Joe Root reacts to Steve Smith and Australia’s total
Geoff Lemon defends Australia’s captain
Barney Ronay on England’s day
10th over: England 23-1 (Burns 15, Overton 3) Paine banishes Lyon after that single pricey over and recalls Hazlewood. Overton gets forward to the full ones and ducks the short ones, and that’s stumps. It’s been Australia’s day, no question, but England have done quite well to keep nine wickets intact. They are a mere 474 runs behind. Steve Smith trots up the stairs to the dressing-room, no doubt wondering why on earth he played that reverse sweep when a 250 was there for the taking. Thanks for your company, correspondence and gallows humour.
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9th over: England 23-1 (Burns 15, Overton 3) Overton sees out four dots from Cummins before glancing for a single, not far from the man at leg slip.
A stat pops up on Twitter from Cric Viz. “The last English genuine batsman to play seven Tests with a lower Test average than Joe Denly was Craig White.” That’s a backhand compliment to White, who was mainly in the team as a fast bowler.
8th over: England 22-1 (Burns 15, Overton 2) Tim Paine, enjoying himself after the horror show at Headingley, tries a bit of Nathan Lyon. Burns handles him well, rocking back to cut, riding his luck with an under-edge, then cutting again. Ten off the over.
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7th over: England 12-1 (Burns 5, Overton 2) Craig Overton, preferred to Jack Leach as nightwatchman, starts well, with a purposeful prod for two.
Wicket! Denly c Wade b Cummins 4 (England 10-1)
Cummins cuts Denly in half with one lifter, then persuades him to edge another into his thigh pad, which gives Matthew Wade a sharp juggling catch at short leg. And England’s latest opening partnership does no better than the one before.
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6th over: England 10-0 (Burns 5, Denly 4) Hazlewood has Burns jagging out of the way of a sharp lifter, just outside off, but another over is safely negotiated. “We went four overs without a comedy wicket!” says Hubert O’Hearn. “England have got this!”
5th over: England 9-0 (Burns 5, Denly 4) Pat Cummins replaces Starc – well, let’s face it, he didn’t bowl half as well as he’d batted. Each batsman picks up a three into the covers, and Burns adds a single to mid-on. The crowd are cheering every run.
And here’s my colleague Emma John, anchor of The Spin podcast, emailing from Old Trafford. “Considering that we could see the way the wind was (literally) blowing yesterday,” she writes, “I’m not sure I should have expected any better than this. But what a grim old afternoon it’s been. Actually things have gone so far past grim they’ve come out the other side. You can’t feel the pain any more. We’re all in a dissociated state… there was a bizarre moment just before Australia declared when the entire temporary stand started throwing their cardboard beerholders in the air. Just, I think, to feel alive.”
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4th over: England 2-0 (Burns 1, Denly 1) Hazlewood strays onto the pads, allowing Burns to open his account – that magnificently inappropriate expression for scoring your first run when two fast bowlers are racing in at you, smelling blood. Denly is beaten on his inside edge, prompting an LBW shout, and then on the outside too, but England survive another over.
3rd over: England 1-0 (Burns 0, Denly 1) Bowling to Denly, Starc starts by reprising his over to Burns – one block, two leaves. But then there’s a nasty bouncer which thuds into Denly’s wrist as, like Burns, he takes his eye off the ball. There could be an awful lot of chin music in this innings.
Back to Smith. “His middle names,” says Boris Starling, “are Peter Devereux, which has always struck me as a good name for a detective: dogged but with a touch of flamboyance (whatever the crime-fiction equivalent of the lightsabre leave is). Perhaps DCI Devereux’ first case could be to investigate the appearance of an apparently immovable object in Manchester?”
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2nd over: England 1-0 (Burns 0, Denly 1) Josh Hazlewood, unlike Starc, needs no looseners. He raps Joe Denly in the midriff, then beats him outside off, twice. For a 33-year-old top-order batsman, Denly seems a little too fond of the cover drive. A better shot, a forward push with soft hands, gets him and England off the mark. Hazlewood finishes with a vicious lifter at Burns, who ducks into it and takes a blow to the shoulder.
1st over: England 0-0 (Burns 0, Denly 0) Starc gives Rory Burns one ball to block and five to leave. That’ll do nicely for England.
“Afternoon everybody,” says Anthony Hulse. “It’s great to see that this game is going perfectly to plan for England. First up, let your opponent score 500ish including a double century over the course of a couple of days. Next, bat for a couple of days yourself and pretty much equal their score. Finally, on the last day, skittle them and then knock the runs off in the final session. Stokes’ Headingley miracle and finally avenging Adelaide pulled off as part of one magnificent strategy to inflict maximum misery on Australia. Genius!”
So England need 298 to avoid the follow-on, and Headingley seems a hundred years ago. The first target is to make it through these 10 overs or so without losing more than one wicket. Mitchell Starc, fresh from a cheery fifty, has the new ball.
Declaration! Australia 497-8
125th over: Australia 497-8 (Starc 54, Lyon 26) Root keeps himself on, which is selfless – he could be batting in about 12 minutes. His sixth successive over brings four byes, a slog for four from Lyon and a declaration. Archer escapes without running up a hundred, and England will have to bat for about 40 minutes. See you in a bit.
124th over: Australia 486-8 (Starc 53, Lyon 20) England have “a very very deep backstop,” says David Gower. “Nothing to do with Brexit.” Lyon rises to the challenge and flashes past the man in question, Stokes, for four more.
124th over: Australia 479-8 (Starc 53, Lyon 15) Four runs off Root’s over. Time for a declaration, surely.
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123rd over: Australia 477-8 (Starc 50, Lyon 14) Archer aims out of the batsmen’s reach, and they get only a couple of singles, but it’s enough for Starc to reach a beefy fifty. Maybe Australia missed a trick by not having him batting in the first three Tests.
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122nd over: Australia 475-8 (Starc 49, Lyon 13) Root limits the damage, conceding only three.
121st over: Australia 472-8 (Starc 48, Lyon 11) Starc lays into Archer, sending a flailing pull for six to third man, where Jos Buttler makes a brave attempt at a diving catch. Archer has none for 90, and his Test average has even gone above 20.
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120th over: Australia 463-8 (Starc 40, Lyon 10) Starc wallops a six off Root, who retorts with a review for LBW – but a good straight ball has brushed the glove. Starc keeps on slogging and picks up two more fours. That’s drinks, with England feeding off a few crumbs of consolation, and Australia exacting a measure of revenge for the hiding at Headingley.
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119th over: Australia 447-8 (Starc 25, Lyon 9) Archer replaces Broad and Lyon rides his luck, hooking close to the man at fine leg, then cutting with more conviction. Archer has none for 81 as the law of averages goes after him.
