‘Ridiculous’: England’s front-foot no-ball crisis deepens at Adelaide Oval

The England Test side has robbed themselves of two key wickets in this Ashes series, both of which were completely avoidable.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Fox Cricket’s Shane Warne was in utter disbelief when replays of Ollie Robinson’s no-ball were broadcast on the big screens at Adelaide Oval on Friday afternoon.

The England seamer had just delivered an absolute peach to Australian centurion Marnus Labuschagne, who had already survived 290 deliveries at the crease.

Robinson got the pink Kookaburra to nip away from the lunging right-hander just enough to catch the outside edge, and gloveman Jos Buttler made no mistake behind the stumps on this occasion.

Catch every moment of The Ashes live and ad-break free during play on Kayo. New to Kayo?

Labuschagne was two metres from the boundary rope when on-field umpire Paul Wilson stuck out his right arm, confirming that Robinson had overstepped.

Loud jeers echoed around the venue as the Australian No. 3 made his way back into the middle – he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

The Robinson no-ball was the latest in a series of frustrating mishaps for England in the field – Labuschagne had already been dropped twice by Buttler, one of which was a genuine dolly.

England cricket legend Ian Botham could hardly believe what he was witnessing at Adelaide Oval.

“I don‘t think it’s luck,” he said on Channel 7. “I think it’s poor, poor bowling.

“You do not have to push the line like this, it’s ridiculous. You should be half and half at most.

“These guys go and bowl in the nets and they bowl from 16 -17 yards and when it comes out here, they get it wrong.”

Former England wicketkeeper Matt Prior said on BT Sport: “This is devastating for the England team. Fantastic wicket for Ollie Robinson, but it is a no-ball. It‘s absolutely devastating.“

England. That is awful. #ashes

— Chris Mitchell (@chrismbbcsport) December 17, 2021

That’s it. Just bring them home. It’s cruel not to. #ashes

— Jack Blackburn (@HackBlackburn) December 17, 2021

Robinson isn’t the first England bowler to rob themselves of a Test wicket this series – all-rounder Ben Stokes was caught overstepping on 14 occasions at the Gabba last week, one of which clean-bowled Australian opener David Warner.

Following the first Test blunder, England’s coaching staff invented a training drill designed to stop Stokes from overstepping.

On Tuesday afternoon at the Adelaide Oval nets, Stokes was charging at teammate Stuart Broad with the pink ball in hand, peppering the tailender with some right-arm pace.

England coach Chris Silverwood would sporadically move a mark that represented the start of Stokes’ run-up between each delivery, forcing the red-haired paceman to adjust accordingly to every ball.

The following day, Stokes completed the same exercise for half an hour with England pace bowling coach Jon Lewis watching on.

Ben Stokes spent a good 20 minutes working on his run up especially with regards to where his front foot was landing with Chris Silverwood placing markers for his take-off and landing #ASHESpic.twitter.com/XKtaUpxEDD

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) December 14, 2021

Ben Stokes in the Adelaide Oval nets. Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images

The 30-year-old needed to speed up or slow down depending on where the marker had been placed – if he could successfully keep his foot landing behind the popping crease with a fluctuating run-up, he had no excuse out in the middle.

Yet despite all that time he dedicated to his run-up, he still managed to bowl two no-balls in his second over of the Adelaide Test.

England’s bowlers collectively delivered 11 no-balls in the first innings of the day-night Test, bringing their series tally to 19. Australia’s bowlers are yet to overstep the crease this summer.

During the Gabba Test, Lewis blamed the venue’s lack of front-foot no-ball technology for Stokes’ habit of overstepping.

“If you don‘t know where your feet are, it’s very hard to make an adjustment,” he explained last week.

“It would have been nice for the first no-ball to be called so he could have made an adjustment.

“From then on, he would have been behind the line because he knows where his feet are.”

Although the front-foot technology had returned for the second Test, England’s bowlers were being pinged for more no-balls than they were in Adelaide.