Ball One – Taylor cuts her cloth to suit her clients
I’ve never coached a player, but I’ve spent a lot of time teaching and, as the old cliche has it, the bit between the ears is what needs the most work.
Prior to a, wait for it, crucial first hour, England’s fielding coach, Sarah Taylor, spent some time bringing out equipment and then worked with three players, bashing the ball into the stratosphere while they circled below taking skiers. None were within 30 yards of the coach.
At the end of the session, she did speak to them at some length, which was good to see, before the players made for the shade and an energy drink, understandably so. After that, she went to work with Jamie Smith on keeping drills – but with Smith standing up and not where he has had problems, standing back. Inevitably, he was to drop one, standing back, in the first hour of play.
Nobody thinks a coach’s work is all done within the sight of the public, but it does matter to be seen to be proactive. Taylor is now doing a pre-play media interview – part of the job – but she can’t have spent too much time actually talking to the players themselves, just prior to what seems a critical moment in the series.
Ball Two – Keep It Simple Stupid!
Test cricket can be fiendishly complicated – but it can be quite simple too.
When Ben Stokes, ball in hand, went to a 7-2 field he was telegraphing two options to a very stubborn Will O’Rourke. The England captain wanted him to edge it again, only this time for Smith and his array of slips to catch it, or for him to step away and hoick it to leg. Far too crude a tactic to work against a proper batter, but O’Rourke, despite his resistance, is an 11 (partly because there’s no option for him to bat at 12).
It worked and proves that doing what you last did in schoolboy cricket is sometimes enough.
Ball Three – Bashir bashed then blooms
Redemption is a universal human story partly because it crops up uncannily often in that scary place we call real life.
Shoaib Bashir, not one of the morning crew taking high catches from the fielding coach, drops one in the deep off Jofra Archer, not an easy chance, but you would expect it to be caught four times out of five. Seven balls later, off his own bowling, he accepts a hard-hit return catch off Nathan Smith at the second attempt.
Maybe it’s just confirmation bias, but I wonder if players, consciously or subconsciously, prepare for the chance that so often follows the drop? If it gives an edge, why not?
Ball Four – Archer arrows in the short ball
Archer is often maligned, usually by armchair keyboard warriors, for not trying hard enough, not committing to the cause or just trundling in instead of cranking up the pace. Well, if that unfounded criticism is to stick, it’ll have to explain why he hits batters so often, far more than any other bowler I can recall seeing in 16 years in the press box and plenty more earlier.
The action has plenty to do with it and his fast bowler’s instinct for the right line and length for each particular batter’s evasive measures, but neither factor outweighs the simple rawness of pace. That he can’t be flat out all the time seems a thin barb to fling at a player whom the opposition never want to see on the teamsheet.
Ball Five – The consequences of No Consequence
So, “No consequence cricket”. Those who want to play Bazbash or Benbash will use that phrase against them and not just for the (I’ll be kind) injudicious dismissals, but also for the off-field infractions. Laissez Faire is, after all, a French phrase for a reason.
But here is the other side. There was a case – and I know there was because I was tentatively making it – that both Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell were playing for their places, especially if England lose this match and the series. But neither played like that.
They saw only a flat pitch, a weakened attack and the need to score quick runs to get back in the match. And that is what they did.
The feet up in flip-flops regime of Brendon McCullum will always irritate some, and will do so even if he wins The Ashes 5-0, but its impact on some players, sometimes, can conjure performances that look inevitable in the rear window, but were anything but at the start.
Ball Six – England punch back, and hard
A Nathan Smith length ball defeated a tired, crooked bat stroke (non-stroke really) from Ben Duckett who departed for 113 off 99 balls, the partnership realising 179 runs from 179 deliveries. Game changed.
As is often the case, a partnership’s mood left the building with its aggressor, Jacob Bethell retreating somewhat into his shell, despite the reassuring presence of Joe Root at the other end. The bowling became tighter (was allowed to, too) and Tom Blundell went up to the stumps and, not for the first time, disrupted the rhythm of an England innings in so doing.
Bethell, showing considerable game awareness, got a late half volley and put it away, revealing that caution was not his overriding concern. I doubt it will be on Day Three either, since he will be there, on 74, with Joe Root on 21, the deficit 215, less than half it was when the innings started, just 45 overs ago. If they, or any of their countrymen, are at the crease come the close tomorrow, England will be favourites for the series – and the doomsayers will have to eat their words.