David Warner was sacked for the 17th time by Stuart Broad in Test cricket on the second day at Headingley. Photo: PA/Mike Egerton
Two balls was all the time Pat Cummins needed on his second day at Headingley to sack a test batsman, whom he sent off more than any other. Two balls is all the time it took Stuart Broad on Day 2 at Headingley to sack the test batsman he sent off more than any other.
If Joe Root and David Warner were talking after the second day at Headingley, perhaps they would have lamented their earlier dismissal. These two great batsmen, with 55 centuries of test matches between them, were castrated by the bowlers who bothered them the most, both in the most typical way.
Root's Ashes record can be broken into two parts. In his first 14 tests, from his 2013 Ashes debut to the end of 2015 Ashes, Ruth scored three centuries and averaged 41.3; he was a player of the series in 2015 when England last won the urn, scoring hundreds of points in two wins.
In his next 18 ash tests, Ruth only scored one century with an average of 38.6. It is no coincidence that these two milestones mark the years before and during the career of the Cummins Ashes.
When Ruth shoved the second ball of the second day straight into Warner's hands the first time, he understood why Cummins bothered him more than any other Test bowler. It was his 10th dismissal to the Australian captain, each costing 22.6 runs.
Pat Cummins eliminates Joe Root for the 10th time in Tests … pic.twitter.com/glPduk8Fen
— Telegraph Cricket (@telecricket) July 7, 2023
The main reason for Root's failures with Cummins is the combination of pace and ruthless accuracy of a bowler who hits a good distance or just under one, while rarely making mistakes in the line. For batsmen, the cumulative effect is to feel trapped like a bird in a cave.
There are deeper reasons, however, why Cummins especially thrives against him. Ruth was always reluctant to leave; the batsman is generally more comfortable when he plays more actively.
Unusually for such a great batsman, perhaps his decisive hit is relatively unobtrusive: handle over the edge, either in front of the spot or behind it, on the balls just behind the stump. He embodies Root's ability to score goals quickly without resorting to extravagant shots.
But compared to Cummins' extra pace and rebound, this shot becomes riskier overall; the steers that would otherwise meet the middle of the bat hit it higher, as happened to Root at Headingley. Cummins' penchant for product diversity makes Root's job difficult. One ball that can be safely left just outside the stump can prove dangerous if released from a wider circle and thus return at an angle.
Still, despite all its hardships against captaining Australia, at least Ruth's record against Cummins didn't become a meme; this appeal was reserved for Broad v. Warner.
After Broad sacked Warner, his father, Chris, a former English cricketer and now match referee, tweeted a picture of Warner's head, transferred to Bart Simpson's head, and dutifully chalked the schoolboy's punishment lines. on the board: “Stuart Broad got me out again.”
pic.twitter.com/76dG8lgOkv
— Chris Broad (@ChrisBroad3) July 7, 2023
The number of lines has increased to 12; In fact, this was the 17th time Broad had sacked Warner in Test cricket. Warner would be right to point out that, no matter what fanatical crowds make of him at the present time, he has spent three centuries of testing against England. Even his overall GPA compared to Broad (24.9) is unimpressive, but not demeaning.
Warner's dismissal from Headingley was in keeping with the latest Ashes trials in his later career. If the turning point in the history of Root's Ashes was meeting the Cummins, then the turning point – and much more extreme – in the history of Warner Ashes was the type of Broad he faced.
In the four Ashes series from 2013 to 2018, Broad basically worked through the wicket with Warner, firing him only five times. The bowler's struggles matched his broader track record against lefties, with Broad averaging 35.5 points against lefties until 2019.
Broad beats Warner. Rinse and repeatpic.twitter.com/HyFFWIOCFP
– Telegraph Cricket (@telecricket) July 7, 2023
Broad then adopted a new angle of attack against southpaws. He became more comfortable bowling around the wicket, believing that this would increase the likelihood of bowling and lbw, and that this line would force batsmen to play with more delivery.
Warner was the biggest casualty. Broad's angle of attack, combined with his consistent line, fluid movement in England, and the batsman's tendency to push the bat to the far side combined to make him Warner's kryptonite. Since the beginning of 2019, Broad has removed Warner 12 times at a cost of $8.5.
As Warner trudged away after backing Broad into a dead end again, there was no sign of West Terrace feeling any sympathy. But the plight of Warner vs. Broad – and to a lesser extent Root vs. Cummins – is best understood as emblematic of the sheer brutality of Test cricket: a format in which, no matter what you've done in the past, your opponent only needs to find one speck of weakness and then never let go.
