Test drew out Aussies’ best

Illsutration: Johannes Leak

“Get back in your crease,” generations of coaches have drummed into their young charges between shots. Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal at Lord’s on Sunday, which did much to turn the second Ashes Test in Australia’s favour, is a lesson he and young players from both sides will not forget.

His egregious lapse would have gone through to the keeper of Ashes legends if not for the crowd, who consider themselves a cut above upstart colonials.

Their chant, “same old Aussies, always cheating”, raking over Sandpapergate more than five years ago, was ridiculous. Bairstow was out of his crease, the umpires had not called “over”, and he was stumped by Aussie wicketkeeper Alex Carey, his opposite number.

Australia's Alex Carey (centre) celebrates the run out of England's Jonny Bairstow (left) with Pat Cummins during day five of the second Ashes test match at Lord's, London.

In the Long Room, the chaps of the Marylebone Cricket Club (some of whom waited 40 years for full membership), who pride themselves on upholding the spirit of the game, showed their true colours beyond orange and yellow striped blazers, hatbands and ties, offsetting 50 shades of white hair.

Sledging Usman Khawaja and trying to trip David Warner and Steve Smith was hardly fair play. The club is right to suspend three members. None of them minded a tough call when Australia copped the disappointment of Mitchell Starc’s catch rightly being ruled out of order on Saturday.

If Lord’s emerald turf is not quite the hallowed place some believed, the Test was another nailbiter with the right result.

Players showed great heart (Nathan Lyon) and skill (Smith’s and Ben Stokes’s centuries) in tough conditions. The urn looks safer, but much can happen at Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval.