Key events
89th over: Australia 235-7 (Smith 68, Cummins 21) On Sky Sports, Ian Ward has demonstrated that Steve Smith should have been given run out in the 78th over – although, as he says, “it took about 50 minutes, with the help of about 12 other people including two former international captains”. I suppose England are still in the red after the 2019 World Cup final.
Mark Wood does comes into the attack, though his first over is a bit stiff. Smith pulls Broad for a single to bring up a determined fifty partnership from 94 balls.
88th over: Australia 232-7 (Smith 65, Cummins 21) Woakes replaces Anderson, who bowled a harmless spell of 3-1-9-0. Cummins reaches for a very wide full toss and inside-edges it for four more. Weird cricket all round.
In the last two Tests, when everything started to get on top of him, Cummins scored two runs in three innings. But he bowled magnificently yesterday, and this batting performance – the odd bit of luck notwithstanding – has also been more Edgbaston than Old Trafford. Nobody on either side has looked more focussed in this game.
“I’ve lived in Japan for 23 years now, married to my Japanese wife for almost 18,” says Mark Steward. “She’s been aware a certain Jimmy Anderson plays cricket, but by her own admission has no idea what he looks like or what he does. But when I mentioned to her that this might be Jimmy’s last game for England, she looked genuinely aghast. A household name in even the most irreverent of households.”
87th over: Australia 228-7 (Smith 65, Cummins 17) Another quiet over from Broad. These England bowlers are generally very patient but you can see a few little signs of frustration. Australia have added 33 since Smith survived that run-out chance; they trail by 55.
86th over: Australia 225-7 (Smith 64, Cummins 15) The new ball is swinging generously enough, but both batters look comfortable and Stokes may need to turn to Wood before this partnership gets out of hand.
“Smith’s hand-eye coordination is as impressive as ever, but I’m not sure his footwork and, in consequence, his balance has been as precise as in previous tours,” writes Gary Naylor. “It’s shown in his frustration in not being able to score singles at will, one of his biggest strengths. Of course, Steven Smith at 90 per cent is probably the best batter on either side, but it’s a waning of a once fierce flame.”
85th over: Australia 223-7 (Smith 63, Cummins 14) A superb short ball from Broad follows Cummins, who tries to limbo dance to safety. As he does so the ball hits the top edge and flies over Bairstow for four. This partnership is now worth 38, and we could be heading for another one-innings shootout. England should beware the precedent of Brisbane 2017, when they were on top until Smith and Cummins came together.
“Personally I think loyalty and empathy are overrated, Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “Give me 1989 any time. I mean that year’s Ashes selection omnishambles, not the Taylor Swift album. As an aside, it’s not exactly rocket science but there’s now been a longer gap between 2005 and this year than there was between 1989 and 2005, which messes with my head a little bit.”
If Taylor Swift ever re-records 1989, one of her promo interviews should begin with an invitation to name the 29 players England picked in the Ashes that year.
84th over: Australia 218-7 (Smith 62, Cummins 10) Smith tries to drive Anderson and is beaten on the inside. That was a bit strange because the ball didn’t seem to do much. The next ball is too short and pulled imperiously for four. Smith’s hand-eye co-ordination is something else, and he flogs three more through the covers off the penultimate ball.
Australia would have been 194-8 had Smith been run out; instead, things are getting interesting.
83rd over: Australia 211-7 (Smith 55, Cummins 10) That non-wicket aside, England have been a bit flat since that Smith reprieve, and Australia have quietly reduced the deficit to 72.
“As this is the last Test for a while, care to make a few predictions for the next squad travelling to India?” says John Starbuck. “Allowing for what goes on in the intervening franchise actions, a majority of the current team can expect to be aboard, but who loses out?”
Of this XI, I suspect the only absentees – fitness permitting – will be Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes. Would need to think about it but you’d imagine Ben Foakes, Will Jacks, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence and Rehan Ahmed will all be in the squad, plus one or two more. They would love to have Olly Stone and/or Jofra Archer. There will be a lot to think about, especially if Indian continue their recent policy of preparing result pitches. If that’s the case we might see some extremely funky selections from England.
