England’s hopes of winning First Ashes Test take huge hit as Crawley and Duckett swung out cheaply on rain-affected day
DARTH VADER, the Prince of Darkness, had just been frogmarched out of an Edgbaston stand by stewards.
And a dirty great black cloud hovered over the ground as England’s openers walked out to face Australia’s bowlers.
There was a sense of impending doom around Birmingham – and in the space of just 22 deliveries, the momentum of this First Ashes Test swung significantly towards the Australians.
During that brief, potentially decisive passage of play between heavy cloudbursts, Australia’s Pom disposal unit rediscovered its old killer instinct and seized the initiative as the ball began to swing and seam.
Both Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were sent packing and Joe Root survived a string of raucous LBW appeals as England moved from 26-0 to 28-2 before the heavens opened and play was eventually abandoned for the day.
We can bang on about England’s maverick Bazball tactics – and Australia’s response to them – until the cows come home, but so often games of cricket are literally decided in the heavens above.
There is a world of difference between batting under clear, blue skies and the kind of murky conditions which greeted Duckett and Crawley when they resumed their innings at 3.28pm.
The weather is set fair tomorrow and the wickets of England’s best batsman – the Yorkshire trio of Root, Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow – remain intact.
But Australia are in the box seat now – with England leading by just 35.
And with severe doubts over Moeen Ali’s injured spinning finger, Ben Stokes’ side face an uphill battle to win this series opener.
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Two overs after the restart – with the ground staff looming on the boundary ropes, about to spring into action – Duckett edged Pat Cummins to the gully.
There was Cameron Green – a man who stands approximately 10 feet tall and possesses arms that are roughly seven feet long.
The Aussie all-rounder had taken two magnificent catches in his side’s recent World Test Championship victory over India and this time he dived low to achieve another outstanding grab just millimetres above the turf.
Duckett simply refuses to leave any delivery – a bizarre mindset for a Test opener but all part of this great Bazball experiment.
He faced 38 balls in this Test and left precisely none of them – including two which had him caught behind the wicket.
In the next over, Scott Boland produced a peach to dispatch Crawley for the second time in this match, movement off the pitch tempting him to feather one to keeper Alex Carey.
Despite the ever-darkening skies, Root danced his way out to the middle and kept walking down the pitch at Australia’s bowlers.
Every time the ball struck his pads, the tourists cavorted around, imploring the umpires to raise their fingers but Root, along with Ollie Pope, lived to fight another day.
Earlier in the day – after Australia resumed 82 runs behind, with five wickets in hand – it felt as if England’s selection gambles were failing.
Bairstow, who had missed a stumping and dropped a catch on Saturday, spilled another decent chance when Carey offered an inside edge to Jimmy Anderson from the fourth ball of the day.
The decision to ditch specialist wicketkeeper Ben Foakes was not looking too clever.
And Moeen, who was taking some fearful stick, was pulled out of the attack with a gashed index finger – his lack of recent overs clearly taking its toll.
Anderson eventually bowled Carey with one that nipped back – but Cummins came out blazing and the Aussies were honing in on a first-innings lead before Ollie Robinson ripped through their tail with three of four wickets which fell rapidly just before lunch.
Stokes employed a funky field of six fielders in a ring in front of Usman Khawaja, and this baffled the Aussie opener enough to end his marathon innings of 141, as Robinson immediately bowled him.
Lyon soon picked out Duckett on the square-leg boundary and a short ball from Stuart Broad persuaded Boland to pop a catch to silly mid-off, before Cummins skied an attempted hook to Stokes.
England had a lead of seven, which they extended to 33 with a minimum of fuss before the first shower.
During the break in play, a man dressed as Star Wars villain Vader was seen being escorted out of the ground by stewards.
There were allegations that he had constructed a beer snake but, in fact, he had merely been trespassing in the wrong stand and was being led to his correct seat.
This is small fry when your crimesheet includes the full-scale obliteration of the Planet Alderaan via the Death Star’s super laser.
But off he went and then, as play was about to resume, those menacing black clouds arrived.
Never underestimate the power of the dark side, as Vader once warned.
And he never had to face the Aussie quicks in swinging, seaming conditions.