Butter-fingers Buttler
Abysmal England make mess of day one with the main culprit being…
IT WAS the kind of chance wicketkeepers dream about: waisthigh, a couple of paces to the right. England were all set to celebrate the crucial dismissal of Marnus Labuschagne shortly before stumps on the first day of the second ashes test at adelaide. then Jos Buttler dropped it.
It was hard to recall a worse miss by an international wicketkeeper, though the vignette summed up a day when England — not for the first time under the stewardship of Joe Root and Chris silverwood — succumbed to paralysis by analysis.
australia’s careful progress to 221 for two, with a relieved Labuschagne still there on 95, had the added effect of overshadowing the chaos they had found themselves in before the start, when their new captain Pat Cummins was ruled out after a fellow diner at a local restaurant the previous evening tested positive for Covid.
at that point, with fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood already missing because of a side strain, England might have imagined the stars were aligning in their favour as they sought to put their nine-wicket thrashing at the Gabba behind them.
and when stuart Broad marked his 150th test appearance by having Marcus Harris brilliantly caught down the leg side by Buttler for just three, they looked determined to overcome the disadvantage of losing the toss on a pristine adelaide Oval surface.
the trouble with this England team, however, is that they seem suspicious of simplicity. Having spent much of the previous 10 months sacrificing one test series after another on the altar of the ashes, they are finding the ashes stubbornly unmoved.
at Brisbane, they left out both Broad and Jimmy anderson in conditions they would have relished. Now, on the flattest pitch in australia, they selected five right-arm seamers of similar pace, leaving Mark wood — one of their best bowlers at the Gabba, and the only member of England’s squad capable of sustained hostility — to carry the drinks.
David warner, whose ribs still bore wood’s imprint from Brisbane, must have been delighted as he played himself in, managing one run off his first 32 balls, and 20 by lunch.
But he opened up expertly, and had extended his partnership with Labuschagne to 172 when he fell in the nineties again. at Brisbane, where he and Labuschagne put on 156, he had gone for 94. Now warner reached 95 before slapping a long hop from Ben stokes to Broad at cover. It was unclear who was more stunned: bowler, batsman or fielder.
By then, though, the tourists had started to unravel. It was bad enough that Buttler gave Labuschagne his first life on 21 following a mistimed pull off stokes — an easier leg-side chance than the Harris catch.
worse was the fact that England were suckered into basing their entire strategy on keeping the runs down, before a burst with the pink ball under the evening floodlights.
as Broad told the Fox sports cameras during a drinks break: ‘we are just trying to contain the rate and wait for our moment when the sun sets.’
It meant warner, Labuschagne and later steve smith — thrust by the Cummins drama into the captaincy for the first time since the Cape town sandpaper scandal of March 2018 — could all linger safely on the back foot.
Not until Broad pitched up the second new ball in the evening’s final half hour did England remotely locate a threatening length. Four years ago at the same venue, Root’s attack made precisely the same mistake. so much for all that ashes planning.
there was also the bizarre spectacle of stokes bowling repeatedly short at one end, and Root hurrying through some harmless off-breaks at the other in a bid to get to that second new ball.
Yet again, England seemed to be forgetting about the here and now. Instead, they focused on a seductive future. and when that future came, Buttler dropped one of the easiest chances he will ever get. there may come a point soon when the gloves pass for good to Ben Foakes.
It helped australia, of course, that warner, who averages 64 at home, and Labuschagne, who averages 64 overall, are high-class operators, capable of gauging the shape and nuances of a test match day and sitting in when required.
australia’s first 50 came from 173 balls, their second from 107 and their third from 89. and while they slowed again towards stumps, it was because they were hoping to cash in on the second day, when temperatures were forecast to reach 99°F (37°C).
For smith, it all meant a gentle return — however temporary — to a job he feared had passed him by for ever. Older, wiser, and largely forgiven for what happened at Newlands more than three years ago, he was even cheered to the crease by a crowd of 35,000.
It followed a morning that was both surreal and a sign of the times, as news emerged that Cummins had chatted to a sydney grade cricketer at the
Little Hunter steakhouse, situated close to adelaide Oval across the River torrens. when the man learned soon after that he had tested positive for Covid, Cummins left the restaurant.
and despite testing negative himself, he was ruled by local health officials to be a close contact, and obliged to undergo seven days of self-isolation. He should be available again for the Boxing Day test at the MCG.
two team-mates, Mitchell starc and Nathan Lyon, dined at the same restaurant but — unlike Cummins — sat outside. Deemed ‘casual contacts’, they were given the green light.
Even so, England must have known this was their chance. Maddeningly, but not unsurprisingly, they failed to take it.