Crane aiming to rewrite Ashes history
If Mason Crane, England’s 20-yearold wrist-spinner, is going to flourish in this Ashes series, he will have to turn the clock back. The last match-winning performance by an England wrist-spinner in a test in Australia was in 1904.
In England’s two-day tour opener, Crane did the basics right, flighting and turning his legbreaks, inviting batsmen to take the risk of running down the pitch to drive. Even Shane Warne never did well at the Waca, so unsympathetic is the cast-iron clay, so a couple of wickets for Crane was a commendable start.
The only example Crane has to follow is Bernard Bosanquet, inventor of the googly, or the wrong ‘un as they usually call it in Australia, or even ‘‘the Bosie’’ as Richie Benaud termed it in deference to Bosanquet. Leg-breaks become more potent if the bowler spins an occasional surprise ball the other way, from off to leg, which Crane tried at the Waca without landing his googly right.
The inventive Bosanquet devised his new delivery when playing around with a rubber ball and first unleashed it when playing for Middlesex. Selected for England’s 1903-04 tour, he unleashed the first googly after their star batsman, Victor Trumper, had creamed two legbreaks through the covers for four - and completely flummoxed him to hit middle-stump.
In the fourth test at Sydney, with England leading 2-1, Bosanquet sealed the series with a spell of six wickets for 12 runs. In more than a century since, only one English leg-spinner has had a field-day in a test in Australia, Doug Wright, who took seven for 105 in Sydney again, but in a losing cause in 1946-47.
Wrist-spinners, meanwhile, have proliferated in Australia, almost like rabbits - two dozen of which were exported in the 19th century from a Somerset farm to a relative who had emigrated to Victoria. Bosanquet’s Australian ‘‘offspring’’ have included Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O’Reilly, as well as Benaud and Warne, all of whom might feature among the top dozen spinners of all time.
So, if history is against England winning this series - they win only around one out of four in Australia - it is all the more against Crane. Yet he is a sparky lad, who transfers his nervous energy into the ball by ripping with his wrist as well as fingers, rather than rolling it from the front of his hand.
Crane has yet to be given the benefit of Warne’s advice, in spite of their shared Hampshire background.
‘‘There has been a crack at trying to tee it up, but he’s a very busy man and I’ve got to get used to that,’’ Crane said with possibly a hint of irony. ‘‘Hopefully, one day I can have a bowl with him, but it hasn’t happened yet.’’
So, Crane has had to be content with the tutelage of Stuart MacGill, who, in spite of being Warne’s contemporary, took 208 test wickets himself with wristspin.
‘‘Stu’s been great and last winter I worked hard and got a lot out of it [when Crane was playing for the Gordon club in Sydney],’’ said Crane. ‘‘We had a great relationship, and he played a big part in me playing a Shield game.
‘‘He is as passionate as anyone I’ve seen talk about bowling. We worked on a couple of technical things but a lot of it was mental with him and he was an amazing help. I know they [Australian batsmen] are going to come after me, so it is about holding my nerve and getting them out in the end.’’
It was his selection to represent New South Wales this year - the first England player to play in the Sheffield Shield since the 1990s, and NSW’s first overseas player since the great Imran Khan - which made Crane’s inclusion in this Ashes squad a reasonable bet, not a foolishly romantic notion. He took five wickets against South Australia in Sydney, so he is already familiar with the fifth test venue.
‘‘That was a big game,’’ Crane said. ‘‘They were trying to qualify for the finals and I don’t think it crossed anyone’s mind [that he would be chosen for the Ashes squad, with the benefit of this priceless experience].’’
Owing to Moeen Ali’s sidestrain, Crane is due to play England’s second warm-up game in Adelaide.
‘‘It confirms I have to prepare for every single game like I’m going to play. If I was called upon tomorrow, I’d be confident.’’
A couple of years ago, the standard of spin bowling in county cricket was arguably the lowest it has ever been. Now a quartet of leg-spinners who give it a rip are appearing, in Crane, Josh Poysden, Matt Parkinson and Matt Critchley. So Bosanquet’s offspring are beginning to proliferate in England, if not quite like rabbits.