Broad blown off course after bright start as England’s bowlers frustrated
Change of ends into the wind reduces pace and potency as Smith digs in on return for Australia
Stuart Broad has revelled in leading the England attack in the absence of James Anderson and he went one step further in emulating his old bowling partner yesterday by taking on the role of the team’s grumpy fast bowler.
Broad bowled beautifully in the morning to knock over two Australians and keep up his dominance of David Warner, but he lost his rag in the afternoon when he had to bowl into the wind and the gusts caused many stoppages in play. The flags on the Old Trafford pavilion flapped like they were on the shore at Cowes week and every bowler found it impossible to maintain rhythm in the conditions. After the drama of Headingley it was a real let down and could be costly for England, with Steve Smith bedded in and looking back to his old self.
Broad bowled seven overs in his opening spell, taking two for 22, hitting the right length and once again showing he can fill in for Anderson. Broad has stepped up this summer, not just on the field but off it, too. He has one of the best cricket brains in the team and has become a trusted source for Joe Root, who turns to him for advice. Broad surely deserves a new central contract when they are awarded on Sept 20. When he bowls with Anderson, he plays second fiddle and averages 29. Without him, he takes on the responsibility and his average drops to 25.
It was a lot harder in the afternoon as Broad switched ends to allow Jofra Archer the luxury of bowling with the wind at his back as England recognised he needed a lift. It did not work, for Archer’s pace was down all day. The double whammy was that swapping ends cost Broad his zip. He managed just three overs in the afternoon session, his pace dropped and his potency disappeared. Instead Craig Overton was called on to do the donkey work.
“It is the rhythm of run up. You feel you are getting to the crease OK and then all of a sudden the wind hits you and pushes you forward and you have to shorten your stride or it pushes you back,” Overton said. “That is why I jumped out [of bowling] a few times.”
At one stage the umpires removed the bails. It took the officials a long time to bring out the heavy bails and when they did, they proved to be not heavy enough. The answer was to
hammer a couple of nails into the bails to weigh them down.
Overton never expected to play in this series so he was going to take any opportunity. The wind suited him, too, in a strange way. He grew up playing at West Buckland School in north Devon, where the cricket ground is exposed to the Atlantic wind. He would be given the job of bowling into the wind and up the slope so his twin, Jamie, the quicker of the two, could work with the conditions. Yesterday must have taken Overton back.
His wicket was worth the wait. He had been tussling verbally with Marnus Labuschagne when the batsman misread an inswinger and chopped it through third man for four. It was this hard edge that England wanted to see from their third seamer. In the next over, Overton bowled a shade quicker and knocked off one of the heavy bails. “The over before, Marnus cut me for four thinking it was the inswinger, but I told him it wasn’t. Then I bowled him the inswinger and it came out nice, worked out quite well. When I got him out, it was just saying, ‘that one was the inswinger, make sure you keep an eye on it’.”
It was a rare triumph because England could not consistently bowl well enough to establish any form of dominance. Travis Head looked in trouble defending on the front foot. However, England bowled both sides of the wicket too often and fed him easy runs on his legs. The frustration with the conditions and the sight of Smith back to his jerky old self made it a hard day for England, but one that could be pivotal in this series.