118th over: Australia 439-8 (Starc 25, Lyon 1) The partnership between Smith and Starc was a breezy 51, enough to make it tricky for England to avoid the follow-on, as they must to keep the Ashes alive. Never mind Denly, there’ll be a case for opening the batting with Joe Leach.
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Wicket!!! SMITH! c Denly b Root 211 (Australia 438-8)
At last! Smith tries a reverse-sweep and hits it straight to Joe Denly at backward point. That’s a comical end to an epic innings. And Root gets his man, about 200 runs later than he would have liked.
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117th over: Australia 432-7 (Smith 206, Starc 24) England have a few wounds and Starc sees the chance to rub some salt in them. He glances Broad, then straight-drives him, then straight-lofts him, then flashes behind point: four fours in a row. That’s the kind of cultured violence Broad himself used to bring to Ashes Tests.
And Damian Burns isn’t happy. “I just hate that the picture on the top of the feed is the ball perfectly in the centre of Smith’s bat. Can you tell the editors to Photoshop its position slightly to give us some hope?”
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116th over: Australia 415-7 (Smith 205, Starc 8) Smith has now driven Root to give himself a bowl. He fires it in at Starc, gets some turn, has a stifled appeal for LBW and goes for only two, which is a tiny triumph.
115th over: Australia 413-7 (Smith 205, Starc 6) To celebrate, Smith produces a lightsabre leave, a play-and-miss, and an imperious on drive for four.
And here’s Luke Baxter. “I have just walked to the spot on the island of Lesbos from which Sappho is said to have thrown herself to her death. Fortunately, much like in her times, 4G didn’t reach so I was unable to see that Smith is still batting. Otherwise I might have found myself following the great lyric poet!” That, Luke, is the acceptable face of elegant variation.
Someone or other's 200
Broad comes back, Smith steps across his stumps for the thousandth time and flicks for two to reach 201. He raises both arms in triumph, as well he may. This is what a run machine looks like.
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114th over: Australia 407-7 (Smith 199, Starc 6) Overton continues, when it’s surely time for another burst from Archer or Broad. Smith opens the face to glide another single, and again mutters about not reaching 200. He’s such a complete batsman, he even sledges himself.
“Which ends first?” asks Hubert O’Hearn. “Smith’s innings or Boris’ premiership?”
113th over: Australia 406-7 (Smith 198, Starc 6) Smith brings up the 400 in the grand manner, lofting Leach inside-out over extra cover for six. He then late-cuts, so late that the ball is almost in Bairstow’s gloves, and berates himself for getting only a single.
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112th over: Australia 399-7 (Smith 191, Starc 6) Overton is finding some movement away from the left-handed Starc, who first plays at thin air, then edges, tantalisingly short of Stokes at second slip. Finding his feet, Starc thumps down the ground for four.
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111th over: Australia 395-7 (Smith 191, Starc 2) Smith goes back to Leach and misses a cut; next ball, he goes forward and misses a prod. Moral victories.
Here’s John Starbuck, picking up on John Phaceas’s quip from the 108th over. “I recognised Hodor as a GoT reference though I’ve never watched it, but I do know the original Hodr in Norse myth did actually hit his target.” Only on the OBO.
110th over: Australia 394-7 (Smith 191, Starc 1) Smith falls over trying to play the sort of drive that brought him his fifty, several months ago now. All that happens this time is a play-and-miss.
109th over: Australia 393-7 (Smith 191, Starc 1) Starc’s off the mark with a clump to long-on, who surely should be at mid-on to tempt him into a mow. Leach has two for 75, Overton two for 79. They’ve done a decent job, apart from that no-ball, but it all feels too like the last Ashes series.
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108th over: Australia 391-7 (Smith 190, Starc 0) Overton’s row of dots comes to an end as he drops short and Smith pulls for four. “I know that Manchester is a bit like Winterfell,” John Phaceas said a while back, “but not sure about England’s selection of Hodor as the third seamer.”
107th over: Australia 387-7 (Smith 186, Starc 0) Cummins’ downfall was that he lunged forward at Leach. Mitchell Starc, finally making his first appearance of the series, hangs back and keeps Leach out.
106th over: Australia 387-7 (Smith 186, Starc 0) Overton has two jobs now – to stop Smith nicking the strike, as well as boring him rigid. He manages both with a maiden.
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105th over: Australia 387-7 (Smith 186, Starc 0) Before that, seeing a perfectly decent delivery from Leach, Smith turned it into a full-toss and clipped it for four.
“Can you think of a batsman who made so few mistakes?” asks Matt Fordham. “I really can’t. Smith appears vulnerable, as we all know, but never seems to miss a ball. Those with unusual techniques usually get found out after a year or two but he just keeps getting better and better. At least if he bats all day today I won’t have to watch him when I go to Old Trafford on Saturday. If there is still a game on then.”
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Wicket! Cummins c Stokes b Leach 4 (Australia 387-7)
The collapse is on. Leach produces a classical delivery, straightening on off, and Cummins gives Stokes a simple catch at slip. Shades of Phil Edmonds, Headingley 1975.
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104th over: Australia 382-6 (Smith 181, Cummins 4) Overton, who is just about fit enough to continue, decides it’s time to try and bore Smith out by bowling wide of off. “My only problem with that,” says Michael Holding, “is that it’s 170 runs too late.” Smith decides it’s time to bring out the lightsabre leave.
103rd over: Australia 380-6 (Smith 180, Cummins 4) Smith, facing his first ball since tea, takes one look at Leach, charges down the track and parks a full-toss smack on the Toblerone. That’s the first six of the match.
102nd over: Australia 373-6 (Smith 173, Cummins 4) Cummins is off the mark, tickling Overton for four, and Overton seems to have hurt his back. Stokes’s injury turns out to have been to his shoulder, and Broad slipped and appeared to hurt himself before tea, so it’s now The New Bradman v The Walking Wounded.
Wicket!! Paine c Bairstow b Overton 58 (Australia 369-6)
First ball after tea! Fortified by a cuppa and a change of ends, Overton bowls an away-seamer so gentle (74mph) that Paine is bamboozled into getting a nick.
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“A bit pessimistic,” says Mark Ellis, “talking about an innings defeat [97th over]. Not all of England’s first innings will end at 67 all out.” True. I said it had come into play. “This has got draw written all over it. Then to the Oval where there will be a positive result.” If offered that now, Joe Root might take it.
101st over: Australia 369-5 (Smith 173, Paine 58) Joe Denly comes on, does OK but drops one ball short, so Smith goes back and whacks him through midwicket with a straight bat – thereby inventing a new stroke, the pull-drive. And that’s tea, with Australia right on top, and Smith threatening to give Bradman some company at the summit after all these years. See you shortly.