Cummins is not out!
My word, it swung so much that it would have missed leg stump. It was a lovely delivery from Broad, a huge inswinger that beat Cummins all ends up and hit both pads. Cummins’ review seemed like an afterthought, but replays showed it was going down.
Australia review: Cummins LBW b Broad It took Joel Wilson an age to give it, but it looks out.
82nd over: Australia 210-7 (Smith 54, Cummins 10) Anderson shares the new ball. Cummins defends with authority, as he has all series against anyone other than Mark Wood, and it’s a maiden.
81st over: Australia 210-7 (Smith 54, Cummins 10) Stuart Broad takes the new ball. Smith leathers an inswinger through mid-on for four to reach a sedate 50 from 98 balls. It’s only his second fifty-plus score of a peculiar series.
He on-drives the next ball for four as well, though this shot doesn’t have quite the same flourish. The sliding Anderson seemed to save the boundary but replays showed he had scooped the ball against his trailing arm as he made contact with the sponge.
“Are we perhaps a bit premature with, ‘Personally I would have preferred England to lose this series 3-2 than draw 2-2’,” says Andrew Baker. “This could still be lost 3-1 or 2-1. It seems anything could happen in what has been the most engaging series I’ve seen in a long time.”
Oh I didn’t mean to suggest England have won this game. All I was clumsily trying to say was that a series decider, even if it ended in defeat, was preferable to a draw at Old Trafford and a win here.
80th over: Australia 201-7 (Smith 46, Cummins 9) Joe Root bowls the last over before the second new ball, though most of it spent looking at replays of the run-out that wasn’t. Smith was two-thirds of the way off the field when he looked again at the big screen and realised Bairstow had made contact with the stumps.
79th over: Australia 201-7 (Smith 46, Cummins 9) On Sky, Ricky Ponting thinks Smith should have been given out. At least I think that’s what Mark Butcher has just said on his behalf. You’ll hear more about it I’m sure, especially if Smith gets 200.
One part of the off bail was out of the groove when Bairstow disturbed the stumps before collecting the throw, so the deciding factor was whether the other side was removed with ball in hand before Smith made his ground. The third umpire Nitin Meton decided not. That looks a fair decision for me, albeit borderline, but I’m not entirely sure I know what I’m talking about.
78th over: Australia 198-7 (Smith 45, Cummins 8) Well that was a bit of an anticlimax.
Urgh, it looks like an error from Jonny Bairstow, who accidentally knocked the stumps as he shaped to collect Ealham’s throw. The third umpire decided the bail was out of the groove before Bairstow broke the stumps with the ball in his hand. It was a really tight decision, which could have gone either way.
Smith is not out!
Hang on, what’s happened here? Smith was walking off, but now the third umpire has given it not out.
WICKET! Australia 195-8 (Smith run out 43)
Steve Smith has been run out by the substitute George Ealham! Dust off Gary Pratt’s contact details this instant!
77th over: Australia 193-7 (Smith 42, Cummins 6) Harry Brook continues after tea, bowling medium-paced filth. Cummins almost overbalances after missing a leg-side delivery, but he flicks a similar delivery for four to end the over.
“Much as I’d prefer it if England had gone onto win at Old Trafford, I don’t think it really ruins what remains a riveting series, unless England winning is the only factor that matters,” says Steve Holt. “In 2005, the boot was on the other foot – Australia’s charge towards an enormous first-innings total was thwarted by rain, which denied them a shot at levelling the series. I don’t remember too many complaints about the weather ruining things then.”
It feels like they are two slightly different points, and also Australia’s dominance at the Oval in 2005 wasn’t comparable to England’s last week. Personally I would have preferred* England to lose this series 3-2 than draw 2-2, because the two-eyed cricket fan in me (and everyone else) would have experienced the thrill of a series decider.
