Ruthless Aussies douse the revolutionary English fire
Ashes Day 10: Lords Cricket Ground, London.
Sunday 2nd July 2023
Australia 416 all out and 279 all out
England 325 all out and 327 all out
Australia win by 43 runs
My goodness.
I have a page of scrambled notes. I could try to decipher them, but fear it would be a thankless task. Anyway, who needs notes on a day of Test Match cricket such as this, at a full to bursting home of the great game, and a home that finally found its collective revolutionary voice last seen and heard on a long ago Summer’s day in July of 2019 when England broke Kiwi hearts to win the World Cup “by the barest of margins”. The margin was wider today and the opposition New Zealand’s nearest and dearest neighbours Australia, but Lords finally came alive today as the faraway miracle of an England victory grew ever closer to sporting reality amid the beautiful intangibles you’ll never find in any cricket scorebook. The numbered facts are important, mightily important, and this evening Pat Cummins and his World Champion team of fierce Australian mates will see a 43 run win inked in their favour, at the hallowed home of cricket too no less, and Cummins will rest his weary bowling legs next to those of his mates Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green to toast a job well done. The best team in the world deserved their victory by 43 hard earned runs as they were the best and better team throughout this Test Match.
The fact that Ben Stokes and his England team ran them so close in their record breaking run chase made for five incredible days of Test Match cricket but alas, this appreciation will never feature in any cricket scorebook either. If Ben Stokes and his team dare look this evening (and I very much doubt they will) they’ll see a defeat by 43 runs inked into the record books forever, but mere numbers in a scorebook will never capture the intangible feelings of excitement, dread, expectation, elation or the utter deflation behind the 83 runs inked in that scorebook for Ben Duckett, the stories behind the numbers in the innings’ of Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Josh Tongue, the questioning of the “spirit of the game” that surrounds Jonny Bairstow’s 10 runs, or the superhuman, oftentimes otherworldly performance from Ben Stokes that made you question your own disbelieving eyes.
155 will be inked against the name of Ben Stokes this evening and another number lost to the mists of time in due course will be 126, the number of runs he chipped, caressed, clubbed or brutally bludgeoned to and over the boundary today. Yet again he went from first gear into fifth, cautious to explosive, and in a performance so eerily reminiscent of his Headingley heroics of 2019 if, alas, ultimately ending, in a rather different sporting outcome for his team this time. With 9 boundary 4’s and 9 boundary clearing 6’s in his 155, Stokes was driving his team to a frankly ridiculous victory against all conceivable odds but at the fall of his wicket his team still needed 70 more runs to win and being frank once more, he would have had to score the vast majority of these final 70 runs to win and been maybe 220 not out after having scored nearly 200 runs in just under three sessions of Test Match cricket.
It was a Herculean effort from England’s revolutionary leader.
But the best and better team won this 2nd Ashes Test Match by 43 runs.
The lies and damned statistics of sporting life eh? Although not inked into any scorebook or record book, either in a present or future time, the most damned statistic of all this evening is that Australia have a 2–0 lead entering the Headingley Test Match in four days time, the third of five overall matches in this Summer’s Ashes and are now nailed on favourites to at least retain if not win the urn outright. 2 up with 3 to play. I can hear Glenn McGrath from here chanting “5–0” but quixotically I still see England as being very much alive in the series and my sporting heart fancies them to win the 3rd Test Match if only because the romantic in me foresees this Ashes series being a humdinger and a tight affair all Summer long. During his initial post-match interviews Stokes immediately pointed to his team winning three straight games against New Zealand and Pakistan, but Australia are the battle hardened Test Match Champions of the World and the toughest of all nuts to crack.
Controversy will rage as to Alex Carey’s quick thinking and Jonny Bairstow’s careless lack of thinking, as will the story behind the official scorebook forevermore having Bairstow dismissed today as “stumped Carey, bowled Green” and whether this is a true reflection of the spirit of the game. I didn’t see any Australians “cheating” today, but I did see some sloppy and slapdash attention to detail from England’s Bairstow and Australia’s star man behind the stumps Alex Carey with some legitimately quick thinking for a match changing dismissal. Against the spirit of the game? Perhaps. But from there, that moment on, we saw the spite and spittle, the backchat and competitive fight of an Ashes Series finally, like Lords, come to life.
Those intangibles again not found within any cricket scorebook, of seething outrage from a packed final day crowd already bubbling with the prospect of a miracle victory and now apoplectic at the sporting injustice that came before Stuart Broad’s spikey, chirpy resistance and his captain sending a cricket ball to all parts of the home of cricket loudly rounding on those rascals from Australia. Another intangible is the five long days in the cricketing “dirt” for both teams before another in just four back-to-back Test Match playing days that will surely see many of our heroes and villains of today resting before the final two matches of the series later in July. Injuries would seem to account for the immediate absence of Ollie Pope and Nathan Lyon at least, with Jimmy Anderson surely to be replaced by Mark Wood and Scott Boland returning for either Mitchell Starc or more likely, Josh Hazlewood in a multitude of changes expected when cricketing battle recommences in Yorkshire on Thursday.
Victory margins of 2 wickets and 43 runs separate these two teams across two hard fought Ashes Test Matches. These facts are inked into the scorebook forever. But here’s a final intangible element you’ll never find in those famed and precious cricket scorebooks: an air of sporting injustice surrounds those English revolutionaries who now have nothing left to lose. Whether Carey’s quick thinking was indeed against the spirit of this great game, we now have the backbiting, sledging and chirping spirit of a real Ashes Series at last, and despite being 2–0 down against the best team in the world, I still see England in this Series, and I can’t wait for Thursday.
Hope springs eternal.
“Uno Ashes”
Dad 3 (13)
Lad 4 (24)
I won the first, fourth and sixth games and my big laughing lad won the remainder to stretch his overall aggregate lead to 24–13. I called a halt to proceedings as Ben Stokes began clubbing 6’s to all parts of North West London, and not because, once again, I was losing at cards to my son.
Instead, I simply thanked the young rapscallion for yet another defeat before nervously shuffling and re-shuffling the cards as the England captain reduced the deficit to below 100, then 90, through the 80’s and down to just 70 runs for an incredible victory.
Alas it was not to be. But I smell a comeback, starting on Thursday in Yorkshire.
See you then.
Thanks for reading. For all four previous days in this 2nd Ashes Test Match, please see the links below:
