WOAKES RESCUE
Seamer papers over cracks for England after brittle batsmen are shown up again
The good news is that Chris Woakes was yesterday back to the pace and potency that made him one of england’s best and most improved players before a side injury brought his summer to a halt.
The bad is that Woakes’ superb spell — admittedly in helpful conditions — to take england to the brink of victory in this second Ashes warm-up with a day to play came after a brittle batting performance that hardly augurs well for the bigger battles ahead.
Woakes was near unplayable with the new pink ball under the Adelaide floodlights to take four cheap wickets as a Cricket Australia XI crashed to 25 for seven in pursuit of 268 to win.
They staggered into the final day despite an extra half-hour to finish on 70 for seven, but victory for england appeared inevitable.
‘he’s got better and better every time he’s bowled,’ said england’s new vice-captain Jimmy Anderson of Woakes. ‘he was brilliant. he deserved his four wickets and could have had more. he was back to his absolute best.’
Woakes needed to be to paper over the cracks in england’s fragile batting because earlier the home team had turned the third day of this day-night match into an english exercise in avoiding embarrassment.
The visitors had been made to look ordinary against two medium-pacers who just pitched the pink ball up as clouds gathered and the floodlights came on early in the second session.
Minimal movement at a far-from-frightening pace from Simon Milenko and Gurinder Sandhu did for england as they crashed from 93 for the loss of just Alastair Cook to 124 for seven, the last four going for three runs. It was left to Jonny Bairstow (right), as so often, to come to england’s rescue with an unbeaten 61 but there was no Ben Stokes or Moeen Ali to join him in the lower middle order. england, with the injured Jake Ball absent, were dismissed for 207, but their lead of 267 is proving plenty. Nobody in the small crowd at this magnificent stadium was more satisfied than Australian coach Darren Lehmann, who would have enjoyed watching the old enemy struggle with the bat less than two weeks before the first Test. Woakes showed it may be a tad premature for england to send for a local wheelwright but the warning signs are there, in their underwhelming batting and the spectacular form of Australia’s most potent bowler, Mitchell Starc. ‘I think we’ve found out a couple of their batsman,’ said Cricket Australia’s confident Matt Short, who ended the third day unbeaten on 28. ‘The Australian bowlers will get up on them and we’ll be all right.’ Yesterday should have been a day for england’s batsmen to fill their boots ahead of the tougher challenges, but, with the exception of Bairstow and Mark Stoneman, none were able to cash in. even Stoneman, easily england’s best batsman on tour so far, will be annoyed that he could not turn his third halfcentury in three innings into the sort of big score that will be needed to define an Ashes Test. At least he looks in decent touch with a game suited to Australian conditions and ready to prove that england have finally found a permanent opening partner for Alastair Cook. Trouble is, just as Cook may have found the right man to accompany him to the middle, he has made a poor start himself to a tour where he remains integral to england’s hopes of upsetting long odds. Cook fell to a secondball duck in Perth and made just 15 in the first innings here, and now looked out of touch while surviving several anxious moments before falling to New South Wales’ Milenko, who ended with five wickets.
That looked to be merely a blip for england while Stoneman and James Vince were taking the score to 93 but the fall of Vince sparked a collapse. There is no doubting the hampshire batsman’s talent but his downfall in seven Tests first time around with england was poor shot-selection. Now he twice came close to falling lbw to Sandhu in the same over, but instead of taking stock, aimed an expansive drive and fell to the third convincing shout in six balls.
‘It wasn’t ideal,’ said Anderson of england’s collapse. ‘It’s something we’ve got to probably look at — why it happened and what we can do differently.’
england’s blushes were spared by Woakes, with support from Craig Overton, who took two wickets, and Anderson, who declared himself delighted to fill the vice- captaincy role vacated by Stokes. Nine wickets tumbled in the extended night-time session, seven of them home ones. But even though england should wrap up an emphatic win, the first two sessions of day three felt more significant than the last.