So sweet to silence my critics, says James

JAMES VINCE said it was sweet to ram the words down the throats of his Australian critics after coming within 17 runs of scoring a hundred on his Ashes debut. On a fascinating first day, a player mocked Down Under as a ‘no-name’ made a superb 83 — as England closed on 196 for four — before being run out in a piece of inspired fielding by Nathan Lyon. Ex-Australia opener Matthew Hayden certainly had Vince in mind when he tweeted that he didn’t know who half the English team were — an off-field sledge that made his excellent innings even more satisfying. Vince said: ‘Comments like that give you an extra incentive to go and make a statement. If he didn’t know who we were at the start of the day, he probably does now. ‘There’s been a bit of chat around since I got called up after my last effort in Test cricket. It gives you a bit of inspiration and fight to go out there and prove people wrong.’ Vince was among the most underwhelming Ashes picks of all time, at least until Australia recalled Shaun Marsh and wicketkeeper Tim Paine, who didn’t help his cause when he dropped Vince off Lyon on 68. Last year, when Vince chipped Yasir Shah to cover at The Oval, adding a duck to a first-innings single, he seemed to have played himself out of Test cricket for good. Here was an alleged Test batsman with an average of just 19. So the selectors deserve credit for concluding that a player who averaged only 32 for Hampshire in the County Championship last summer was worth a try at No 3 in Australia. Above all, Vince showed he can be more than a stylist who specialises in infuriating 30s and 40s. Against the odds, his Ashes are up and running. ‘If I could have my first go at Test cricket again, I would,’ he said. ‘But it’s in the past. My focus in the last month since I got the call has been to try to capitalise on the opportunity and nail my place in the team.’ After four hours in which he had alternated between graft and class, grit and nous, Vince took the kind of risk that can drive a coach to distraction, running a suicidal single to Lyon. It may not have been an elegant drive to second slip — his favourite mode of dismissal in 2016 — but it wasn’t far behind. Still, let’s not get greedy. Vince arrived here with two hurdles to overcome: many England fans did not rate him, and many Australians did not recognise him. On the first day, he has cleared them both. It will be one of the fascinations of the series to see if he can keep it up.