Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 23
June 30, 2023
The Ashes 2023: England v Australia, second Test, day three – as it happened
Australia blew away England’s lower order at Lord’s before extending their lead to 221 with eight wickets remaining
Test Match Special overseas link? Go on then.
“I’ve mellowed overnight on this, but I’m still a bit irked by that hour,” writes Guy Hornsby. “I think I can be on board with this brand of cricket, but not to the exclusion of all else surely? How many hooks are ok to a field feeding that plan, before it gets brainless? Surely you have to read the game too, as Stokes did when he came in? If we’ve learnt from it today and can bat positively and get past Australia then it could turn the series. Surely egos aren’t so fragile as to have to assert themselves in all scenarios? This team has been outstanding and breathless and inventive, and they are still learning. We’re all here for the ride, but if they take anything into today it’s that pressure can be applied in many different ways, and plans aren’t binary.”
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The Ashes 2023: England v Australia, second Test, day three – live
Test Match Special overseas link? Go on then.
“I’ve mellowed overnight on this, but I’m still a bit irked by that hour,” writes Guy Hornsby. “I think I can be on board with this brand of cricket, but not to the exclusion of all else surely? How many hooks are ok to a field feeding that plan, before it gets brainless? Surely you have to read the game too, as Stokes did when he came in? If we’ve learnt from it today and can bat positively and get past Australia then it could turn the series. Surely egos aren’t so fragile as to have to assert themselves in all scenarios? This team has been outstanding and breathless and inventive, and they are still learning. We’re all here for the ride, but if they take anything into today it’s that pressure can be applied in many different ways, and plans aren’t binary.”
Continue reading...June 29, 2023
Nathan Lyon’s luck runs out just as Steve Smith’s begins to turn | Geoff Lemon
While the bowler’s injury could seriously hamper Australia, his teammate’s 12th Ashes century suggests there is no need to panic
One hundred Tests in a row, a feat achieved by no specialist bowler in the game’s history. Beyond that, 122 Tests in a career that has never seen him miss one injured. The Australian men’s team in that span has played 126. So four omissions scattered across 2012 and 2013 remain the only Tests he has missed since his debut in 2011. And then, here, Nathan Lyon pinged a calf, the twang of those strained fibres reverberating forward through the Ashes contest to come.
The timing, just as he was celebrated for his durability, sucks. Of course it will give another outing to sport’s most tedious guffaw: the jinx, the mozz, the commentator’s curse. There’s nothing duller, that mix of dad joke and solipsism that lets the observer project themselves into the centre of the action where they have no claim to encroach. On pure probability, in any well-attended cricket ground, somebody has just said that a player is batting well a minute before they get out.
Continue reading...The Ashes 2023: England v Australia, second Test, day two – as it happened
England fought back on a terrific second day to trail Australia – who lost Nathan Lyon to a calf injury – by 138 runs with six first-innings wickets intact
And here is the Test Match Special overseas listening link.
It’s fundraising day at Lord’s in memory of Ruth Strauss, who passed away in 2018. The funds will contribute to lung cancer research and supporting families whose loved ones have the disease. Most people are wearing red today in honour of the project.
Continue reading...The Ashes 2023: England v Australia, second Test, day two – live
And here is the Test Match Special overseas listening link.
It’s fundraising day at Lord’s in memory of Ruth Strauss, who passed away in 2018. The funds will contribute to lung cancer research and supporting families whose loved ones have the disease. Most people are wearing red today in honour of the project.
Continue reading...June 28, 2023
David Warner shows he is still up for the Ashes fight with opening stand | Geoff Lemon
On his last Ashes tour the opener, more watchful than in the past, again gave Australia a good start at Lord’s in second Test
You get the sense that David Warner has spent his lifetime looking for a fight. Speak to players who came up against the young version in suburban Sydney cricket, remembering Warner prowling the boundary getting stuck into fielders when he had finished batting. Trace a line all the way to the current era, the old stager version running out on to the field with skipping feet, ready to sway and duck and jab.
All the way through, there has always been a flashpoint, a point to prove. An Indian opener, a Zimbabwe A wicketkeeper, a Cricket Australia head of high performance. Warner has held on to resentments, from peers or opponents or media, and relished the feeling of vindication from some starring subsequent performance. In the end it hasn’t really mattered who, or what, or why. The conflict has been the thing, pushed down inside until it is powerful, some compressed puck of solid-propellant fuel to fire his next launch.
Continue reading...The Ashes 2023: England v Australia, second Test, day one – as it happened
England were insipid in the field, but Australia batted brilliantly to reach 339 for five after losing an important toss at Lord’s
1st over: Australia 4-0 (Warner 4, Khawaja 0) Four slips, James Anderson with the ball under cloudy skies, and the over has most things. A beaten edge as Warner flays, a middled shot for four through as Warner goes after width, and a ball that comes in to hit the pad.
Players out on the field and we’re ready to go.
Continue reading...The Ashes 2023: England v Australia, second Test, day one – live
1st over: Australia 4-0 (Warner 4, Khawaja 0) Four slips, James Anderson with the ball under cloudy skies, and the over has most things. A beaten edge as Warner flays, a middled shot for four through as Warner goes after width, and a ball that comes in to hit the pad.
Players out on the field and we’re ready to go.
Continue reading...June 26, 2023
Australia's and England’s five-day Test is a triumph which must happen again | Geoff Lemon
The real legacy of this extended match should be fine cricket featuring the most runs on aggregate in any women’s Test
An Australian win, a huge match haul of wickets, a turnaround from a day earlier – sure, all significant on the fifth day of the Women’s Ashes Test in Trent Bridge. Significant above all, though, were two words in that previous sentence: fifth day. Finally, a women’s Test was played over the full span that men’s matches enjoy, giving the space to the contest that allowed it to run its course.
Only once has a women’s match been scheduled over five days, for a standalone game in Sydney in 1992. On that occasion the entire third day was washed out, and Australia won by an innings so might well have wrapped it up in four had that not been the case. Even the anomalous five-match series of 1984‑85 had four-day matches. So if we get deeply technical, this was the first women’s Test with play on all five days – and it was a triumph.
Continue reading...June 25, 2023
Alyssa Healy plays pivotal role to steer Australia back on path to victory | Geoff Lemon
Captain’s half-century builds lead on day of ups and downs after Sophie Ecclestone’s relentless bowling checked their progress
On the fourth morning of the Women’s Ashes Test in Nottingham, Australia had the game in their hands. One wicket down, 149 on the board, leading by 159 in the third innings, with their two most reliable hands Beth Mooney and Ellyse Perry together at the crease. Thirty-five overs later they were all out for 257, the last nine down for 108.
That session-and-a-bit of was like the breaking of a storm, after three and a half days of bowlers working thanklessly thanks to a batting pitch and a raft of missed chances from both teams. The game’s trajectory had not suggested losing two wickets in four Lauren Filer deliveries just before lunch, three wickets in 12 balls in the second session, or three in six balls just after tea.
Continue reading...Geoff Lemon's Blog
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