Dead-end delay no obstacle for Ashes sensation Archer
JOFRA Archer’s journey to Headingley hit a dead end.
A one-way street forced him into a car park behind a neighbouring rugby field, delaying his entrance to the Test venue until just 40 minutes before the toss.
The bungled preparation was no obstacle for the game’s newest — and coolest — Test cricketer. “I’m pretty relaxed,” Archer, 24, said after day one of the third Test.
“I don’t need to bowl a lot of balls in the warm-up. I actually don’t think I need to bowl in the warm-up at all.” Archer wastes no energy. Post-game he kept his backpack on while sitting and speaking, with six Australian wickets in his back pocket after day one of the third Test.
In eight days Archer had delivered a staggering 61.1 overs and taken 11 Ashes scalps, six yesterday.
His childhood hero Michael Holding didn’t think such a feat was possible.
“Archer bowled a third of all the overs bowled,” the West Indies icon said after the Lord’s Test.
“That’s a spinner’s quota. If you keep bowling him like this you will lose the 96mph (154.5kmh) delivery. “It’s abuse.” Instead, Archer is abusing Australia’s batsmen.
England captain Joe Root couldn’t wait to give his new toy the new ball, winning the toss and bowling then giving Archer 10 overs from one end, albeit interrupted by delays.
When Archer’s first spell dipped in pace from that frightening burst at Lord’s, Holding was convinced he was on the money.
Archer’s 12th ball removed Marcus Harris and hit 140kmh, but he was well short of the 155kmh thunderbolts that rocked Steve Smith.
But Archer had replaced intimidation with accuracy and efficiency — and the damage was far greater.
“I don’t need to run in and bowl 90mph every spell to get wickets,” Archer said.
The Archer express has turned the Ashes on its head.