by Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jul 21, 2015 4:01 pm
Frenzied mood at Lord's today as the England fielders swarmed onto the field, and lay siege to the perennial Australian openers, Hayden and Langer. Hayden looks more inflated than ever, a sort of effeminate caveman. Langer couldn't look more Australian if he came out in a jeep with a cork-hat on. Funny they have such German names.
The pitch was so hard. Gatting rapped firmly upon it in the preamble as if knocking on the locked door at opening time. And it sounded hollow. Harmison got extraordinary bounce. Without exaggeration, that was the most hostile spell by an England bowler I've seen since Bob Willis at Headingley in 1981. And that felt more hostile because he was so psycho. Maybe this was really the most fearsome since Harold? Who knows. He hit Hayden and Langer hard.
Pietersen dropped Ponting off Hoggard. But, if he hadn't, if Kevin had pouched his first catch (a gimme) in Test cricket, Harmison wouldn't have cut Ponting on the cheek, only half way, no- a quarter-, through a pull shot. KP dropped another later on, to no advantage. Harmi got Punter anyway.
From 87-5, Gilly and Warney counterattacked, and 190 all out doesn't really do justice to how brilliantly the pace attack bowled.
The most obvious thing to say about the Aussie attack was how bleached it is. McGrath has turned up with highlights, looking like a recently divorced dad. Warne and Lee have been on the bottle as ever. Will it ever be that the Aussies will turn up au naturale? Jason Gillespie wore Moroccan black. And got carted.
There were three acts. The second involved Glenn McGrath taking some wickets. I'd gloss over this except Glenn took his five hundredth wicket and went off to change into some golden boots... He couldn't have looked more embarrassed if England got to reverse his 5-0 prediction. Credit where it's due... No forget that.
From 21-5, KP (with his own dye job) and Geraint Jones repaired things a bit, and we'll have to hope the third act proves profitable. We're 92-7. 98 behind, with three wickets to go. Pretty chastening considering it was so overwhelmingly a great day for England. As ever, we hope for miracles. England triumphant; Australia on top.
I always say that everybody's right.