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100th over: Australia 364-5 (Smith 169, Paine 57) Leach keeps both batsmen quiet by bowling over the wicket into the rough. If you listen hard, you may well be able to hear Nathan Lyon licking his lips.
99th over: Australia 362-5 (Smith 168, Paine 56) Archer gets a half-false shot out of Smith, whose upper cut lands just short of Denly at third man, while Paine produces a much better stroke, cutting for four. Archer does find some late swing – so late that the ball has already passed the bat – and raps Bairstow on the thumb. A physio comes on to stick some tape on it, giving us a close-up of Bairstow’s hand, which looks like something from a children’s book called Mr Plaster.
98th over: Australia 355-5 (Smith 167, Paine 50) Jack Leach replaces Overton and Tim Paine, after spending about a week on 49, pushes a single to reach an important fifty. The cricket gods are doing a lot of levelling here: Paine has been good, Stokes awful, Archer middling, Leach an unlikely villain.
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97th over: Australia 353-5 (Smith 166, Paine 49) Even on his first bad day, Archer looks the bowler most likely to break through. A short ball has Smith edging down the leg side, past Bairstow, for a streaky four. Archer touches 90.5mph, but still no dice. England have now reached the point where an innings defeat comes into play, and that means the forecast rain is less likely to save them.
96th over: Australia 349-5 (Smith 162, Paine 49) Overton is doing what county bowlers do, dishing up one bad ball an over. Smith on-drives him for four, so Root switches to Plan Z, with two short mid-offs and no second slip. Overton responds by drifting onto leg stump, to hand Smith an easy two. The only crumb of comfort for Root is that Stokes has reappeared.
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95th over: Australia 342-5 (Smith 155, Paine 49) Archer’s bouncers are unsettling Paine, who plays a shaky shovel-hook, short of short leg – quite an achievement in its way. Then Smith goes down for a word, and Paine ducks the last two balls. Archer has none for 62 from his 21 overs.
On Twitter, James Doleman asks: “Can England prorogue the Ashes?”
94th over: Australia 342-5 (Smith 155, Paine 49) Overton is bowling full, to maximise the swing, but Smith is seeing it like that beach ball from yesterday and he just creams another drive through the covers.
And here’s Gary Naylor. “England did win the last Test didn’t they @TimdeLisle?” Ha.
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93rd over: Australia 338-5 (Smith 151, Paine 49) Jofra Archer comes back to replace the stricken Stokes. Smith, unperturbed, plays a pull for three to reach the first 150 of the series. Root semaphores from slip to Archer, telling him to bowl round the wicket to Paine. Archer, 50 yards away, replies with the international body language for “who, me?”. Archer digs it in, and Paine is dropped by Sam Curran, a tough low chance at midwicket, but he got to it. I take it all back (previous over).
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92nd over: Australia 335-5 (Smith 148, Paine 49) Overton squeezes a thick inside edge out of Paine, but it connects only with his back pad. Steady as Overton has been, England could do with Sam Curran’s ability to make things happen.
“With Smith’s invincibility in mind,” says Kim Thonger, “I wonder if we should start to think about a handicapping system, similar to that used in golf, or horseracing. So the higher a batsman’s average, the more he is penalised, to even things out, perhaps by shaving bits off his bat or partially blindfolding him. My wife has suggested chopping off bits of fingers, but this seems overly harsh and likely to upset frail and elderly MCC members. (Some may view that as a bonus.)”
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91st over: Australia 334-5 (Smith 147, Paine 49) England have gone flat, so Joe Root turns to Ben Stokes. His last spell was so bad that he must be planning something magnificent for the weekend. This over picks up where he left off earlier, with one half-volley driven for four by Paine and another blocked for three. After five balls, Stokes walks off with what looks like a strained muscle or hamstring. Bad to worse.
A tweet comes in from Voice of the Mysterons. “WinViz shows England with a 5% chance of winning this, which is 4% more chance that it gave them at Headingly. England it is, then…”
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90th over: Australia 325-5 (Smith 145, Paine 42) Paine has reached the happy state when you just wait for the bad ball and stroke it for four. This time it’s a tame half-volley from Overton, eased past extra cover. And with that, in terms of overs, we’ve reached the end of the first day.
89th over: Australia 321-5 (Smith 145, Paine 38) Paine hooks Broad, unconvincingly as usual, but picks up a single. Smith duly goes past his own series best. He has the most Test runs of anyone this year, and he didn’t even start till August 1. Crazy stat, crazy guy.
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88th over: Australia 318-5 (Smith 144, Paine 36) Another little victory for Australia: Jofra Archer is taken off. Craig Overton comes on and at least manages a maiden. He has a strangled LBW shout against Smith, fruitless because the ball struck him outside the line of off and he was playing a shot.
87th over: Australia 318-5 (Smith 144, Paine 36) Thanks Adam and hello everyone. When Tim Paine is making runs, you know England are in trouble. Broad beats Smith outside off, but, as ever, there’s no thin edge – Smith only deals in thick ones. To prove it, he plays a low squirt, short of the man at a fine gully. A single – to square leg, inevitably – takes him level with the highest score in this series, made by... you’ll never guess.
86th over: Australia 317-5 (Smith 143, Paine 36) Whisper it once again: Paine looks great here, slamming Archer through cover for four of the best. That’s his highest score of the series, as the TV commentary reminds me. Archer responds with more short stuff, which isn’t bothering the captain as he hopes it might. Well played. Indeed, well played to you all on the email - sorry I didn’t get to all of them. With drinks on the field this is my cue to hand the OBO baton over to Tim de Lisle. I’ll talk to you again tomorrow morning. Bye!
85th over: Australia 313-5 (Smith 143, Paine 32) Into those ~nervous 140s~ goes Smith. He’s beaten by a good’un from Broad, this time over the wicket, the next ball finding his outside edge and spitting away for a couple. But he gets the chance to work the final ball where he likes it most, into the legside, scampering back for another brace.
84th over: Australia 309-5 (Smith 139, Paine 32) For suggesting this I’m certain that he will now get himself out, but Paine is looking very comfortable against Archer here, clipping a couple then pushing another. Smith gives him the strike back, the captain at ease against the short balls that inevitably arrive. Maybe we’re writing about him tonight? I wouldn’t mind that, just for something different.
I’m reminded by Andrew Donnison, the hero of our UAE story last year, that he was taking photos of Leach bowling consistent no-balls from the party stand yesterday. Sloppy, costly cricket.
