There have been bigger gambles in Ashes history and there have been worse outcomes. But the decision to put Australia in, the first time England have done so here since the ill-fated decision of Bob Willis on the 1982-83 tour, did not look so good after the 81 overs that were bowled on Saturday.
At the end of a blustery day and night when play was interrupted by several squally showers Australia were delighted to be 209 for four at the close of play at 10.05pm, which was dangerously near to England’s midnight curfew.
There was some tufty grass on the pitch but it was not quite as long or as green as in previous day-night matches here. The decision to put the opposition in had much more logic than in 1982 – after all, Australia have won both day-night matches here batting second – but the end product was grim for Joe Root. Inserting the opposition brings an additional pressure to the bowlers, since there is the expectation that the opposition should be dismissed for around 250 to justify that decision. Early on, England may have felt that burden of expectation; their bowlers were tentative and a bit short in length. Moreover, the pink ball behaved all too decorously, declining to swing on a cold and windy day – by Adelaide standards.
Before the start John Emburey gave a brief, expletive-free speech to the English huddle before giving Craig Overton his first cap. The first Devonian to play for England since Chris Read in 2007 replaced Jake Ball. The sun briefly made an appearance at the singing of Advance Australia Fair, which was the last thing that Root wanted to see. Then the Australia openers advanced warily but with few problems; the ball seldom beat the bat during the 13.5 overs before the first interruption.
That break upset the batsmen’s concentration, which was not evident from their strokeplay but their running between the wickets. David Warner pushed the ball gently towards short extra cover, where Moeen Ali fumbled. From there the ball trickled towards Chris Woakes at mid-off. Warner spied a single, a macho, annoying single and he advanced down the pitch, bellowing: “Yes.” Cameron Bancroft dutifully responded, whereupon Warner changed his mind. Woakes took aim and hit the stumps with Bancroft stranded.
Immediately, Root removed Woakes from the attack, replacing him with Anderson. This seemed an odd thing to do. Woakes must have been buzzing after his superb intervention and it was surely worth keeping him going for an over or two. Occasionally, Root can be too hierarchical with his bowlers.
Usman Khawaja settled alongside Warner. Overton bowled his first over in Test cricket respectably; Moeen was summoned specifically to bowl at Khawaja and did not seem to be too hindered by his damaged spinning finger. Nor were the batsmen hindered much. Suddenly, 20 runs came in two overs in part due to a bad misfield by James Vince to the delight of the majority of the 55,317 spectators.
Australia were cruising when Warner nibbled at Woakes and for the first time in 84 overs in this series an English bowler had taken a wicket.
Another should have followed soon after when Khawaja, on 44, top-edged a hook shot to the leg-side boundary, where Mark Stoneman ran to his right only for the ball to bobble out of hard hands on to the turf. Dinner, a movable feast, was taken at 7.10pm with Australia 138 for two.
With darkness descending it did appear to become harder to bat after the break even though the ball was 51 overs old. In that crepuscular hour Khawaja drove airily away from his body and sliced a catch to Vince in the gully, but Steve Smith remained unperturbed.
England had managed to rattle the Australia captain early in his innings more by something they said rather than through a sequence of venomous deliveries. It seemed that Stuart Broad said something that Smith did not find particularly funny; in fact it irked him; we know not what since my campaign to keep the pitch microphones permanently switched on does not appear to be gaining any momentum. One assumes that Broad remained on the appropriate side of the mythical line that has been endlessly spoken about in the past week, though the umpires did feel obliged to have a word themselves.
The Australia captain progressed slowly but then he appears to be in a phase when he actively enjoys taking his time frustrating the England bowlers and sapping their energy.
Soon Overton was summoned for another spell. His first ball was full in length and beat the inside edge of Smith’s bat; then it flicked the batsman’s left pad before disturbing the stumps; the bails lit up magically and Overton had his first Test wicket, the first taken for England by a Somerset bowler since Richard Johnson had Kumar Sangakkara lbw on Sunday’s date in 2003. It was a scalp much-celebrated out in the middle, as well as in Instow and Westward Ho! From here onwards, Overton certainly did not look out of place.
Still, there was no clatter of wickets in the darkness, which might suggest that upon this surface the ball is not darting around as much in previous years – we will know more when we see Australia bowling.
Peter Handscomb’s early runs all came behind the wicket and often from the edge of his bat. His innings was not pretty – he gets into some extraordinary positions and he played and missed more often than most – but it was valuable. Like Smith, he does not possess a technique that you will find in any coaching manual but batting in a Test match is not a beauty contest. Shaun Marsh was more orthodox and more convincing as yet another partnership developed. It was not a pulsating day and night but it was Australia’s.