* Okay, I like to think I’d have preferred that. But given the emphatic tantrum I had after Ben Stokes’ declaration at Edgbaston, maybe I’m not as two-eyed as I want to be.
76th over: Australia 188-7 (Smith 41, Cummins 2) The first ball of the session is a beauty from Woakes that beats Cummins’ tentative push. A couple of runs from the over, it says here.
“Jeremy Boyce got the wrong Pataudi (son), who was quite an attacking batsman in spite of one eye,” says Puneet Mohan. “It was the father who was the slow poke.”
Urgh, sorry, that’s my fault for not checking. You’re right about his father, whose short Test career included a 79-ball 12 and a 380-ball 102.
The players are back out, and Australia need 97 runs for a bit of the old first-innings parity.
Teatime appeal
The local animal shelter, at which my partner volunteers, is celebrating 40 years of rescuing, rehoming and caring for adorable dogs (and other animals). But charities like these are closing all the time and they are in urgent need of funding. If you’d like to donate, just follow this link.
“All very well to criticise the Australian approach,” says John Jones, “but it’s detracting from an outstanding England bowling performance. Their lengths and lines have been immaculate with hardly a bad ball bowled.”
Yep. It’s been their most forensic bowling performance of the series.
England’s session, NQAT: Australia managed 71 for five in 24 overs. But Steve Smith is still there, having pottered to 40 from 79 balls. And when that’s the case in an Ashes Test, like the man said, nothin’ comes with a gaaaaaaarntee.
Tea
75th over: Australia 186-7 (Smith 40, Cummins 1) And now for something completely different: Harry Brook to Steve Smith just before tea. It feels a lifetime ago that Brook bowled a single over to Smith at Edgbaston; it was 17 June.
Despite the best efforts of Jonny Bairstow, who makes every ball sound like a ball of the century contender, Smith survives the over without alarm. That’s tea.
74th over: Australia 186-7 (Smith 40, Cummins 1) Cummins edges the new bowler Woakes just short of Duckett at third slip, then plays down the wrong line at a jaffa. A maiden. While Australia have been too passive today – 125 for six in 49 overs – England have bowled extremely well.
“Shaping up to be another great Test but gotta be honest, I’m still not over the Old Trafford hangover,” says Max Williams. “The really annoying thing is there’s nothing obvious to blame. You can’t blame England for not winning the match in three days. You can blame England for being 1-2 down but losing the first two Tests is kind of requisite if you want to complete an historic 3-2 comeback. You can’t blame Manchester for being Manchester. You can’t blame the Powers That Be for not ripping up the rulebook and introducing a reserve day ahead of the series on the off chance that this incredibly specific scenario might occur.
“Apologies for this failure to live in the moment but I fear the Old Trafford rain and subsequent lost Oval decider will be the defining memory of this series. A series that came so close to greatness only to be hamstrung in the most dejecting fashion imaginable. Please tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’ll be tracking down highlights of Zac Crawley’s 189 a decade hence.”
Nah, you won’t, and not only because by that stage technology will be so advanced that the highlights will be tracking down you. But you may well remember how alive you felt in July 2023. I agree with you though – I can’t think of a bigger anticlimax in my cricket-watching life.
73rd over: Australia 186-7 (Smith 40, Cummins 1) Wood’s career-best series continues: he now has 12 wickets at 18. (And 74 runs at a strike rate of 140.)
“I remember seeing Alan Ealham take at least one of those catches against Australia at Lord’s in 1977 – I would have been 11,” says Martin Gamage. “He was regarded as a bit of a fielding specialist at the time, proof that fielding ringers came in long before the days of Gary Pratt.”
Who would have been the first? I was going to say Alan Oakman at Old Trafford in 1956 until I remembered he was actually in the XI.