“Is it windy at OT today?” asks Ross Antrobus, an old teammate of mine at the mighty Hampstead Cricket Club. “A question regarding the removal of the bails yesterday, does DRS account for this or could you be given out (via DRS) with the ball clipping a bail that didn’t physically exist at the time? Appreciate this is niche but that’s the kind of guy I am!”
Geoff Lemon and I discussed this on our post-game show last night. We definitely think/hope so. We do like talking about bails.
83rd over: Australia 305-5 (Smith 138, Paine 29) Preeeeetty cricket from Smith, timing the pants off a Broad delivery from around the wicket. Paine pulls confidently, along the carpet for a single. With Australia now beyond 300, and both men well set, they are some chance of batting England out of the game by stumps tonight.
“Is Smith’s current dominance just payback for the 2010-11 ashes when Cook batted through the entire series without breaking sweat?” asks George Kidd. That’s a good comparison, actually. Remember when Smith was brought into that series because, so it was said, he told good jokes in the rooms? A million years ago.
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82nd over: Australia 297-5 (Smith 131, Paine 28) Back to Archer and Smith. Can he go up to his next level with this new ball? Not initially, the main man taking a single to midwicket with a minimum of fuss. Paine sways out the way of one bouncer and ducks another before defending solidly to finish. He’s now faced 70 deliveries himself.
“Boa Tarde Adam.” Geoff Wignall, a pleasure as always. “It’s a pleasant and balmy 30° here in the Beira after the heat of recent days and as good a place as any to read the thoughts of others about Smith’s likely cricketing longevity. I was reminded by it of Bishen Bedi’s initial assessment of Pietersen - that he’d be finished in Test cricket by his early thirties, once his eyes began to go. (And that he’d be a bunny for a good left arm spinner, or more specifically a younger Bedi. Fancied him c&b off the leading edge. True enough that KP was never comfortable against left arm tweakers.)
On longevity - this is Smith’s third Ashes tour to England, due to that nonsense with them playing two in three summers. He’s a decent chance of getting through five by the time he is finished.
81st over: Australia 296-5 (Smith 130, Paine 28) Broad it is, back now at the Statham End, where he has done the vast bulk of his work in this innings. Shane Warne is talking about Tim Paine’s batting, surely only moments away from sacking him live on air. Paine responds with a forceful cut shot, hammering a loose Broad offering.
80th over: Australia 291-5 (Smith 129, Paine 24) Three more singles off what will be Denly’s second and final over for now, all out to the leg side. Smith has now faced 200 balls. England take the new ball.
“80 overs into the first innings and thinking a draw would probably be a very good result from here, probably not the best sign really is it?” asks Chris Parker. With rain about tomorrow, that will help if you’re already thinking in those terms. Then again, does anyone believe we’ll get through this Test without at least two collapses?
“If it’s any consolation to Leach, Smitty will soon be into the nervous 140’s,” jokes Yum. Weirdly, that will also be on Smith’s mind.
“Can I request that the ICC launch an urgent enquiry into the potential extraterrestrial origins of Steve Smith?” proposes Tom Fairbairn. “If it transpires he’s a Cricketaloid from the planet Crick, is he still legally allowed to play? In truth, it’s all the more extraordinary that he’s nothing but a mortal man.”
79th over: Australia 288-5 (Smith 127, Paine 23) This will be Leach’s last over for a while, the new ball due from his end next up. Three singles comes from this less penetrative set, out to the sweepers at deep cover and midwicket - like the middle overs of an ODI. Leach walks off the ground at the end of his over, Athers suggesting that he might have taken some skin off his spinning finger. Poor Jack.
78th over: Australia 285-5 (Smith 125, Paine 22) Denly for a few of his leggies with a few overs remaining before the second new ball. Not a bad shout. But Paine isn’t going to take any risks with that milestone within touching distance, defending the lot. A rare maiden.
77th over: Australia 285-5 (Smith 125, Paine 22) Paine takes on Root at mid-off for a single, making his ground comfortably. More good batting from the captain, turning the pressure up on the home side after a poor third hour so far for them. Smith plays the rest of the over respectfully and watchfully. He’s hit the re-set button?
76th over: Australia 284-5 (Smith 125, Paine 21) Smith doing Smith things. He nearly plays Stokes onto his stumps and races around the woodwork to make sure the ball doesn’t deflect down that way. Sure. Stokes oversteps for the second time in two overs - that’s three in three when considering Leach’s desperately costly foot-fault - which allows Smith another look, and he makes no mistake crunching a ropey full-toss to the extra cover boundary. He now has 503 runs in the series at 167.67. If not for the fact that he missed three innings, Bradman’s 974 from 1930 probably would be in range by now.
“Afternoon, Adam.” Hi, Phil Sawyer. “From a pommie perspective, interesting use of the word ‘lucky’ there (13.42pm). The more runs Smith scores against us, I’m sure the luckier we all feel.”
75th over: Australia 277-5 (Smith 120, Paine 20) Joe Root brought his team together as Smith walked back from the boundary edge to give them a stern talking to, urging them to stay with the task. Moments like this can be series-defining. “A crazy over,” says Nasser on telly. “They have Smith, now they don’t have Smith.” What a game.
England have kept going for Steve Smith’s head here without realising he’s got into theirs #Ashes @cricbuzz
— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) September 5, 2019
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Leach picks up Smith... but he has overstepped!
Unbelievable scenes. A beautiful delivery, the spinner celebrates Smith edging to slip. But when the third umpire is asked to check for the no-ball, he is shown to be over the line. Dear me.
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74th over: Australia 273-5 (Smith 118, Paine 19) Stokes it into the attack for the first time today and it is a big over, going for xx. Paine gets it started with a graceful on-drive, learning on a half-volley. His best shot so far. Smith’s turn, who takes four of the easiest runs he’s made across these hours in the middle, helping a ball down leg fine of the man at long leg. For his next trick, he elects to play a shot between third slip and gully at a catchable height off the middle of the bat. Silly good. Stokes oversteps but then beats Smith with the next ball. 15 from it.
73rd over: Australia 258-5 (Smith 109, Paine 14) Steve Smith has played his first false stroke since the Mesolithic Age but it has landed between two fielders. Leach, once again, drew the false stroke and much as it was with Wade, the top edge went hiiiigh in the air, but this time it bisected the man running back from cover and the other racing in from deep cover. Paine is looking comfortable against the spin so far, getting back into his crease to cut his second boundary.
72nd over: Australia 252-5 (Smith 108, Paine 9) What. A. Shot. Smith gets deep in the crease and plays the most lavish backfoot drive off Broad. Hooley dooley, that is stunning. Paine is back on strike by the end of the over and cops a beauty from Broad, who can only look down the pitch and lament the fact that it didn’t kiss the edge.
