‘I only bowled 24 balls’: Boland looks back in wonder at MCG marvel

If Australia bowl first on Boxing Day, at some point the ground announcer will herald a change. “From the Members’ end … Scott Boland.” And the sold-out crowd will roar in expectant acclaim.

Boland remembers this moment on his debut on this very day three years ago, and how nervous he felt, and how relieved he was to get out of the way the over he had waited until he was 32 years old to bowl. “It’s funny. All I wanted to do from when I was growing up was play Test cricket, and then I was walking off at lunch, and I was like, ‘Geez, I’m glad it’s done’,” he said.

Scott Boland reflects on his famous Boxing Day Test debut at the MCG.Credit: Eddie Jim

At lunch two days later, it was all over. Australia had beaten England by an innings, Boland had taken an improbable 6-7 in the second innings and was man of the match, and if anything he looked more dazed by it all than England.

As he gazed out this week over the vastness of the MCG, a ground he knows so well both in its workaday Sheffield Shield emptiness and its soaring Test match glory, he looked back at that day in wonder.

“I thought it was going to be a bit of a slog that day,” he said. “I still can’t believe it, really. I only bowled 24 balls or something like that. I guess it was all those years I’d put in playing for Victoria on wickets out there that weren’t in my favour as much. It all sort of worked out on that one day.”

Boland was playing then as he is now, as proxy for the injured Josh Hazlewood. It’s become his permanent job, super sub. In the intervening three years, he has toured five countries with Australia, but played only 11 of a possible 33 Tests. Before the Adelaide game two weeks ago, he hadn’t played one for 18 months. But in the matches he has played, he’s taken 40 wickets at 20.4 and has a 9-2 record.

“I’d love to play every game,” he said. “But I’m comfortable with my position in the squad. I know that in front of me are three of the best fast bowlers Australia’s ever had.”

Boland knows the score. “Test cricket is hard on your body,” he said. “I feel like there’s always going to be a bit of natural rotation through people picking up little niggles or just a bit sore from having bowled a lot.

“Last year was a bit of a one-off where those three guys got through seven Tests in a row unscathed. It shows how good they are. They were giving themselves extra days off by bowling teams out so quickly.”

Boland can be likened to the fire hydrant or the defibrillator in the corner of your clubroom. He’s hardly ever used, but must be kept in fully serviceable condition, ready for immediate deployment.

To this end, he spends plenty of time in the gym. “I know that when I’m bowling a lot, my strength goes down and my pace drops,” he said. “I’m not someone who can afford to let too much pace drop off. I haven’t got the natural pace of Mitch Starc, so I need to be at 100 per cent all the time to compete at Test level.” The gym also makes him look what he has proved: indestructible.

When he is in the team, his spells begin long before he is thrown the ball. “I’m someone who can’t afford to bowl any bad ball,” he said.

“My bowling coach for Victoria for a long time was [sometime Australian quickie] Mick Lewis. He always harped on about not having any warm-up balls at the start of a spell.

“I’m someone who likes to bowl a bit during the lunchbreak or at tea, just to make sure that if I’m bowling, I’m ready to go.

“You might see I always run through my run-up before I start my spell. That’s just to make sure that my run-up speed is up to speed and I feel comfortable when I’m running in for the first ball.”

Possibly, this explains his knack for making things happen early. Remember his first over in Adelaide: a wicket from a no-ball and a dropped catch, en route to match figures of 5-105.

You imagine a plug-in bowler like Boland might feel that he has to take wickets to survive. Not so, he says.

“I know my game. If I’m desperate to take a wicket, it’s probably not going to come,” he said. “I’m more in the space where I just try to put as many balls in the right spot as I can. If the conditions are in my favour, let the wicket do the work. My job in the team is obviously bowling lots of overs first change.”

The MCG crowd was raucous in supporting Victorian Scott Boland, who was mobbed by teammates after the last of his six wickets on debut. Credit: Chris Hopkins

Perhaps only when England’s cavalier Bazballers launched a calculated attack last year did Boland’s metronomic consistency rebound on him. “Even in white-ball cricket, consistency can be a bit of a downfall because people know exactly where you’re going to bowl it,” he admits.

But he says he talks constantly to Australian coach Andrew McDonald and bowling coach Dan Vettori about this, and believes that at 35 he’s still improving, and although the next Ashes are another year away and not front of mind, he does say: “We played on some pretty flat wickets over in England, so if there was a bit more bounce and a few more things in the bowlers’ favour here, it will be interesting to see how they play.”

Boland’s life has changed in a quantum way since that Boxing Day. He enjoys the travelling and has seized the opportunity to fine down his golf handicap to eight, but misses his daughters, now aged six and four and embarking on their school years. He says the best part of his job is the homecoming, when they smother him with the details of what they have done and want to do.

A reserved man, he is learning to accommodate fame. “I’m getting stopped a lot more,” he said. “Especially in the streets or in shops. I sometimes find those things hard to deal with when I’m with my family. I just want a bit of privacy.

“My girls don’t understand why I’m taking photos with random people, but I guess it’s part of our job now. I’m getting as comfortable with it as I can.”

His debut man-of-the-match performance won him the inaugural Johnny Mullagh Medal, named for a pioneering Indigenous cricketer. Indigenous himself, this week he announced a scholarship in his own name, funded by Cricket Victoria and RMIT University. Those 24 balls sure had plenty of carry.

Boland has set no goals other than to see this trip through.

“I think I’ve played 11 Tests now. I just want to play as many as I can,” he said. “Whatever opportunities come up, wherever they might be in the world, I just want to be ready to go. I’ve loved the last three years playing for Australia and I want to keep going for as long as I can.”

So when Australian captain Pat Cummins gives him the nod on Boxing Day, he’ll be ready both for what he has to deliver and the reception. “I just try to embrace it. Five years ago it wasn’t happening, but it is now, and I enjoy the way the crowd puts a bit of extra pep in my step,” he said.

“I want to try and soak up all those memories as long as I can because one day I’ll be a long time retired and I won’t get those things.”

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