WICKET! Australia 185-7 (Starc c Duckett b Wood 7)
Mark Wood takes his first lower-order wicket of the day. Might not be his last. Starc, trying to hook, was beaten for pace and top-edged it miles in the air. Ben Duckett ran in from fine leg to take a comfortable catch.
72nd over: Australia 183-6 (Smith 39, Starc 6) Starc cuts Root to deep backward point, where the other substitute Dan Lawrence saves the boundary with a nifty bit of fielding. Australia trail by 100.
“Afternoon Rob,” says Nick Parish. “I’d be interested to hear your views on Ben Stokes the selector. It seems to me curious that his great innovation in setting batting strategies, attacking fields and creative declarations seems to vanish completely when it comes to actually picking the team in the first place. There have been quite a number of times in this series when England could have made some very positive unforced selection changes, and Stokes just hasn’t gone for it. Excessive loyalty to colleagues? Unwillingness to do anything that might smack of admitting past selection errors? Or something else?”
Loyalty and empathy are two of Stokes’ defining characteristics. I suppose Bazball requires a loyalty that might be perceived as excessive, because if you want people to play with unprecedented freedom you have to give them a degree of security. Cricinfo’s Andrew Miller, who coined the B-word, made this point in our Wisden.com 2001-02 WhatsApp group before the first Test: it’s one for all and all for one, so the squad at the start of the series was never going to change except for injury. Personally I prefer this to the alternative, though I can see both sides.
71st over: Australia 180-6 (Smith 39, Starc 3) Wood had only one ball at Starc in the previous over. This time he gets four, which includes a play and miss and an airy hook that lands well short of fine leg.
“Interesting day,” says Brian Withington. “I’ve been reflecting further that there seems to be a strain of opinion that isn’t just sceptical about the new England brand, but actively despises it. That isn’t just waiting for it to implode (gloriously or otherwise), but wanting to demonstrate that its whole premise is false and its architects are hypocritical charlatans.
“I can understand the former sentiment, and probably subscribe to some of it myself, but I’m simply baffled by the latter. Struggling for a fair analogy but almost feels a bit like fossil fuel advocates who’d prefer the planet to burn rather than see renewables become a success?”
The great Rob Bagchi, once of this parish, used a brilliant line recently to describe somebody, and it feels equally applicable here: “He’d rather be right than happy.”
70th over: Australia 177-6 (Smith 39, Starc 1) Stokes waves a full toss from Root for two, with the substitute George Ealham saving the boundary. His grandad Alan, mentioned earlier by Gary Naylor, took a couple of catches in an Ashes Test in 1977, I think at Lord’s. Edit: yes it was.
A single apiece conpletes the over. No sign yet of Smith going into one-day mode, never mind T20 mode. The tortoise is not for haring.
69th over: Australia 173-6 (Smith 35, Starc 0) Ben Stokes is contractually obliged to recall Mark Wood the moment the lower order is exposed; you can’t really call it the tail when it includes Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins. Smith continues to bat in his bubble, flicking a couple to deep midwicket and working another single into the leg side.
“Great to see Anderson take a wicket,” says Tom Van der Gucht. “I’ve got to say, I was surprised as to how grizzled and gnarled he looks these days when watching him bowl yesterday. It reminded me of when I saw Hugh Grant in Paddington 2 and was surprised he wasn’t still the eternity foppish spring chicken from Four Weddings that existed in my memory.”
Brad Pitt over here! I’d have been happy to look as grizzled and gnarled as Anderson at the age of 25, never mind 40.
In other news, cricket is likely to return to the Olympics after a 128-year absence
68th over: Australia 170-6 (Smith 32, Starc 0) Carey’s scores since the Lord’s unpleasantness are 21, 8, 5, 20, 10. I know there are other factors, not least the pace of Mark Wood, but that doesn’t feel like a coincidence.
WICKET! Australia 170-6 (Carey c Stokes b Root 10)
Six and out for Alex Carey, whose post-Lord’s woes continue. He cuffed Root emphatically over long-on, only to fall next ball.
