An all time epic amidst unprecedented chaos

    It was 42 years ago that the MCC members refused to clap for Sir Ian Botham in the long room when he got a pair as the England skipper against Australia. Botham gave up the captaincy and produced one of the most iconic performances at Headingley which started their juggernaut to win the Ashes. Four decades later, some MCC members have performed an act of embarrassment by abusing the visiting team members and another English captain should have been at the center of it all for the right reasons yet what has made the headlines is a very skillful piece of cricket which is doomed by some as against the spirit of cricket and the aftermath of it has been ugly. What the MCC has written in the books are laws of the game and not rules. Rules can be flexible and be flirted with. Laws have strict boundaries and if your actions are within those boundaries, what you are doing is completely legal. Therefore those that call the incident 'cheating' are pretty irrelevant in my opinion because what is within the laws of the game can not be called cheating. Both sides have been defended by experts and senior journalists in the last 48 hours. I don't think anyone who knows cricket has said that it wasn't out as it was a perfectly legal dismissal on every day of the week. The same people who were discussing the legitimacy of the dismissal on Sunday were suddenly bringing the spirit of cricket into the context on Monday. I think the two most important things missing in the conversation are the lack of game awareness from Jonny Bairstow and the cricket smarts of Alex Carey. Bairstow was regularly walking out of his crease without looking at the keeper or the umpire which was very naive for someone who is playing at this level for a decade. At the same time, it was a moment of real skill from Carey who had noticed Bairstow stroll out for a walk previously and just instinctively under-armed the throw to stump him. Nobody deserves the amount of abuse and criticism that the Aussies have received basically just for playing by the rules. It was the occasion that made it blow out of proportion and the exaggeration will have some nasty effects on the remaining tour. 

     What those 15 minutes of play overshadowed was quite staggering. The contest between bat and ball was very rich over the entirety of five days. Stokes won the toss and put Australia in under the clouds on a juicy pitch in London. English bowlers were completely anonymous in such bowling-friendly conditions and Steve Smith was outrageously good yet again in England. Australia scored well over 350 in the day and finished on 416 on the second morning. English top 3 found batting relatively easy on a sunny afternoon before throwing away three wickets for 34 runs towards the close of play. Familiar frailties resurfaced as England succumbed to another batting collapse to gift Australia a 91-run lead. After a couple of unfruitful sessions, England resorted to the short ball ploy and stayed with it for the next two entire sessions. An astonishing 98% of the deliveries were short and Aussies couldn't find a way to tackle it. A target of 371 was always going to be tough and the last thing England would have wanted was the top order to crumble. They found themselves at 47-4 thanks to a couple of crackerjack deliveries from Starc and Cummins. Though Duckett had looked good in both innings, everyone knew it all hinged on one man and that man was Benjamin Andrew Stokes. Duckett mistimed a pull and was soon followed by Jonny Bairstow which left England needing 178 runs short. The majority of the crowd was fuming and so was Ben Stokes. This was probably the best individual batting display witnessed by most of us who were present at Lord's. The control at the start was commendable, the acceleration was staggering and the ball striking was stunning. He scored 155 before finally mis-hitting one against Josh Hazlewood. It was very similar to Headingley 4 years ago. He probably would have needed to score in excess of 200 if England were to get over the line but if he had, it would have been bigger than Headingley for sure. Some of the sixes he hit at Headingley were mis-hits but not one out of the nine sixes at Lord's teased the boundary riders. He just kept doing it for more than 15 overs and put on 108 with Stuart Broad. There wasn't much left once he was gone and Australia wrapped up the innings fairly quickly to win the match by 43 runs. 

     Pat Cummins and his team have now won two close tests and buried some ghosts along the way. There is no doubt that Stokes' presence did make them nervous and Smith dropping a straightforward catch was perhaps the evidence of it. But despite of all the drama and the talk surrounding BazBall, Australia find themselves 2-0 up. It has not been comfortable by any means and England under a leader as inspirational as Ben Stokes can definitely turn up at Headingley a better team. For me, the concern for England is the pitches. Australians have not won in the UK since 2001 so England didn't need BazBall to beat Australia. More often than not the Aussies have been beaten by the movement and these flatter pitches are bringing Australia into the game more than it should. For two test matches in a row, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, 41 and 37 respectively, have been forced to bowl 20 overs in a day on dead and slow pitches. If they decide to play both of them again at Headingley on a similar pitch, they would be basically going on a hunt with blind dogs. I still think England's best chance against this extremely experienced and skilled Australian team is by producing wickets conducive to seam bowling. History tells us that when Australia gain the upper hand, they generally bury the opposition and it will be extremely difficult to stop this Australian side who just want it more than the English do. The narrative is so much in favor of Australia but if England somehow manage to win in Leeds and keep the series alive, it could end up as one of the greatest test series we have ever seen.