Alana King’s message to Shane Warne: ‘Hopefully he’s smiling down and enjoying a few ripping past the outside edge’
In the great VIP section in the sky, you imagine Shane Warne nudging Rod Marsh and Richie Benaud and telling them: ‘Take a look at this.’
Cricket is unique for the PR and hype and analysis and build-up and previews and prologues and video clips and commentary and chatter. All meaningless. All that really matters is what happens in the breathless seconds immediately upon the departure of a ball from a bowler’s hand.
Alana King’s marathon spell in the Ashes Test was so enchanting and mesmerising that unless my eyes deceived, the Shane Warne Stand itself was doffing its cap and encouraging her to take a bow. She wheeled away for 23 consecutive overs, giving the pink ball a decent old rip under the watchful gaze of the stand named after the master exponent, extracting enough turn to entice or beat inside and outside edges.
Her exquisite cocktail of wrist spin and wrong’uns, shooters and zooters, earned her 4-45 as England was skittled for 170 at the MCG.
This spin King, Alana, said: “Bowling from the Shane Warne Stand end – it’s the first time I’ve ever done it. Pretty nostalgic. He’s obviously taken plenty of poles here at the MCG for fun. All I can say is hopefully he’s smiling down and having a couple of beers and enjoying a few ripping past the outside edge.”
In the great VIP section in the sky, you imagine Warne nudging Rod Marsh and Richie Benaud and telling them, “Take a look at this”. King’s spell took on a hypnotic quality. Great leg spinners have the ability to seemingly make a ball hover halfway down the pitch and take a moment to decide what to do next, like the golden snitch in a game of Harry Potter’s quidditch. If ever a bowler deserved a five-for it was King, on one of the rare opportunities for a female cricketer to get on the MCG honour board, but no less than four catches were dropped from her bowling. She was one of the offenders.
A probing, pulsating, 23-over spell is something King rarely if ever gets to immerse herself in. All the female variety of flannelled fools ever really play is white-ball cricket, restricting her to flicking down no more than 10 quick overs at a time. Given a blank canvas in a Test, the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet, King kept politely telling Healy to get nicked when Healy kept suggesting she take a break.
“She tried to get the ball out of my hand at stages but I was like, ‘No. I’m in a really good rhythm, Midge. I’m still happy to go,” King said. “She was like, ‘You’re OK? You’ve been bowling a lot.’ I was like, ‘Don’t try taking the ball out of my hands. It’s coming out really nicely’. I love playing Test cricket and to bowl a whole session was pretty cool. Just doing the job for the team, tying up an end. Glad I could.”
Tying England in knots, she was, best exampled by one particular over to Danni Wyatt-Hodge, an over of leg spin heaven that would have had Warne, in leg spin heaven, roaring with delight. “It’s been fizzing out of my hand really nicely,” King said. “I guess the beauty of Test cricket is that you can do it for long periods of time. You’re not restricted to only four or 10 overs. When I get into a nice rhythm, what I do well is challenge both sides of the bat. As I said, the best thing about Test cricket is that you can do it for a long time. You don’t have to change your plans too regularly or too quickly. You can stick with your plan for four, five, six or seven overs, until they throw the first punch. I’m happy to keep hitting a length and let the ball do the talking.”
It sang. England’s famed Barmy Army tweeted “Alana King is not fun”. Ex-Ashes player Steve Finn said on the English broadcast: “King has been devastating. She gets the ball drifting in and then turning away, almost unplayable deliveries. She’s been Shane Warne-esque. It was quite fitting that she was getting the ball to rip and spit so much in front of his stand.”
During the heavenly over to Wyatt-Hodge, the ball floating like a butterfly, drifting like a summer breeze, spitting like a trucker, one of Warne’s former teammates, Mike Hussey, said on Fox Cricket: “We used to call Shane Warne the king, but I tell you what, Alana King is bowling like a king at the moment.” Ever a nice guy, Hussey added: “Or a queen, I should say. This is amazing bowling. Wyatt-Hodge has a couple of options here. Does she try and hang in and survive, hoping she gets a few loose balls? Or does she put the pressure back on Alana King? You sense if she keeps on the crease and looking to defend there’ll be a ball with her name on it.”
Soon enough, a ball from King had the name of Danni Wyatt-Hodge scribbled on it. Ditto for England dangerwoman Nat Sciver-Brunt, who held Australia at bay for three hours while making 51. Even she had trouble with King before the Melbourne-born 29-year-old rattled her woodwork. “When it does turn it’s not always the same amount every time,” Sciver-Brunt said of the difficulty of facing King. “Some might skid, some might turn and bounce. That makes it quite tricky. The stumps are always kept in play. We saw a lot of turn from Kingy.”
Kingy kept skipping back to her mark as if Warne’s colossal grandstand was whispering encouragement. She could have taken six-for, seven-for, eight-for, without the dropped catches. The five-for was officially denied when England’s No. 11 Lauren Bell was run out. Any disappointment from King to miss a place alongside Warne on the MCG honour boards listing Test centuries and five-fors? “Definitely not,” she said. “I had my chances. It doesn’t matter. We got the 10 wickets on day one. We’ll take it.”
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