“Broad has certainly had more than his fair share of dropped catches off his bowling, but if there are stats available they really ought to name the guilty fielders,” says John Starbuck. “Some teams have much better cordons than others. Any idea who was the best and why?”
I can’t think of a better cordon in my lifetime than Warne, M Waugh, Hayden, Ponting with Steve Waugh in the gully. Any combination.
71st over: Australia 247-5 (Smith 103, Paine 9) Leach to Smith remains an interesting clash - he was definitely the man most likely at him before the break. He gets to the pitch to take one, Paine then returning to his plan of lunging forward at the finger spinner.
70th over: Australia 246-5 (Smith 102, Paine 9) Bad dropped catch! The change of ends brings enough movement for Broad, winning a healthy outside edge from Paine, put down by Roy. They don’t come much more straightforward than that. It was a loose shot; Paine deserved to fall to it. Has a bowler ever had more chances put down off him (especially behind the wicket) than Stuart Broad?
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The players are back on the field...
It will be Broad resuming, swung around to the Jimmy Anderson End for the first time in this innings, replacing Overton. PLAY!
More Smith before we start? Why not. From Robin Hazlehurst. “My quick and dodgy maths suggests Smith has scored about 40% of the runs in this innings so far, and 37% of the total runs in the other innings he has batted. That sounds like a lot - is it close to historical records? It certainly suggests that England’s best tactic for getting Smith out is don’t bother, and just focus on the guy at the other end.”
I’ll throw that open to the stattos. But it has to be right up there?
“You said about Smith that we are basically watching Bradman,” emails David Markham. “Oddly, I was looking at an old newspaper today, describing an innings of Bradman in club cricket in Sydney and it talked about him regularly hitting the ball to the square leg boundary off middle stump. Wonder who that reminds me of.”
This is what Jim Maxwell points to - the style of play as well as the stats. Either way, we’re obviously very lucky as cricket lovers.
Some emails asking which three Smith tons I didn’t see at the ground. They were the first two (The Oval, Perth 2013) and Centurion 2014, which he has since credited as the most important in giving him the confidence to be a legitimate world-beater.
💯
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) September 5, 2019
Steve Smith gets his 26th Test century and his 3rd in this series 🤯
Follow over-by-over commentary and in-play clips from the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford. Watch on Sky Sports Ashes 👉 https://t.co/QLuuUFrKrf #BringItHome pic.twitter.com/xd40YdcKkC
Okay, I’m fed. Let’s burst through some corro before the resumption.
“Travis Head is a good player but in a series where the Aussies are keen not to lose wickets in clusters it’s weird to have a shaky starter at five,” says Digvijay Yadav. I just hope they don’t do something daft like making him captain this summer if Paine retires. Give him time.
“Since Steve Smith’s odd method relies more on a good eye than someone like Virat, is there not a chance that his later career regression might be steeper once his peepers start to go?” asks David Seare. “Alternatively, once The Ashes is the only Test series left he could push towards 80 since we can’t seem to trouble him very much.”
This has been (kinda) the argument with Smith in the past, that his technique wouldn’t hold up over the longer term. Echoing the above: I just hope they don’t do something daft like making him the captain in March if Paine retires at the end of the home summer. Let him bat.
“I have a question for the knowledgeable, of which I’m sure there are many reading OBO,” begins Martyn Fairbrother. Flattery will indeed get you everywhere/published in the OBO. “Why do players have their names and numbers on their shirts, but not on their jumpers? I could understand them having these on both or on neither, but to have it on the shirt and then cover it with a jumper just seems daft.”
Could it be that there is no neat way to get that pattern on a woolen jumper short of actually knitting it in?
“Which country has more than one current Test player with a current average over 50?” asks Romeo. “The answer is Afghanistan. After his, and his country’s maiden Test century today against Bangladesh, Rahmat Shah’s average is 58.8. Asghar Afghan is currently on 63.66, and needs just ten more runs tomorrow morning to be over 50 even when he gets out. Worth a salute, I think.”
Back in 15. Drop me a line, I’ll be back with your emails soon.
LUNCH! Australia 245-5 (Smith 101, Paine 9)
69th over: Australia 245-5 (Smith 101, Paine 9) I’ve been at 23 of the 26 Smith centuries and some have an utter feeling of inevitability about them - this was one of those. I made an error below and said it was nine Ashes tons for him now - it’s 11, of course. One stat from Cricbuzz: it took Tendulkar 136 innings to get to 26 tons, this is Smith’s 121st and all have been in his most recent 99 hits. Tim Paine takes his side to lunch with his best shot so far, driving Leach neatlythrough the covers for four. If not for the fact that Smith is still there, it could be called an even session. But that will count for nothing if he sticks around for another two hours. Remarkable.
Steve Smith raises his 26th Test ton!
68th over: Australia 241-5 (Smith 101, Paine 5) He simply unbelievable. With two around the corner, Smith reaches three figures yet again against England. This is his 11th Ashes century, all brought up since the final Test in 2013 at The Oval. We’ve seen plenty of dominant players in the modern game, but nothing quite like this.
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67th over: Australia 233-5 (Smith 98, Paine 4) Inching closer, Smith takes another one to the legside off Leach - he’s worked his way through the 90s almost exclusively in this fashion - Paine stroking one to mid-off to give the strike back. Will he take him on and move to 100 with a four as he did twice in Birmingham? Not this time, happy with a single to cover. Two overs until lunch. Steve Waugh went to lunch on 98 at Old Trafford in 1997, from memory.
66th over: Australia 233-5 (Smith 96, Paine 3) Smith clips one from the first Overton delivery - a boundary away from a ton. He now has 2500 Ashes runs. Paine had to deal with a couple of useful deliveries that decked away from him but managed to avoid edging behind.
“Having studied Smith’s technique for a long time - we’ve had plenty of opportunities - I’m pretty sure I’ve found his weakness,” says Gareth Frith. I’m looking forward to this! “When England bowl to him from over the wicket, he’s often forwards, or back, or laterally, he sometimes takes what is referred to as ‘one run’, and gives us the chance to bowl at his mate instead. Straws clutched.”
He’s going to finish this series with a lowest score of 92, isn’t he? Absurd. As Jim Maxwell says, we are basically watching Bradman.
65th over: Australia 232-5 (Smith 95, Paine 3) A single from Smith into the legside off Leach early in the over, Paine then making sure that he’s well forward in defence to blunt the spin. He’s started well.
“Forgive me if this has been suggested before but why not swap the timetable to have the venues in the north host the Ashes earlier in the series?” writes Ruth Pudue. “The weather isn’t good up here in September, it’s going to rain, they’re going to lose time.”
