It was a test match most English supporters would like to take back and claim as a 'bad dream'. The thought of Cardiff still reminiscing in their heads so that a result like this surely wasn't possible, however it was possible and did in fact happen.
The second test at Lords, for traditionalists that is disturbing enough, the alleged home of cricket being relegated while second division grounds such as the Swalec Stadium take the honour of opening the Ashes. Putting that behind us, the opening day at Lords was filled with what felt like a lingering buzz of optimism as a result of the first test where our one-nil lead could be built on further. This buzz was quickly diminished after Michael Clarke won the toss, possibly the most fatal of tosses for Alistair Cook to lose. From there on in the term 'one way traffic' would excellently describe the proceedings with England only positive coming from Moeen Ali's wicket, this only continues my bewilderment of how a part time spinner can actually pick up wickets against what on paper is a world class line up. Anyway the grind of Rodgers and fluency of Smith was backed up by what Geoffrey Boycott called a 'featherbed' making the Cardiff wicket look a lot better than it actually was (the only thing saving Cardiff's ground staff) the wicket was slow and offered nothing to bowlers which resulted in what showed as a disheartened English bowling attack. By the time the pain was over the tourists had made a soul destroying 566.
A brutal day and a half in the field and the hosts looked broken. No wonder Adam Lyth didn't want to stay more than two balls at the crease as England looked up the mountain. A stubborn Cook being the only one to show any sort of grit and determination batsmen are supposed to show especially in the ashes. To remain consistent Balance and Bell contributing nothing between them and even golden boy Joe Root who couldn't drag England out of trouble, however Ben Stokes stuck it to the Australian attack for an impressive 87 carrying on his fine form. At the end of the first innings England valiantly conjured up 312 where Australia felt a little more pain was due.
Australia as you can expect sunk their teeth into the opportunity and laid on the leather chasing for the English bowlers to make 254 with Warner and Smith both making it past fifty and making it the first time James Anderson has left Lords wicket less, a true testament to the pitch I thought. Leaving England a catastrophic 509 to win, or barely more realistically a day and a half to bat. When the first wicket fell not even ticket sellers were optimistic that it would reach a fifth day, and they were right. A dismal display of batting meant only Stuart Broad got over twenty (25) in an innings which collapsed so quickly it was if Trevor Bayliss aimed to recreate the Wall Street Crash, consisting of a run out and about five cheap dismissals.
With an overly negative tone reviewing this match (deservedly so) it has seriously raised questions of team selection particularly when established team members like Ian Bell are showing such little confidence. Can this 'new brand' of English cricket afford team changes because if you were to change one player based on this test like bell then surely Balance and Lyth are surely called into question?
And may we pray that English ground staff learn a lesson from this tame Lords pitch, not so we can have the ball doing hoops and completely blow the Aussies away with the likes of James Anderson, but so we can see bowlers maintain some sort of emphasis after the first 10 overs of an innings.
Jordan Bowen
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