Rory Burns takes a blinder, Jofra Archer’s knuckle ball and Sam Curran return. Here are the best pieces from the Oval…
As Jofra Archer’s six wickets helped England take charge of the Exam on day two and skittle Australia for 225 steve Smith dropped out on a hundred hundred of the Ashes series.
Scorecard | Commentary
Smith (80) notched his 10th fifty-plus score at a row at Ashes cricket but was not able to complete his 27th Test hundred when, was dropped on 66 by Joe Root off Sam Curranthat he was trapped lbw by Chris Woakes.
Archer (6-62) removed four of Australia’s best six after which repaint Nathan Lyon (25) and Peter Siddle (18) following a meaty ninth-wicket rack of 37 – Siddle into some superb one-handed catch at gully from Rory Burns – as he maintained his second six-wicket haul of this series.
The impressive Curran (3-46), meanwhile, was one point on a hat-trick on his home floor as the vacationers – save for a single guy – stuttered in response to England’s 294 out to trail from 69 on first innings.
Jofra Archer ball to discount Nathan Lyon was a delivery of beauty. Executed it pegged off-stump back but stopped a partnership. Additionally, it earned his next five-for in Tests to Archer.
However, the moment of this day was to come Rory Burns diving to his left in the gully to catch a sharp catch one-handed after Siddle conducted Archer towards person directly from the face. The opener extended superbly before celebrating with a few Surrey swagger while stirring to pouch the chunk at magnificent fashion.
Can England get their field wrong to Smith? ‘The Don’ appeared so at ease at times during his innings of 80 which obviously the focus fell on Joe Root’s tactics.
To be honest, most of the plans deployed from Smith have come up short – in the event of both Stuart Broad bowling from well behind the stumps literally!
However, with Smith past fifty, England persisted to attempt to conceal the ball out off while having a leg and square set up.
That enabled Smith to select off runs as you like through a huge gap at point, or shed the chunk leg-side and canter through.
By moving to a 6-3 one from a 5-4 field and switching leg to deep point, of drying up Smith England’s odds increased his frustration was obvious to see.
England’s Sam Curran:”As a group of bowlers I believe we are fairly excellent. The wicket is pretty flat. Hopefully the sun will be shining and for what we did to bowl them out was a excellent hard work and then we all could get some runs. I have been working on trying to bend the ball more consistently back to the right-handers and luckily some did now.”
Sir Andrew Strauss on Curran:”I love what I saw. He brings another dimension to the bowling attack with that angle that is different. The stumps are brought by him into play a whole lot. He has that bubbly excitement , although that means he’s likely to go for some runs so you need to accept that. He wants to be part of the game and is now a very, very gifted cricketer and I believe we are going to see a whole great deal more of him over the years.”
Nasser Hussain on England’s selection:”Can Joe Root along with the new coach be glad that Jos Buttler ends a cricketer who bats with the tail or will Jos see a better cricketer in there batting at five? In the moment that he strikes me as somebody who is pretty good using the his technique would be a bit vulnerable before.”
Kevin Roberts, CEO of Cricket Australia:”I am not sure there is anyone in Australian cricket who could have contributed this turnaround [because sandpaper-gate] as well as Tim Paine has. Ironically, getting four years from this match with a smashed finger handed him the lifetime experience that he is currently using to direct our national team.”
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