I was told that this is the first Ashes Test at Old Trafford in September. Of course, this is an unusual summer due to the World Cup. The broader question probably is why both events have been staged in England in the same season? They squeezed in an entire extra Ashes series a few years back to avoid Australia having to do the same in 2015. Oh wait... maybe that was to do with moolah?
64th over: Australia 231-5 (Smith 94, Paine 3) How good does Paine look batting in the long sleeved shirt and sleeveless jumper, by the way? How it is meant to be. Overton is sticking with his short attack from around the wicket to him, the captain ready for it and evading. When the bouncers are used up, he stays still to clip from his armpit down to long leg. Good batting. Smith takes a ball from his stumps to midwicket to keep the strike for Leach. One (big) shot away.
63rd over: Australia 229-5 (Smith 93, Paine 2) Leah is bowling with guile and loop, just what you want at Smith in the 90s. The superstar is twice beaten by that flight, oh-so-close to slicing to backward point then not far away at all from feeding a catch to silly point. Sure enough, he is back on it with one to cover, Paine then doing likewise.
62nd over: Australia 227-5 (Smith 92, Paine 1) Overton is around the wicket bumping Smith to begin, who wants none of it. He gets off strike with a well-timed tuck, Paine off the mark later in the over with a risk-free pull shot. Smith keeps the strike and moves to 92, the score he made at Lord’s; his lowest of the series. Extraordinary.
61st over: Australia 224-5 (Smith 90, Paine 0) Well bowled Jack Leach, giving Wade the chance to dance as he had before the rain delay. A crafty bowler. As Ricky Ponting notes, Wade likes to score and wasn’t picking up runs with the ease he would have liked when defending the seamers from the Pavilion End.
That was probably the wrong ball for Matthew Wade to go after. The ball which dismissed him was the widest outside off of any he faced from Leach, and he ended up reaching for it. #Ashes pic.twitter.com/JiIdsGCYKp
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) September 5, 2019
WICKET! Wade c Root b Leach 16 (Australia 224-5)
Wade dances at Leach but miscues badly, the top edge swirling high in the air, taken safely by the captain Root. After all that hard work.
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60th over: Australia 221-4 (Smith 87, Wade 16) There isn’t much going on from Overton’s end, Wade defending him. confidently.
59th over: Australia 220-4 (Smith 87, Wade 16) A mix-up! Smith bunts and runs into the legside, Wade sending him back with a roar. Absolutely the right decision - there was no run there. That’s the advantage of having a senior player with Smith. He’s right back on it next ball, taking full advantage of a delivery on the leg stump from Leach, taking him through midwicket for four. Shot. Leach bounces straight back though, beating him on the outside edge with a delivery that really dips and grips. Smith acknowledges that it is a very good bit of bowling. Smith moves to 87 with one to cover.
Some mythbusting about that number: when in the 80s, Australians have been dismissed more often on every score other than 87.
58th over: Australia 215-4 (Smith 82, Wade 16) Overton goes bouncer, bouncer to begin - a touch odd to use them both to start an over. Smith is across this, standing tall at the crease to flick the next ball to deep backward square for one. Wade blocks out the rest without concern. He’s 16 from 39 balls.
The players are back on the field. No news on whether the playing times for the day have been adjusted - I suspect they will be.
“Has Woakes been dropped or finally been rested from an undisclosed injury?” asks Ian James. Rested, is the word. But there’s also a whisper of a knee niggle. “I’ve been trying to figure out why he bowled so little at Lord’s and Headingley. Lord’s (we were told) was a utopian-type home ground for him and he barley got a look in. At Leeds, Stokes toiled away for over after over and no Woakes.”
My best guess is the captain wanted Archer every moment he could at Lord’s and Stokes was doing a real shift at Leeds after Woakes battled on the first day. Either way, he’ll be back soon enough.
Overton will bowl the first over back. Smith is on strike.
The covers are off. We'll be back soon.
Some emails? Let’s. From Matthew Doherty, to begin. “This Test is beginning to remind me of the one here in 1985,” he says. “Mike Gatting 160; Craig McDermott eight of the available wickets.”
Did anyone else enjoy that 1980s Ashes doco during the rain on Sky Cricket yesterday? They do good work.
“Here’s a deal,” suggests Edward Genochio, “call it It a cricketing version of baseball’s intentional walk. Smith doesn’t get to bat. We give him 100 runs (out) automatically in every innings, and we’ll just bowl at the rest of you. Putting the laws of cricket aside for the time being: would England make the offer? Would the Aussies accept?”
I’ve been thinking a bit about Smith and his batting average. Could it finish... in the 70s? Since his breakthrough century at The Oval in August 2013, he goes at 73 across those 99 innings. Crazy.
Rain. I'm sorry.
57th over: Australia 214-4 (Smith 81, Wade 16) It’s very dark all of a sudden at Old Trafford, I am afraid to say. We’ll see. Fow now, it is Jack Leach for the first time today and there’s plenty going on right away, Wade nearly gloving a sweep to keep the fielders around the bat on their toes. The left-hander responds by dancing down the track, clipping with class through the air for a two-bounce four. Oh, it’s raining. And they’re off. Here come the covers. Urrrrrrgh.
56th over: Australia 209-4 (Smith 80, Wade 12) Huge appeal for caught behind! Archer seems certain that he has won Wade’s edge on the hook, landing in Bairstow’s gloves. Umpire Erasmus turns the shout down and rightly so: the replay confirms there’s nothing on it. Root keeps his cool and doesn’t review. Earlier, Wade brought up the Australian 200 with another well-controlled steer, past backward point and down to the rope. As Isa Guha says on telly, these two put on a 100-run stand at Edgbaston that put the First Test out of England’s reach. After the appeal the final ball is sprayed, clipping Wade’s pad and running away for four leg byes. Poor response.
55th over: Australia 199-4 (Smith 79, Wade 8) Another probing Broad over - this is an excellent spell. Has he ever bowled better across a full series? But Wade is up to the task, getting on the front foot to push with control for a couple past cover then edging with soft hands on the bounce into the cordon.
“Good luck for today’s play.” Thanks, James Wrout. “The photo at the top of the page has a caption at the moment which says “Steve Smith sweeps a beach ball at Old Trafford”. Surely it should say: “The game of cricket, as seen through the eyes of Steve Smith”!”
I reckon Felix White summed it up best on twitter last night.
54th over: Australia 197-4 (Smith 79, Wade 6) Nice and calm, Wade gets through an accurate Archer over without any concern. He’ll be on strike for Broad next, advancing the score by one with a leg bye.
