BOWLED OVER BY JOFRA
How hard CAN it be to face the 96mph England star terrorising the Aussies? We sent the Mail’s village cricketer TOM RAWSTORNE to find out...what could go wrong?
Dressed head to toe in protective gear — helmet, chest guard, arm guard, gloves, thigh guards, box and pads — I’m standing, bat in hand, waiting for Jofra Archer to bowl to me.
As a keen amateur cricketer, I’ve always wondered what it must be like to play the game at the highest level. But yesterday at 10am, with Archer charging towards me, I suddenly decided I no longer wanted to know.
dry-mouthed, knees knocking, stomach churning. I’d rather be anywhere but here. Because the man about to bowl to me is without equal in the modern game.
In the four months since he started playing for england he has earned a reputation as the fastest — and most lethal — bowler in world cricket.
Fresh from helping the national side clinch the most dramatic victory in the World Cup earlier this summer, he is terrorising the Australians in the Ashes series.
In his debut at Lord’s he bowled the fastest over (six balls) ever by an english player — averaging 92.79mph — as well as clocking the fastest ball at 96mph.
His short-pitched delivery, or bouncer, also has a fearsome reputation with even the world’s best batsmen struggling to play it — and being struck on the helmet or body as a result.
during the Lord’s Test, one such blow to the head of batsman steve smith — ranked number two in the world — left him suffering from concussion, forcing him out of that encounter and the next match which england so thrillingly won on sunday.
‘This man will change the entire outlook of fast bowling in the modern era,’ former West Indian bowling legend Michael Holding said after Archer’s Test debut.
‘Pace separates men from boys. When you have someone with that sort of pace you find out who really wants to play. Not a lot of batsmen will want to be going to bed knowing they are getting up the next morning to face that.’ Wise words Michael — and something I now know myself.
When I was offered the chance to head to Hove to bat against Archer, 24, — he plays for sussex and lives a ball’s throw from their ground — I jumped at the opportunity. As a village cricketer who plays every saturday, it sounded like a dream come true.
But the reaction of cricketing friends hardly inspired confidence. One suggested I check my life insurance. Another simply texted: ‘Ha ha ha. If he can hit smith on the head, you won’t last long.’
My waning confidence took a further blow when I was reminded that the fastest balls I have faced playing village cricket have been in the region of 70 to 75mph.
And, trust me, that seems plenty fast enough. When I have faced bowling machines, on which the speed of each delivery can be precisely measured and adjusted, even increasing it by 1mph beyond that makes a huge difference. But up the speed by 20mph? I doubt I would even see it.
After all, a ball leaving the bowler’s hand at 90mph will take less than half a second to arrive at a batsman less than 22 yards away.
And after you account for the 0.2 seconds a batsman needs to calculate the flight of the ball, he or she is left with just 0.28 seconds to decide what shot to play and move into the correct position.
Given that I’m nearing my 50th birthday and my eyesight and reflexes are not what they were, that sounds like a recipe for disaster. After all, who can forget what happened to broadcaster Piers Morgan in 2013 when he accepted
Australian fast bowler Brett Lee’s challenge to face an over of his bowling in the nets? Morgan ended not only humiliated — but suffered a cracked rib, too. And so the night before I take on Archer doesn’t include much sleep. Tossing and turning, I start to wonder if I have made a terrible mistake.
My mood isn’t helped when I arrive at the ground and tell one of the gatekeepers what I am doing there. He raises an eyebrow and says: ‘I take it you’re an ex-pro?’
Next, I head in to the kit shop to buy some extra pads and protection, only for one of the sales assistants to tell me about the last time an amateur player won a competition to face Archer. ‘He hit him on the head,’ says the assistant with a cheery smile. ‘He wasn’t a bad cricketer either.’
His words have me immediately
reaching for my wallet. While I routinely wear helmet, pads and thigh guard, I decide it would be a good idea to buy something to protect my chest and left forearm — a strap- on pad for each is quickly purchased.
And then it’s the moment of truth. We meet Archer in the grass practice nets. Given that he’s enjoying a well- earned break between Ashes Tests, he couldn’t have been more accommodating.
My opening gambit is entirely selfserving, asking him if he’s in a good mood. (The last thing I want is to face an angry fast bowler . . . )
He nods his head and cryptically replies: ‘Not bad, not bad.’ I then proceed to tell him — repeatedly — the level of cricket I play and plead with him not to slam the ball into the pitch and bounce it at me.
