BACK IN THE SWING
England take firm grip of final Test as Aussies rue a whole heap of blunders
JOE ROOT’S pre-match plea to send coach Trevor Bayliss into the sunset with a spring in his step looks like being answered.
On a glorious mid-September afternoon in south London, England took control of the fifth and final Ashes Test, Joe Denly cementing his place on the tour of New Zealand with a career-best 94 and Ben Stokes rounding off the season of his life with 67.
The Australians, it’s fair to say, were not best pleased. Some tetchy sledging was led by the inevitable Matthew Wade, who at one point lectured umpire Kumar Dharmasena on the nuances of the lbw law.
Steve Smith dropped Stokes at slip on seven and two reviews that would have produced wickets were spurned: Tim Paine’s relationship with the Decision Review System remains resolutely unconsummated.
It all meant that at stumps on the third day England were 313 for eight, an overall lead of 382.
The urn may be irretrievable, but England are determined to round off their World Cup-winning summer by denying the Aussies a first series win in this country in 18 years. They are one competent bowling display away from achieving that objective.
As much as the resolve his side have showed here, Root will draw particular pleasure from the performance of Denly, who at 33 has been easy to write off as a temporary plug in a leaky line-up.
Instead, he has responded with three successive second-innings half centuries, two of them after being handed the dubious honour of opening the batting to make good the struggles of Jason Roy.
An early assault on Nathan Lyon was especially bold and included Denly’s first Test six, a clean straight blow towards the pavilion. And he had moved to within six of a maiden Test hundred when Peter Siddle found his outside edge.
Having become a father for the second time on Thursday night, Denly had seemed set for a double celebration, though one thought may have crossed his mind as he trudged off: come the first Test at Mount Maunganui on November 21 he will be opening the batting with Rory Burns rather than changing nappies.
Denly admitted: ‘I had a very good last night because I stayed at the hotel and got about 10 hours! The previous night I only had about three hours, so I caught up. It was good to get there and see my little girl come into the world. It’s been a pretty special couple of days.’
England had resumed on nine without loss, a lead of 78, but Burns made it only as far as 20 before edging a cut off Lyon. Yet his fiveTest haul of 390 runs is the most in a series by an England opener other than Alastair Cook for a decade.
A stand of 54 with Denly — the highest on either side for the first wicket in this new-ball-friendly series — for once meant Root was not walking out amid a crisis.
But after moving smoothly to 21 he played for turn and edged Lyon to slip. The catcher was Smith, as if to remind a player who once counted as a close rival of the gap that now exists between them.
At that point England led by 156 and Australia might have had a sniff if Smith had clung on to a tough chance at slip as Stokes miscued a cut off Lyon.
To compound the tourists’ frustration, Paine failed to review an lbw shout from Mitchell Marsh when Denly had 54.
When he repeated the error after tea, with Jos Buttler missing an off-break against Lyon 19 runs into his eventual 47, Australia coach Justin Langer held his head in his hands.
Wickets came and went in the evening session, three to the second new ball, and the only black mark on England’s card was another failure for Jonny Bairstow. His prod to slip off Marsh for 14 meant he finished the series with 214 runs at an average of 23.
Denly added: ‘We are in a very strong position going into day four and hopefully we get a few more runs and put them under pressure.’