CRICKET THE ASHES, SECOND TEST: THE GAME is on at Lord's. If England had ruled the roost throughout the first three-and-a-half days of this match, then by the time bad light ended play yesterday with 12 overs still remaining, it was Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin who were running them ragged and putting Australia within sniffing distance of a dream.
England were grateful for the respite and the chance to regroup. Andrew Strauss, with his overnight declaration, had set them 522 to win – improbable, because never in the history of Test cricket had such a total been achieved to win and rarely even to draw or lose.
At 128 for five, improbable had given way to impossible.
Andrew Flintoff had rampaged in with the new ball and battered his way into the top order, removing the openers in a virile burst, although not without controversy.
Next, Stuart Broad had got rid of the great Ricky Ponting. And when Graeme Swann found turn from areas other than the rough to dismiss a pair of left-handers, survival even to the last day looked a distant proposition.
The crowd purred at the prospect of a 75-year-old albatross disappearing. England were cock-a-hoop, rampant, expectant. They may even have committed the cardinal sin of getting ahead of themselves.
With flair and skill, Clarke and Haddin counter-punched, devil- may-care at the beginning but later with the increasing realisation that they had England on the run.
The second new ball came and with it an urgent call to a team huddle from Strauss, concerned that his side had lost focus. Anxiety crept in, and the straining for wickets was uncomfortable to watch. Jimmy Anderson swung it and beat the bat, but Flintoff was cut and carved so that 26 runs came from the six overs before the light closed in.
By then, in the three hours they were together, Clarke and Haddin had taken their sixth-wicket stand to 185, Australia’s highest at Lord’s, and the total to 313 for five.
A further 209 to win is still a way off, but if today remains rain-free the draw is no longer an option.
Clarke came within 17 runs of a hundred in Cardiff and so missed out on the century jamboree, but cannot have played better in his life than yesterday.
Unbeaten on 125, he pounded the offside, half his runs coming through extra cover, the segment of the ground considered too effete for modern batsmen who consider the leg-side to have more manly associations.
If he worked harder for his second 50 – 101 balls as opposed to 58 and just three fours to seven in that time – then there was inevitability. He may yet convert that to one of the greatest match-winning innings of all.
Haddin, of course, came to Lord’s on the back of 121 scored in Cardiff, drives the ball as well as anyone in his team, and chops away willingly, exploiting the third-man area that has seemed a no-go area for England cricketers throughout this match, and certainly not to their advantage. They do not leak runs there, they concede them in cataracts. It is utterly baffling.
When he resumes Haddin will be within 20 runs of joining Clarke as the newest addition to the Lord’s honours board.
In the course of the winter, Strauss had been accused of over-cautious declarations that cost his side. This time, perhaps factoring in the possibility of showers over the final two days, he was ensuring time to bowl Australia out. The risk is that the showers do not come and in that circumstance the required run rate for a good batting side was not in itself as challenging as the mental task of actually doing it.
They did not bowl at all badly at the start, although Anderson failed to swing the ball and suffered more as a result. Flintoff, on the other hand, was fearsome, although both his wickets were shrouded in umpiring controversy.
First Simon Katich, who sliced a drive chest high to Kevin Pietersen in the gully. Straightforward enough, except that footage showed that Rudi Koertzen had missed a no-ball.
Next, with Flintoff round the wicket, Phillip Hughes edged low to first slip where Strauss reached forward to take an excellent low catch.
The batsman turned and began to depart, assured that the ball had carried. Ponting instructed him to stay, in effect demanding a referral to the third umpire as Koertzen had insisted on doing on Saturday when Nathan Hauritz believed he had caught Ravi Bopara. Instead Koertzen consulted Billy Doctrove and dismissed Hughes.
The replay, as ever, was inconclusive, as these two-dimensional, foreshortened images tend to be. Strauss almost certainly took a clean catch but so too did Hauritz. It is the inconsistency that rankles.
Guardian Service