If he’s going to bowl at 90mph, I’d rather sacrifice my toes than my head. And so slowly, very slowly, I head to the end of the net, swathed in as much padding as I can Velcro to my body. In keeping with my wishes, Archer’s warm-up deliveries are pitched up towards me, but missing the stumps. In utter shock, I let them whizz by without even trying to hit them.
The third time I do this, Archer, with a grin, shouts: ‘Hit it!’
For a second I think he may have a point. Maybe I should try to smash him for six. But, even if I could, wouldn’t that just leave him wanting revenge?
While I manage to get my bat on a few of his deliveries, the shots are far from orthodox.
With the ball hurtling towards me at lightning speed, I don’t have time to move my feet towards where I think it will land.
And, always in my mind, is the fear that he could slip in one of his deadly bouncers.
After ten or so practice balls, it becomes clear Archer is simply loosening up, propelling the ball faster and faster each time. And then playtime finishes. Reminding myself I only have to survive six balls, it’s time to face a real Archer over . . .
I fear he could slip in a deadly bouncer
JIMMY ANDERSON, England’s leading Test wicket-taker, will play no further part in the Ashes after a recurrence of a calf injury. The 37-year-old seamer, who bowled only four overs in the first Test, felt pain in the calf on Thursday playing for Lancashire’s 2nd XI. Somerset’s Craig Overton has been called into England’s 13-man squad for next week’s fourth Test at Old Trafford.
The record-breaking career of the greatest bowler england have ever produced may be coming to a close after Jimmy Anderson was yesterday ruled out for the rest of the Ashes.
The huge blow for Anderson and an england side facing two more Tests that will decide the biggest series in cricket came with news that he had suffered a reaction to his fitness test for Lancashire seconds against Durham at Chester.
england planned to rush their leading wicket-taker back into the squad for what would have been his 150th Test at his Old Trafford home ground next week when he bowled 20 overs and looked to be fully fit on Tuesday.
But when he bowled again in Durham’s second innings on Thursday, Anderson suffered pain in the right calf that has plagued his season and forced him out of the first Ashes Test at edgbaston after just four overs.
The immediate consequence is that england have instead added Craig Overton, last seen in the defeat by New Zealand at Auckland 18 months ago, to the same 12 that were named for what became the tumultuous third Test at headingley.
And yesterday england confirmed Sportsmail’s story on Wednesday that the Jason Roy experiment at the top of the order is over and he will move to four at
Old Trafford, with Joe Denly opening in the fourth Test.
For Anderson, the wider concerns will be whether a 37-yearold with 575 Test wickets will now have the chance to extend his proud record towards 600.
It may be premature to write off a supreme bowler who was at the peak of his powers before this latest issue, but a calf problem that refuses to go away must at least raise the question of whether this is the beginning of the end.
Twice this season Anderson felt he had overcome the injury, but on both occasions it reoccurred when he stepped up his workload, raising worries that his lithe body might be finally rebelling after 16 years at the top.
england’s next Test assignment after the Ashes will be two matches against New Zealand in November, but they are expected to rest senior players for that low-key tour and there seems little point in Anderson taking the place of an emerging bowler.
That means his comeback target could well be the four-Test series against South Africa that begins in Centurion on Boxing Day and Anderson may have little chance to prove his fitness outdoors for that unless he travels overseas in advance of the tour.
Anderson ( below) will bristle at any suggestion that he is finished and he is desperate to play on towards his 40th birthday so he can have one more crack at Australia in their own backyard, before he concentrates full-time on his expanding media career. But clearly england will have to be convinced that he really has consigned to history what is an ‘old man’s’ injury of a recurring calf strain before they pick him again, particularly as they have now found his successor in Jofra Archer. For now, Sam Curran is more likely to challenge for a place at Old Trafford on Wednesday than Somerset’s Overton, who was preferred yesterday to essex’s Jamie Porter in a 13- man squad. But the most eye-catching aspect of the make-up of the squad is that england felt no need to add another batsman to a line-up that was demolished for 67 in the first innings at headingley and were only rescued by the superhuman efforts of Ben Stokes.
england’s thinking is they want to see whether Roy can flourish in the middle-order spot that would seem to suit him far more in first-class cricket, while handing Kent batsman Denly the poisoned chalice of returning to the top of the order. l STeve SmITh was out for 23 on day two of Australia’s tour match against Derbyshire in his first innings since recovering from concussion. Smith scored two centuries and 92 in the three innings he played in the Ashes series before he was struck by a Jofra Archer bouncer.