What a balls-up!
Technology’s failure to call 14 Stokes no-balls is unacceptable
BEN SToKES suffering a knee injury is a massive concern for England — not only for what remains of this first Test but throughout a series when games will come thick and fast.
His return for this Ashes enables England to have five bowlers, but when he is not at full capacity and Jack Leach is going round the park, as we saw on day two at the Gabba, the other three are under pressure and really have to step up.
I said before this Test that Stokes had to play and we would have to accept it if he picked up an injury because of his lack of cricket since July. But if that has happened now and he has to be nursed throughout the series, it is a huge blow.
This business with Stokes and no-balls was odd. If the technology was not working and the TV umpire was unable to call them other than when a wicket fell, why weren’t the on-field officials calling them? They didn’t seem to have been told to.
If the bowler doesn’t know he is overstepping then it will eventually prove costly, as we saw when Stokes bowled David Warner with a beauty only for it to become clear that he had been bowling no-balls throughout his first over. As he continued to do, too.
using technology to tell the umpires when a bowler has overstepped has been a good addition to Test cricket. It doesn’t take much. All the TV official has to do is take a quick look at a replay from side on and tell his colleague to call it.
So for the umpires not to have been able to call a reported 14 Stokes no-balls between them, or seemingly have a word in his ear, was disappointing.
What this second day showed was how undercooked England are and I don’t know what more they could have done about that before this series. They had a long summer, then some competed in the Twenty20 World Cup, then they had to quarantine in Queensland and then the weather ruined what little match preparation they had planned.
Compare that to 2010-11, when Andrew Strauss’s side played warm-up games for fun and took them very seriously before going on to win the Ashes.
What is happening in Brisbane is a reflection of where touring is at with Covid and the weather in Queensland has compounded that.
Having said that, England were excellent for the bulk of the first two sessions and ollie Robinson in particular has been brilliant ever since he came into the side. He has been such a find and it really was hard work for Australia’s top three before lunch.
Marnus Labuschagne gave a masterclass in how to leave the new ball in Australia, just soaking it up, giving the first session to the bowlers and not worrying about the run-rate. He knew he would be able to cash in when Leach came on and the seamers tired.
His performance was something Dawid Malan could learn from. Labuschagne was leaving balls that were full of length knowing they would bounce over the stumps. Contrast that with Malan on day one, when he played at a ball above waist high and nicked it.
Mark Wood was really good round the wicket to Warner in particular. Warner has that trigger where his back foot goes slightly towards leg-side and, as Stuart Broad has exploited over the years, that can leave Warner exposed outside off-stump. He starts playing at balls he doesn’t have to and England could have gone round more often to him.
It was no coincidence the Australian batters who coped best with conditions in Travis Head and Labuschagne have been playing Sheffield Shield cricket. Labuschagne let the bowlers come to him in that way of his while Head
counter-attacked. Together they have put Australia in a formidable position.