After a rain-affected draw at Edgbaston, in which England's push for victory fell flat, the question now stands: who takes the momentum into Headingley? The temptation is to give the nod to England given their 1-0 series advantage and flashes of brilliance between the spells of drizzle in Birmingham. But, on closer inspection, the matter may not be so clear-cut.
Australia will take tremendous confidence from their second-innings batting performance, in which three batsmen passed 50 and one, Michael Clarke, a stoic century in his 50th Test to limit England to just five wickets from 112 overs. Shane Watson's returns of 62 and 53 in his first Test as opener will prove particularly encouraging as will the final-day efforts of Michael Hussey (64) and Marcus North (96), both of whom were in need of a confidence boost.
The Australians will also be buoyed at the possibility that Mitchell Johnson's nightmare might just have been confined to the month of July. Johnson is clearly not back to his wrecking-ball ways from South Africa, but he did manage to make the necessary adjustments to his wrist position to allow him to rediscover the at-the-body line and subtley swing that has made him so effective in past series.
England clearly have grounds for optimism, too. Were it not for the five-and-a-half sessions lost to rain, bad light and the water-logged outfield, they might have better capitalised on their 113-run first-innings advantage. That lead was established after James Anderson and Graham Onions befuddled Australia's batsmen with prodigious aerial movement on Friday, and with Headingley considered among the better swinging grounds in the country, England will hope to probe Australia's barely-healed wounds.
England still lead the five-match series 1-nil, but it will only take one victory by Australia to level the series. And that, of course, will be enough to see our trans-Tasman allies retain the Ashes. Yje series is still poised on a knife-edge, and we are thoroughly looking forward to the next match at Leeds which starts on Friday evening. Headingley, of course, will be forever remembered for one of the great Ashes innings ...
6 comments:
Unless you're a completely one-eyed England supporter (Barnsley...) then Australia getting away with this is probably the best result for the game.
If England were 2-up with 2 to play then public interest would possibly have dropped away with the Premiership football starting.
Headingly has to be the most fast-bowler-friendly track in the country so unless Brett Lee's back (and probably even if) it's advantage England.
Radio commentators were talking about a Harmison recall, probably at the expense of Broad. I guess it hinges on how much value they place on Broads batting as apart from Strauss the top order and particularly Bopara is dodgy.
If England were behind in the series Harmison might be a high risk option to take, as it is I think Flintoff's got all the required ability to extract maximum bounce. I'd get the other quicks up to Headingly asap and spending some quality time with Darren Gough.
Good points RG & pdm - it will be interesting to see/hear what shape Flintoff is in after Edgbaston, and whether three days between the matches will be enough recovery time. Broad is emerging as a potential replacement in the all-rounder role - his old man will doubtless have plenty of influence on his batting as her develops. It would be great to see Harmison back, especially at Leeds, but who who they drop?
I think third ashes update...
Picking this series is like picking the weather
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