53rd over: Australia 196-4 (Smith 79, Wade 6) Aside from the whack to the arm, Wade had looked pretty organised so far. It isn’t a stretch to say that this could be his final Test Match unless he makes a big contribution - he’s been around long enough to realise that. He gets off strike with a controlled push to point. Smith pulls a similar delivery to the one he left a couple of overs back, not at all middling it, but landing safely behind square for a couple. He ducks, defends and waves his wand when shouldering arms to complete the set. Might this be the day they leave Broad on for a really long spell?
“Morning Collo.” Nick Toovey, my man. “Can’t help but view Steve Smith as somebody that’s now been conditioned by the Dog-Stick commonly used to hurl balls at batsman into a cricketing cocker spaniel. His excitement at having balls hurled towards him never wanes, and like any dog owner will testify, the people hurling the balls are getting bored, tired and cranky well before he does.”
Talking to a member of the Australian camp a few weeks ago, he explained that Smith doesn’t mind batting three (as he does periodically) on the basis that an opener might get out first ball, which allows him to go in straight away. This is how his brain works.
52nd over: Australia 193-4 (Smith 77, Wade 5) Good batting from Smith, getting on the back foot early to Archer, able to steer him behind point for his third boundary of the morning. There are three bouncers either side of the stroke, all dealt with relatively easily by Smith. The extra yard he had at Lord’s isn’t quite there. Yet.
51st over: Australia 188-4 (Smith 73, Wade 4) Oooh, Broad is all over it here to Wade, drawing the left-hander forward from the around the wicket as he has done time and again in this series, beating the edge. As CricViz reported yesterday, he’s sent down 37 per cent of his deliveries on a full length in this series, more than ever before for him. Wade keeps his cool, glancing a ball from his middle stump to leave the last ball to Smith, leaving a bouncer he briefly considered having a flash at before realising it wasn’t a good idea.
“Whilst we grapple with one particular batsman and how to dismiss him,” says Andrew Benzeval, “I note that over in Chittagong Rahmat Shah has scored Afghanistan’s maiden Test hundred. Well done that man.”
Go you good thing go! He joins a pretty handy list. We interviewed the great Aminul ‘BulBul’ Islam during the World Cup for our 1999 retrospective project, the man who did it first for Bangladesh.
50th over: Australia 186-4 (Smith 72, Wade 3) Ouch! Archer stings Wade with a ball that he can’t get out the way of, smacking him on the unprotected top arm. Sure enough, he finds an edge next ball, albeit one that doesn’t quite carry to first slip. “You would normally expect that to carry every day of the week here,” notes Mike Atherton on the telly, who knows a thing or two about Old Trafford.
“Seems to me one of the things that makes a batsman great is that they eliminate certain aspects of their game,” writes Peter Salmon. “Ricky Ponting eliminated the cut shot, Steve Waugh the hook. Smith has simply taken this to its logical conclusion and eliminated getting out. So simple, and yet astonishing no one has thought of it before.”
49th over: Australia 184-4 (Smith 72, Wade 1) Looking back at the Head replay, it was hitting leg stump but not flush. Boy, how Australia need Wade at his best today. I interviewed him a couple of days ago and he talked about how important his last two seasons in Hobart have been to re-training himself to bat on English-style pitches. He’s off the mark second ball, taking a single to mid-on.
WICKET! Head lbw b Broad 19 (Australia 183-4)
From around the wicket, Broad has slipped past Head’s inside edge. There’s no doubt where that is going and no review required.
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48th over: Australia 181-3 (Smith 71, Head 18) Here it is, Archer’s quicker bumper at Smith, waiting until the last moment before swaying out of the way. That’s exactly what Justin Langer talked about before the Test. He’s forced to use his bat for the majority of the over, the radar hit at 90mph for the first time in this Test Match along the way. He leaves a temper to finish. Good contest.
Here is the overseas TMS link, from the same place it always is.
47th over: Australia 181-3 (Smith 71, Head 18) Smith wants to pull Broad’s first ball but doesn’t get enough of it to turn the board over. He leaves the two short balls that follow, defending and dancing the delivery aimed straight. He keeps the strike with a flick to finish.
46th over: Australia 180-3 (Smith 70, Head 18) Archer is beginning the day from the Anderson End and this strange start to the morning continues. Smith is on top to begin, on the back foot crunching the England quick through cover to move to 66 - his average will improve in this innings. But forget about that, Archer drops him next ball in his follow through. It’s from a low full toss, about thigh height to his right, the chance fumbled. As every commentator will note, they’re never easy for the fast bowlers, but even so, the replay suggests he should have taken that. After the two consecutive boundaries, Archer finds the inside edge - once again, not far away from strife there. Head’s turn to finish, facing his first ball of the day, and he’s beaten by a good’un outside the off-stump.
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45th over: Australia 171-3 (Smith 61, Head 18) Edge first ball! Broad has Smith pushing and nicking, albeit on the bounce to the cordon. He plays and misses at the next. Unusually nervy from the former captain. After getting bat on ball to defend the third, he’s into his full carry on, “wait there!” he roars, turning 180 degrees for reasons best explained by him. Now... a delay. What is going on here? Smith has seen something behind Broad he doesn’t like. Umpire Dharmasena runs off the field to get a... door shut at long-off? But he’s still not happy. Smith can see through the crack of the door a reflection off the Sky Cricket truck in the car park. You couldn’t make it up. Relaxed at last, a bumper follows - quite right - before Smith keeps the strike from the final ball of this eventful over, tucking square.
Thanks, JP! Morning all. And what a lovely Manchester morning this is. Stuart Broad has the ball in his hand, he’ll be running away from me at the Brian Statham (or Broadcast) End. Steve Smith is on strike, resuming his innings on 60 - still three runs short of his average in Test cricket, would you believe. Let’s do it. PLAY!
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Righto, I can see cricket on the horizon which means Adam Collins must be around here somewhere. Please redirect emails to adam.collins.casual@theguardian.com and tweets to @collinsadam.
I like Marnus Labuschagne. He talks in plain English, cuts through the noise and tries to answer questions directly. He’s just given a nice interview to Ian Healy on Australian TV, in part discussing what it’s like being at the non-striker’s end while Steve Smith bats. “They just don’t look like they’re ever going to get him out,” he says matter of factly.
“One unintended consequence of Stokes’s onslaught at Headingley might play through later in this Test,” begins Ian Forth. “It’s easy to imagine a scenario where Australia are, say, 380 runs ahead with 5 wickets in hand at the end of Day 4 - but still feel reluctant to declare, lest new records are smashed on the last day. Then, just possibly, England could escape with a draw 8 wickets down with The Ashes still alive going into The Oval.”
David Murray is one of many who can’t understand why Chris Woakes was sacrificed for this Test. “Replacing Woakes, one of our most reliable performers with bat and ball over the last few years, with the relatively untested Overton makes no sense to me, nor does Root’s under-use of Woakes when he was in the team. I would much rather have seen one of the batsmen dropped and Rashid brought in, or perhaps Curran. Someone who might offer something different and take wickets.”
