England place great faith in leg-spinner
Starc green light boosts Aussies’ bowling stocks for Ashes finale
MASON Crane’s introduction to Test cricket for the fifth and final Ashes clash with Australia that started today is perhaps a sign that England are finally prepared to invest the time it takes to develop a decent leg-spinner, whatever the short-term cost.
At 20, Crane is the youngest England spinner for 90 years to have made a Test debut after winning his first cap at the Sydney Cricket Ground earlier today, in a series that England trail by an irretrievable 3-0.
In the corresponding fixture on the 2013-14 Ashes series, when England were 4-0 down, Scott Borthwick, Boyd Rankin and Gary Ballance were all handed debuts with only Ballance going on to play a second Test.
Crane’s elevation after taking 75 wickets at 44 in 29 first-class matches could be seen in the same vein but for Joe Root’s assertion to the contrary as he plots a win that he thinks is vital to England’s success on their next trip Down Under.
“I want us to be the best side in the world . . . and it’s not going to happen by chucking guys in for the last game of a series,” he said.
“So it’s really important that we do it in a way which, over the next four years, gets us in the best place to perform well here, but throughout that period being as successful as we can be.”
The art of spinning the ball away from a right-handed batsman using the fingers and a full flick of the wrist can produce spectacular results but also be difficult to control. It has provided two of the most memorable moments in Ashes cricket – the Eric Hollies googly that bowled Don Bradman in 1948 in the great Australian’s final innings and the “Ball of the Century” with which Shane Warne dismissed Mike Gatting in 1993.
It can also be expensive, though, as Warne had discovered on his Test debut at the SCG the previous year when he took 1/150 against India.
While Warne was the greatest in a long line of top-class Australian “leggies” also including Bill “Tiger” O’Reilly, Richie Benaud and Stuart MacGill, the English have often been accused of lacking the patience to develop the skill.
Borthwick’s return of 4/82 from his leg spin in a losing cause at the SCG in 2014 was decent enough but he has never played another Test, while Adil Rashid has since ended up on the Test scrapheap after 10 matches, all abroad.
Crane’s development may mark a change to this attitude and, while still not a regular for his county Hampshire, he has already played two T20 internationals.
He linked up with MacGill when he came over to Australia in 2016-17 to play for Sydney’s Gordon club and three seven-wicket hauls earned him a New South Wales call-up, the first for a foreigner since Imran Khan in 1984-85.
He took 5/116 in his only Sheffield Shield game against South Australia, a match played at the SCG. — Reuters PACE spearhead Mitchell Starc is in line to return to Australia’s bowling line-up with second spinner Ashton Agar unlikely to play in the final Ashes Test that started at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.
Captain Steve Smith said Starc was “ready to go” after bowling this week in the nets after missing the drawn fourth Melbourne Test with a bruised heel.
“Starcy has pulled up pretty well this morning and he says he’s ready to go. I guess that’s a good indication,” Smith said.
Agar’s chances of playing in his fifth Test, bowling in spin tandem with Nathan Lyon, have also been downgraded with extra grass on the Sydney Cricket Ground pitch.
“The wicket’s got a fair bit of grass and looks to be a pretty good wicket,” Smith said.
“I’d say we’ll probably opt for just the one spinner. Nathan’s done a terrific job throughout this series and I’d say we’ll go down that route.”
Australia have already clinched the Ashes with an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-Test series ahead of the Sydney finale.
Left-armer Starc is the leading wicket-taker in the series with 19 despite only playing three Tests and will boost Australia’s pace attack after he missed out in Melbourne, giving way to Jackson Bird who went wicketless. Smith, who has dominated the series with three centuries in his tally of 604 runs in six innings at an astonishing average of 151, has been troubled this week by a sore back, but said he will play.
“A little bit stiff but nothing
Ihaven’t dealt with before,” Smith said. “I’ll have a good hit today, a catch, and I’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Smith has spent more than 31 hours at the batting crease against England in this series, becoming Australia’s first captain to score 600 or more runs in an Ashes campaign since Sir Don Bradman.
The 604 runs Smith has scored is the fourth-most by a captain in an Ashes series, with the 810 Bradman scored in 1936-37 the high mark.
Another century in Sydney will see him join Bradman, Herbert Sutcliffe and Wally Hammond as the only men to score four hundreds in the same Ashes series.
The Australia skipper averages 63.55 in his 60 Tests which places him only behind Bradman’s pinnacle of 99.94. — AFP
ASMASHING encounter is in store for rural cricket fans as the Amacal’egusha Historical Tournament final will be battled out at the Amacal'egusha Cricket Oval outside King William's Town today.
Zondeki Cricket Club and Vukani Cricket Club will compete for ultimate glory, after they successfully negotiated a tricky day of quarterfinals and semifinals yesterday.
Zondeki triumphed in an low scoring semifinal match over MbekaMkhupa, as they scored 115 all out before defending that score by having the challengers all out for 85 to seal a narrow 30-run win.
Vukani claimed a nail-biting fourrun win over Good Hope, after they batted first and scored 135 all out.
Good Hope were well on course at one stage, having reached 111/4 before tumbling to 131 all out.
“These teams fully deserve to be in the final,” said the president of the Amacal'egusha Tournament, Madoda Mandita.
“They have played the best cricket over the tournament and it is set to be a great finish between two very good teams.
“Whoever takes the title will be deserving and to the team that becomes the victors I will say well done for adding to the already rich history of this amazing tournament.”
The tournament started just after Christmas when about 65-teams from 10 sub-unions battled it out over six days of cricketing action.
From those matches 10 union teams were selected who competed in the round robin phase on Tuesday, from which eight progressed to yesterday morning’s quarterfinals. SUPERSPORT has added former Proteas skipper Graeme Smith and former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar to what is already a world-class commentary team for the South Africa versus India Test series starting tomorrow in Cape Town.
Smith and Gavaskar will join the likes of Michael Holding, Shaun Pollock, Michael Haysman, Mpumelelo Mbangwa and Kepler Wessels among others in SuperSport’s commentary booth for the duration of the tour.
“Smith and Gavaskar have become sought-after commentators around the world and we’re ecstatic to have them joining our team for this tour,” said SuperSport head of production Alvin Naicker.
“Having just come off the India versus Sri Lanka tour, Smith and Gavaskar have the inside knowledge on the form of the Indian team. It’s this knowledge that will offer our viewers valuable insights on the tourists.” — SuperSport.com