Ashes 2019, Third test Day 1: English cricket’s man-of-the-moment Jofra Archer takes six for 46

Australia's David Warner reacts to losing his wicket on the first day of the third Ashes cricket Test match between England and Australia at Headingley in Leeds.

In cricket, the play-and-miss mixes the clue and the red herring. It seems worth noting; it might signify nothing. It momentarily makes a joke of the batsman. Yet it enters the scorebook merely as a dot, like a defensive shot or a leave.

Not every batsman can seal it off behind them as they are counselled, but the best can. At Headingley in 1965, John Edrich batted on a pitch so damp that the ball left thick seam marks in the surface, and routinely played at fresh air twice an over. He also hit 52 fours and five sixes in an unbeaten 310. “I am convinced,’’ wrote Colin Cowdrey, “I shall never see an innings like it.’’

MORE: Peter Lalor wraps up day 1 — Arches crushes Aussie fightback

David Warner’s 61 on the same ground yesterday was a fifth the scale but of like character. The Australians were sent in under low cloud. Rain, and the covers, were never far away. The Dukes ball cut all sort of capers. Since the turn of the century, Australian batting has deliquesced in England under similar circumstances.

In Stuart Broad’s second over, from the Kirkstall Lane End, Warner’s bat was uninvolved except as a kind of comic prop. One delivery, skewed to leg, went for four byes when it swung after passing the stumps. The rest beat the outside edge, the batsman bowed pensively in defence like a cricket version of Rodin’s thinker.

England bowler Jofra Archer celebrates after dismissing David Warner.

England bowler Stuart Broad was in fine form.

England have applied much thought to Warner this summer, attacking him from round the wicket on full lengths, forcing him to use a vertical bat, depriving him of the opportunity to play his repertoire of cuts and slashes. He has been dismissed four times in single figures; just as significantly, for a batsman primed to attack, he has fallen four times playing defensively.

In some ways the omission here of Cameron Bancroft is down to Warner too. Australia could carry one unproductive opener, but not two, and if a choice was to be made then 14,000 international runs was always to carry more weight than 484. As an opening partnership, in fact, one wonders whether Warner and Bancroft bear between them a little too much shared history.

David Warner, right, reacts to scoring a half-century on the first day of the third Ashes cricket Test match between England and Australia at Headingley in Leeds.

In the absence of Steve Smith, of course, Warner became substantially the ranking Australian batsman here, with more Test runs than the rest of the top six put together. His captain Tim Paine hoped that the scenario might be “the poke and prod that Davey needs’’.

It sort of did: for the first 50 deliveries of his innings, thrice interrupted by rain, the poke and prod, with almost half of which he made no contact, were all Warner could offer. All the same, he radiated a cheeky cheeriness. The play-and-miss having the quality of a lucky escape, a few of them can instil a sense of impunity. He crept down the pitch to challenge the fuller lengths. He kept a tight guard on his off stump. And he survived.

After the delayed tea, in fact, England chafed. Some sloppy fielding gifted Warner two fives. A review reprieved him. Woakes was uncharacteristically awry. Stokes offered width to punish: with three boundaries in an over, Warner reached his first Test half century since the Port Elizabeth Test in March last year. The boos were louder than the cheers but he acknowledged them. With Marnus Labuschagne riding some luck also, the Australians breezed through the next hour as though they had started the game anew, adding 79 in 13 overs.

On days like yesterday, however, there is always a sense that tide could turn quickly. England took stock at drinks, and Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad seized the rest of the day. Luck distributes itself randomly, but it looked like Warner had expended Australia’s daily portion.

A good delivery accounted for Head, an untimely bounce for Wade, an opportunistic review for Paine, an unfelt nick for Cummins, and, cruelly, a full toss for Labuschagne, who had resisted nobly for three hours. But Australia’s loss of its last eight wickets for 43 recalled a different Headingley Test, Bob Willis’s feat 16 years after Edrich’s — hardly a happy omen for them.

Candice Warner, wife of David Warner of Australia, and their daughters Ivy and Indi look on during Day One of the 3rd Ashes Test match.

English cricket’s man-of-the-moment Archer led teammates in at the end with his now-familiar nonchalance. Willis famously rebuffed the press after his mighty spell; Archer wandered straight into interviews on the outfield, looking like he was hosting his own talk show.

His six for 46 had not the drama of his intercessions at Lord’s, but it was perhaps harder won, five of the wickets collected up the hill from the Rugby Stand on legs that have seen some miles lately. “You never learn anything until you’re tired,’’ said the welterweight Jimmy Shevlin. Archer proved yesterday he is to be measured by more than radar.

Archer’s Lord’s quarry Steve Smith, meanwhile, was seen only during the Australians’ go through their preparatory rites. He took gentle laps, wandered between the files of fielders, and spun a ball in his hand, but went near a bat only when he borrowed Bancroft’s for a few shadow strokes. How Australia could have done with him yesterday to build on Warner’s platform.

Warner ended the day in the press conference, making better contact that he had in the middle, undisturbed by kibitzers outside the window. He called Broad and Archer “world class bowling at its best’’. He owned to “having played and missed a lot’’. He urged Australia to be “disciplined’’ in defending Australia’s 179. Still, these are runs on the board. To overhaul the visitors the home side will need to miss as well as hit with aplomb.