Ashes analysis: Skyld Berry Moin Ali takes key wickets, but credit must be given to Mark Wood
It was a classic combination that got England back in the Ashes, although this series was more innovative than at any time since how in 1932-1933 Bodyline destroyed the outdated conventions of chivalry.
Express pace at one end and spin – not darts but a proper spin that puts a strain on the eyes, brain and legs, as well as the batsman's hands – on the other end: as the third test drifted towards Australia, after they took the first mark Wood and Moin Ali, leading in the 27th inning, played the way back together.
The ideal combination for bowling has always been fast speed with one hand and extreme spin with the other hand. So in the context of The Ashes, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Lyon who crushed England in the 2013-2014 season: a tangled seam at one end leads to a tangled brain at the other.
The combined effect of speed at one end and rotation at the other end was less clearly illustrated in the later Barbados test. England fought off Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel at the same time they were sacrificing eight wickets in one innings to Roston Chase. Even though Chase hasn't rotated in the past four years, he may never hit 100 Test wickets in his career.
The original pair of Englishmen that should be called the classic combination were Tom Richardson of Surrey and Bobby Peel of Yorkshire, who may be familiar to late Victorian readers.
Subsequently, quick right-handed and left-handed spins were too rarely combined in the case of England, but Jon Snow and Derek Underwood, Harold Larwood and Hedley Verity had their days, as did Steve Harmison or Andrew Flintoff on the one hand complements Monty Panesara.
That Wood catapulted himself five times after tea after tea on the second day, after hitting 95 mph on the first day and hitting 24 on the second day, was excellent even by his standards. His eight-ball toss raised the flag that hung over the England dressing room on the first day, then limp on the pole as none of the seasoned batsmen could stand up to Pat Cummins.
Wood was ready for anything. for his captain and for Ben Stokes, he will do even more, not only pulling three sixes out of the eight balls he faced. He even returned for a couple of last overs at the end of the second day to be carried by the crowd to the bowling alley no less than his own lead legs. 🚀
2️⃣4️⃣ of only 8️⃣ balloons! #EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/9J4rOCAcrK
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 7, 2023
Wood didn't even have a swing to play with like the first time. It was just sprinting, charging and throwing – not only the ball, but also your own body, to spread yourself across the field, which in this dry summer is hard as stone. There is no turf pillow on which the Wood warrior could lie.
Almost artlessly, Moen rolled in with his breaks from the rugby stands and hit 17 overs in two overs, when he had done three for most of his career. He is indebted to Stuart Broad for sacking David Warner again: if Warner had stayed, he certainly wouldn't have let England play in Australia's second inning like Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labouchagne did, and Australia made a modern-day mistake when the third innings meandered vaguely towards declaration or not. Perhaps Bazball's best feature is that it gave England clarity on the matter.
Boycott Briefing, Third Test Day, Second
Labouchagn, more introverted than in 2019, went to pull Wood when out overweight, he rounded the wicket – and again Johnny Bairstow missed the chance to his left.
Despite recovering before the close and taking a low catch, it's getting hard to defend Bairstow's case: one clear drop in every test is not sustainable for today's wicket.
No reason other than Wood's excitement suggests to the thought that Labuchan had subsequently collapsed as he darted unsteadily into the deep middle of the gate. It was Moen's 199th test wicket, putting him on the cusp of becoming the third England international to reach the 200 milestone.
And who better than Steve Smith, who, after a brief taste of Wood, rolled down the field to make a dash to midwicket?
“What have you done, Steve Smith!?” 😅 #EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/ziSFqkRjwb
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 7, 2023
Moin paid 37 runs for every wicket he took, significantly more than Underwood and Graeme Swann ahead of him, and Jim Laker and Tony Lock right behind him.
But the two lefts, Underwood and Locke, were minors, while Laker and Swann were useful eights or nines. Moen scored four test centuries in 14 tests spread over 2016 and 2017, and would certainly have scored more than five if he had been given a consistent spot instead of fluctuating everywhere from first to tenth.
Without Stokes the bowler, without Ollie Robinson, England could have collapsed, as some of these players did at the end of Joe Root's reign.
But they fought and did their best and gave themselves a chance to get the score back to 2-1 with this classic combination and that's all we can ask England to do.
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