Police likely to make Stokes incident decision this week
Sangha and Short ensure England draw warm-up Crane takes only wicket to fall on final day of toil
Avon and Somerset Police are expected to decide this week whether Ben Stokes will be charged for the incident outside a Bristol nightclub in late September.
Stokes was seriously missed for the first time when England suffered the embarrassment of being baulked by two young Australian batsmen in their final practice game before the Ashes series opens in Brisbane on Thursday.
Without his bowling and fielding, England were unable to force victory in the game against the Cricket Australia XI they had dominated for the first three days.
Jason Sangha, 18, became the second-youngest batsman to score a firstclass century against England, after the legendary Indian Sachin Tendulkar, who did so in the Old Trafford Test of 1990, aged 17. Sangha had played only one first-class game previously, while 22-year-old Matt Short also scored his maiden century, sharing a stand of 263 with Sangha to draw the game. England’s head coach tried to downplay the inadequacy of his side’s bowling, which managed to take only one wicket on the final day.
“It was a very flat wicket,” Trevor Bayliss said. “It was good to spend some time in the field. I’m sure there will be times during the Test series where we’re out in the field all day.
“There were two young guys out there that batted very, very well,” Bayliss added. “All credit to them, they looked good. It’s good for Australian cricket.
“It’s not really damaging to us before the first Test. Obviously we’d like to take 10 wickets for 90 runs in every game and it would have been good to take more wickets, but this is what can happen in cricket.”
A dose of realism before the opening Ashes Test in Brisbane. This draw was as surprising as West Indies’ Test victory at Headingley, and stemmed from the same fundamental weakness – the innocuousness of England’s bowling when the ball is no longer new – which is exaggerated on Australian pitches.
Jason Sangha, Australia’s Under-19 captain, has only just turned 18, so he became the second-youngest batsman to score a first-class century against England, after Sachin Tendulkar, 17. Sangha’s only previous firstclass game was the one against England in Adelaide last week. Matt Short has only just turned 22: this was his fifth first-class game.
Yet they shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 263 which was not broken until the final session, by when the game had been saved and England embarrassed.
If Australia’s supporters and headline writers had been wondering how to hurl abuse at England before Thursday, they now have plenty of ammunition. Against a bunch of rookies, the tourists could take only one wicket all day, when Sangha top-edged a sweep. Ben Stokes was badly missed as nobody could get the ball to reverseswing, nobody could get into the young batsmen’s faces and heads, and nobody could rouse England’s fielders with a stunning catch.
England’s pace bowlers could not do enough with the new or old ball to beat the bat. Stuart Broad, by his own admission, cannot bowl flat-out in practice games and was no more than economical: no surge of hostility when the match could still have been won.
Chris Woakes had been flattered by his bowling figures on this tour: four for 17 under the lights in Adelaide and another six wickets in the first innings here, without swinging the new ball. He bowled some sharp bouncers but on a placid fourth-day pitch Sangha, lithe and with whippy wrists, had no trouble ducking them.
England’s spinners were also innocuous. Moeen Ali, perhaps because of his side-strain, did not get enough snap into his deliveries to make them bounce or threaten either edge. Mason Crane did have Sangha dropped when 43, by Mark Stoneman at short extracover, but overall revealed his age and red-ball inexperience. Every over or two, a half-tracker released pressure.
Short is a promising all-rounder, Sangha something special in the making, and nothing was more special than his driving through the covers, unless it was his wristy flicks off the pace bowlers, reminiscent of Mohammad Azharuddin. His father emigrated from Jullundur in Punjab and married an Indian raised in Australia.
Fortunately, England have probably two changes to make for the Gabba Test. The first is the return of James Anderson, rested for this game, in place of Crane. At the age of 35, Anderson has expanded his skills so he can move the ball on any pitch, but the caveat comes with his age: he cannot be expected to bowl more than 20 of the 90 overs in a day.
Craig Overton found his run-up from the Ross River Road end disturbed by a sprinkler when he tried over the wicket, so he switched to round the wicket, then to the other end, but never seemed to work out a plan of attack other than bouncers. Like Woakes, Overton’s figures were flattered by the conditions in Adelaide, when he had only to run in for wickets to fall.
So, it was highly relevant that Jake Ball bowled in the nets, then fielded, then bowled another spell in the nets, to prove his recovery from his right ankle strain. Ball has a whippier shoulder than Overton, and is that crucial amount quicker, and so far has got more lateral movement than anyone bar Anderson.
There must be a risk that Ball’s right ankle will buckle again, as it had buckled before last week in Adelaide, but England do not have any other option than Overton. Tom Curran, Steven Finn’s replacement, has not played since the end of last season; George Garton has been the fastest of England’s bowlers in the nets, a fast leftarmer of great potential, but he has just arrived in Australia and is only 20.
The tourists have had their vulnerability exposed on two fronts before a shot has been fired: the tendency of their batting to collapse and the impotence of their bowling, especially when the ball is old. The next seven weeks, for England’s supporters, might just feel longer.