Root tossed it higher and wider, and Carey blazed a drive towards short mid-off. Stokes, an allrounder even when he can’t bowl, swooped to take a fine low catch.
“Seems to me this ultimate Bazball team will need suitable opposition from the traditional school, then we can see which is best, no?” says Jeremy Boyce. “Here’s mine:
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G Boycott
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Usman Khawaja
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Bruce Edgar
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Chris Tavare
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Mansoor Pataudi
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Ken Barrington
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Trevor Bailey
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Godfrey Evans
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Bob Langford
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Joel Garner
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Geoff Allott
12th man: Mike Hendrick.”
Is Bob Langford the guy who had figures of 8-8-0-0 in a one-day game? And is Geoff Allott in for his batting or his bowling? I’d be tempted to replace him with Bapu Nadkarni.
67th over: Australia 164-5 (Smith 32, Carey 4) With the sun out, the occasional spinner on and the ball past retirement age in most cultures, this feels like an opportunity for Australia to put some pressure back on England.
Easier said from the office armchair than done. The ball is still doing a bit, and Smith is beaten chasing a shortish delivery from Anderson that leaves him at the last minute. He whacks the pitch in frustration.
66th over: Australia 162-5 (Smith 30, Carey 4) Root continues around the wicket to Smith, with a slip and leg slip. He has dismissed Smith a couple of times in Tests, although on both occasions Smith was in the 210s. Smith reads Root’s arm ball and waves it absent-mindedly into the covers for a single. Australia trail by 121.
65th over: Australia 161-5 (Smith 29, Carey 4) A philosophical question: can England ever be truly on top in an Ashes Test when Steve Smith is at the crease? He pushes Anderson for a single to move to 29; then an unconvincing LBW appeal against Carey is turned down, because it was going down.
Carey leans into the next ball, the 16th of his innings, driving it sweetly between extra cover and mid-off to get off the mark with a boundary.
“Hi Rob,” says Gary Naylor. “Here’s the 12th man George Ealham’s grandfather from the days when fielding was rubbish. A bit of that from the kid would be handy.”
64th over: Australia 156-5 (Smith 28, Carey 0) Stokes is still chatting with the umpire Kumar Dharmasena about the decision. I think he’s slightly unhappy that England have lost a review even though Carey hit the ball (he waited for Dharmasena to signal leg-bye before going upstairs).
Carey is not out. He was well outside the line, and more than three metres down the pitch. Not a great review. There was a bit of confusion over whether he had hit the ball – I think he did – but the right decision was made either way.
63.4 overs: Australia 154-5 (Smith 27, Carey 0) Thanks Daniel, hello everyone. Joe Root replaces Mark Wood, whose last spell really was short and sharp – it lasted six balls.
Carey, still on 0, survives a big LBW appeal after missing a lap sweep. It looked outside the line… but Ben Stokes reluctantly goes for the review.
63rd over: Australia 153-5 (Smith 26, Carey 0) Just the one off that Anderson over. Carey still to get off the mark. Tidy areas from Jimmy.
And with that, I’ll sign off. Thanks for the flood of mails about Bazball Dream XIs and the art of batting fast/slow. Had loads of fun with you.
Rob will take it from here.
Cheers!
I hate this. You might think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill but this doesn’t sit well. It smacks of entitlement quite frankly. Not OK with Broad getting involved with the bails. How would he feel if an Aussie batter inspected the ball he was using?
62nd over: Australia 152-5 (Smith 25, Carey 0) Wood is back and he gets one to spit at Smith but it catches enough bat to squirt away for a single. Carey is bounced but is safely under it before he unfurls a lovely cover drive that cannons straight to the fielder.
61st over: Australia 151-5 (Smith 24, Carey 0) That tentative approach from Australia in the first session is starting to look silly now. England have bagged three wickets in no time and now Carey stands as the last recognised batter. They’re 132 runs behind and in desperate need of a partnership. Anderson will feel a lot better about things having castled Marsh.