ruinous reversal. And it most certainly is not going to happen. But England do have to re-think their attitude at key junctures even if it did seem as if one of their tormentors-in-chief, Steve Smith, caught a bit of madcap Englishitis when swishing a ball to the deep to be caught by Zac Crawley for 34 off the short-ball bowling of Josh Tongue. England adopted the Australian approach of banging the ball in.
They have had so much criticism only because so many people care so deeply. It’s only right to acknowledge just how far England have come. Bring on Headingly.
Bodyline 2023, bland pitches and the demise of Jimmy Anderson
Nathan Lyon, what have you done to our game? No, not his hobbling to the wicket scenario – a crazy, surreal, ill-advised bit of cricket on Saturday afternoon, brave in one regard but ultimately reckless in the message it sent out that injury is no excuse for not getting out there to help your mates – but in his very absence from proceedings.
Never can one man have had such a profound influence on what was to follow. Lyon’s calf injury not only removed him from the action, it triggered an astonishing change in the bowling approach of both sides. Welcome to Bodyline 2023.
First Australia tempted England into their mad, mad, mad antics of slash-and-burn hitting and then England followed suit with their Saturday afternoon snorefest of short-pitched bowling. You cannot but do a double-take every time you read the CricViz stats – 97% of balls bowled in that session were classified as short.
England had seen the impact of Australia’s tactics, deprived of a spinner they opted to tuck England up by other means and England did the same. It reduced Australia to under two an over and it even did for Steve Smith. Well, if the teams carry on with such tactics in the three remaining matches then it will be enough to do for test cricket altogether, a deeply ironic outcome given the objectives of Bazball to entertain. There will be bums on seats but they will all be asleep.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
That’s one consequence. The other is to highlight the waning of the light in one of the sport’s greatest ever players, Jimmy Anderson. The pitches do not suit him although the Aussie bowlers didn’t seem to shape up too badly when they ripped through England’s top order on a chastening start to their second innings. The obituaries for Anderson, 41 next month, have been written a few times and if there were to be a last raging against the dying of the light, it would be wonderful. But, one snorter to Alex Carey at Edgbaston apart, Anderson has looked a spent force, no longer England’s go-to man. His figures – three wickets at 75.33 – make for miserable reading. Vale Jimmy.
Three More Thoughts
Australia’s front-line bowling attack of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and Cameron Green is far, far better than England’s.
Alex Carey is in a wholly different class as a wicket-keeper to Jonny Bairstow. His positioning and subsequent catch of Ben Duckett was masterly.
England have it all to do. Bugger the process. The Ashes has only ever been about results.
Mick Cleary, who was Daily Telegraph rugby correspondent ( 1997-2021), was also a sports feature writer for The Observer ( 1988-1997). Cleary has covered eight Rugby World Cups as well as seven Lions tours. He was written several books on those tournaments and tours as well as worked with Jeremy Guscott on his autobiography. Cleary has also had extensive experience of other sports including tennis at Wimbledon, cycling at the Tour de France and golf at The Open. Cricket, athletics , horse racing and F1 also feature on his CV.