This email arrived just as I was considering sharing this piece of CricViz analysis:
The issue for England yesterday was that they couldn't swing the ball. On average, they found 0.82° of movement through the air; only four times in the last six home summers have they swung the ball less on Day 1 of a Test. #Ashes
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) September 5, 2019
I wonder if it reinforces the decision not to pick Woakes (i.e. there was no swing on offer therefore a specialist swing bowler would have been redundant), or if it amplifies the wrongness of his dropping. Who’d be a selector?
Big day for Jack Leach, you’d reckon. Surely he’s pencilled in for 40 overs at no more than 2.5 rpo to allow the quicks to steam in for short bursts.
Robin Hazlehurst has emailed in some astute observations. “England’s failure to remove Steve Smith on a good batting track on a difficult day for bowling is not good, but the bigger worry is still England’s batting. A score of 400 in the first innings of a Test happens, it just means the team batting second has to dig in and pile up the big runs. But is anyone currently feeling optimistic that England can or will do that? And does that doubt undermine the bowlers if they feel under more pressure to perform if they can’t trust the batting?”
Geoff Lemon has taken a look at David Warner’s unflattering series statistics.
The slump has been a surprise. Warner was one run away from topping the World Cup list in England only a few weeks ago, racking up 647 with three centuries. He even played his one-day cricket in what felt closer to his Test match mode, taking his time to build big innings. He seemed set for a substantial Ashes. There is no way to quantify whether the difference has been in fields or in bowlers or in facing the red Dukes ball versus the white Kookaburra; or whether it is something less technical, less tangible, like the lasting scrutiny of an Ashes series settling in the way that a manic global tournament might not.
It’s always a pleasure when Ian Forth logs on. “Your ‘Day Today’ reference of ‘if need be’ highlights one of the charming old rivers which run underground in English syntax,” he emails. “Here we catch a glimpse of the subjunctive in a conditional protasis shyly rising its timorous head above the narrative parapet.” I will take your word for it.
Although, if we’re competing for Pseuds Corner, your email did evoke memories of Rising Damp, a wonderful poem by Ursula Fanthorpe.
The build-up to the fourth Test was dominated by anticipation of the duel resuming between Jofra Archer and Steve Smith, but as Barney Ronay reports the spectacle underwhelmed.
We came for Archer v Smith, part two. What we got was a slow-paced pitch and something more faithful to the rhythms of this insistently slow-burn form; not to mention more in keeping with Smith’s own status as a great of the game.
On the topic of bowling, Adam Giles was unimpressed with Overton and co. “I must admit, England looked lacklustre with the ball yesterday,” he emails, not inaccurately. “They seem to have no clear plans or new ideas. Rather than hold a line outside off with the occasional variation to try take a wicket, there just seems to be a “run up and bowl” culture. As boring as it would be, I’d happily see 10 consecutive overs of 5th-stump leaves from the batsmen rather than the spray currently being produced.”
While largely in agreement, I think yesterday’s showing highlighted how well both sides have bowled so far this series.
Craig Overton was on media duties for England last night and Ali Martin was around to hear the recalled paceman explain how tough the conditions were on day one.
Conditions really didn’t suit running into bowl. It’s just the rhythm of the run-up – you feel like you’re getting to the crease and all of a sudden the wind hits you and it pushes you forward.
Further proof, if proof be need be, that it is a lovely morning in Manchester. Also, a reminder to me of that time I met Neil Fairbrother sometime in the mid-90s when I was a kid and you could watch a game at Old Trafford from the car park through the gaps in the stands. Harvey was wearing memorably excellent squash shoes.
Slightly different morning @lancscricket @englandcricket @CricketAus @Specsavers #ashes day2 98 overs 11-1830 (1900) lunch 1300 tea 1610 pic.twitter.com/5ifmpLbFfW
— GRAHAM WOODWARD 🎤 (@GWOODERS) September 5, 2019
Miss any of yesterday’s action? Fear not, because Vic Marks braved the wind and the rain to bring you this report from day one at Old Trafford.
Australia won a good toss and after 44 overs had advanced to 170 for three, having been reduced to 28 for two in the first half‑hour. That was a most satisfactory outcome for Tim Paine’s side. Even better for the tourists was the sight of Steve Smith back in harness, batting just as he did in the first Test at Edgbaston.
The weather. The good news is it’s dry in Manchester and the forecast indicates we should (touching wood with a lucky rabbit’s foot lodged between crossed fingers) remain rain-free all day. The possibility of any interruption is highest during the afternoon session.
The bad news is it’s decidedly chilly. The forecast top temperature is 14C with everything kept on the fresh side of that maximum by a westerly breeze.
Chris Raybould has the honour of sending in the first email of the day. It takes an unexpected turn. “Sitting here in Australia and wondering whether England might have had their two big games of the summer,” he writes. “I desperately want them to wrestle the Ashes back but as good as he is, Stokesy isn’t a one man team. What was it my mum used to say? Something about it’s better to have a champion team than a team of champions? Clones… maybe cloning is the way?”
The day two pitch looks flat and full of runs. Composing a strategy to winkle out Steve Smith on a surface like this would drive any captain to distraction.
Also, a nice reminder in the tweet below that because of the overs lost to rain today’s play is scheduled to last 30 minutes longer than usual.
Just the 44 overs on this pitch on day one. Hopefully 98 today 🤞#Ashes pic.twitter.com/5FTs9YVvCJ
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) September 5, 2019
Preamble
Hello everybody and welcome to live OBO coverage of day two of the fourth Test from Old Trafford.
Day one went decisively Australia’s way. Tim Paine won a good toss before Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith neutralised any momentum England might have been carrying into the match following Ben Stokes’s heroics at Headingley.
Only 44 overs were possible and with further rain delays likely over the next couple of days, it may prove difficult for either side to force a positive result on a surface that has so far proven the easiest to bat on this series. With runs on the board and England batting last on a pitch expected to break up and facilitate spin, Australia are in the box seat. For the hosts to assert themselves on the contest the opening hour of play will be vital.
There will be plenty of scrutiny on Jofra Archer during the early exchanges. The emerging star underwhelmed for the first time in his international career yesterday, bowling without intent for portions, reflecting a general demeanour that suggested he did not relish his time in the field on such a wintry day. Joe Root must demand more from his spearhead.
If you don’t know the drill by now, I am holding the fort for the next hour or so until play begins but once the action gets underway I’ll hand you over to Adam Collins at Old Trafford. If you want to join in before play, starting at 11am BST, you can find me on Twitter or you can send me an email.
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