Mike Atherton: How England bowlers rewarded Ben Stokes’ historic gamble at Old Trafford
Ben Stokes laughed in the face of dire history when he chose to bowl first at Old Trafford, before his Stuart Broad-led attack gave him cause to be pleased with the decision, writes MIKE ATHERTON.
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A bright and breezy afternoon it was, the clouds high, sunshine intermittent, the crowd just drifting back to their seats after the afternoon tea break. In front of them, thundering in from the James Anderson End was Stuart Broad, the now familiar white bandana wrapped around his forehead and surely one of the feistiest competitors ever to pull on an England shirt. He had 599 Test wickets to his name; the 600th was coming soon enough.
The field was set, the short-ball ploy clear to Travis Head, who was approaching another half-century and was looking dangerous again; a short leg and a slip the only catchers, everyone else spread out for the response. It came in the shape of a hook shot, but the ball climbed to the extent that Head could not control it and Joe Root did the rest, running in from fine leg to take the top edge.
Only four other cricketers before Broad have reached 600 Test wickets, and three of those are spinners, so it is a stunning achievement for a fast bowler. James Anderson was off the field briefly at that point but when he returned to action shortly afterwards, the first thing he did was to go over to Broad and embrace him. Anderson is the only other fast bowler to know what it feels like. What a pair of bowlers they have been.
The summer has been one of contrasts for them. Arguably, Broad has been the bowler of the series thus far and, before play, was the leading wicket-taker on either side. He had nagged and worried away at right handers and left, while Anderson had struggled to make an impression, taking just three wickets, expensively. So it went again: while Broad struck with new ball and old, Anderson strained without success, wicketless on the day.
It helps any captain to have two such fine servants at his command, and one of Stokes’s first demands was to insist on their return after being omitted in the Caribbean two winters ago. They have both played their part in the success of Bazball, as they have been prepared to bowl more attackingly from a fuller length, even though both are frugal at heart, and have bought into the general merriment.
To say that Stokes took a deep breath before at the toss and deciding to offer Broad and Anderson first use of conditions would be untrue. His preferred route to victory has been to bowl first and chase – it helps to have masters to hand – but there was enough history here to make even the most decisive captain think twice before plunging in. No captain has ever bowled first in a Test at Old Trafford and ended up on the winning side, not that Stokes is interested in the past.
By the close, he could look back happily enough on the decision after another day that ebbed and flowed intriguingly. Australia threatened, with four of their best players making good starts, but England kept nipping at their heels, taking wickets at critical junctures. Chris Woakes had another good day, finding enough movement and zip to take four wickets, while the much-maligned Jonny Bairstow took a superb one-handed catch to dismiss the dangerous Mitchell Marsh, one of two batsmen to make a half-century.
Broad actually put in his worst spell of the series with the new ball. David Warner revealed recently that he cannot get the Barmy Army tune Broady’s Gonna Get Ya out of his head while batting. There must be better tunes to sing along to than one celebrating a bowler who has got you out 17 times, but he survived Broad this time. Instead it was Usman Khawaja who fell to the new ball and Broad, leg-before when deep in his crease, giving the bowler his 599th Test wicket and 148th against Australia, as many as Ian Botham. Broad was too wide too often, while Warner looked assertive and confident. He cut the first ball of the game from Broad to the boundary, ran aggressively between the wickets and generally gave the impression of being up for the challenge, before edging a drive off Woakes on the hour. Getting out when set irritates an opener more than an early dismissal, which goes with the territory, and this will not have improved Warner’s mood much.
Especially as the pitch, hard and brown, offered little threat. Five bowlers were used in the morning, two spells each for Broad and Anderson, one for Woakes and Mark Wood, who bowled quickly but without the intensity and swing of his Headingley spell, and two overs for Moeen Ali just before lunch, the first of which was taken for 12 runs, including one imperious straight six from Steve Smith.
Smith had begun his innings by almost holing out to a pull shot first ball and the six was a sign, perhaps, that Australia were not prepared to let Ali settle, as they had at Headingley. For that reason, Stokes turned to Wood and Woakes immediately after lunch and both bowled threateningly. Holding a tight off-stump line they occasionally fired one into leg stump, as Smith moved too far to the off side, a strategy that worked when Wood overturned a leg-before appeal on review.
Labuschagne has had frustrating series, struggling at the start but gradually finding better form without going on to get a big score. At Headingley he gifted Ali a soft wicket, when he had the game in his grasp, and he was guilty here of the same. Having passed a half-century, he pushed forward to turn to leg, and missed an innocuous ball that spun fractionally off the surface. After the review, Labuschagne hung his head in despair; England had netted two big fish in the afternoon; 187 for four at tea.
Head hooked high to give Broad his moment immediately after tea. This brought together Cameron Green and Marsh, two all-rounders whose selection had led to Todd Murphy’s exclusion, the first time Australia have gone into a Test without a specialist spinner for more than a decade. After his hundred at Headingley, Marsh looked the more convincing of the pair, with Green starting shakily, his footwork slow and cumbersome.
Ali had spun the odd ball to the extent that Australia may come to regret Murphy’s omission, but when Marsh began to get on top, Stokes recalled Woakes again. Woakes’s first ball nipped back to pin Green leg-before and four balls later Marsh edged a leg-cutter through to Bairstow, whose dive allowed an outstretched right hand to get under the ball before it bounced. Bairstow sat on his bottom, then, legs outstretched, arms outstretched, a look a sheer delight and wonderment on his face.
Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc took Australia to the second new ball, which was granted to Woakes for his general excellence, and four balls later Carey was gone, trying to leave a ball that he feathered behind. It was typical that Woakes’s day should be overshadowed, in this instance by Broad, who led the team from the field leaving all to reflect on his superb career and record against Australia, against whom he has now taken more Test wickets than anyone else. Woakes, meanwhile, has never taken a five-wicket haul against them and will have his chance in the morning.
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