The Ashes: Archer takes aim at Smith
“In the end, it took an act of God to stop Jofra Archer,” said Andy Bull in The Guardian. On the final day of the second Ashes Test, as “a thick bank of black cloud” flew over the Lord’s Grand Stand, the umpires brought the match to a close. They decided it was too dark for Australia’s batsmen to face the England bowler – “if they ever could safely face him at all”. It meant that, for all Archer’s efforts on his Test debut, England failed to beat Australia, and had to settle for a draw. But in his two innings, Archer did more than enough to prove himself “the most lethal fast bowler in the world”. He bowled the fastest over by an England bowler since records began, with an average speed of 92.79mph; his top speed of the match was a dizzying 96.1mph.
Archer is lethal in another sense, too, said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. In the short time he has played international cricket – he made his one-day international debut in May – his balls have hit no fewer than 19 batsmen in the body or head. And on Saturday, one of his bouncers hit Steve Smith in the neck – a “sickening” blow that left Australia’s talisman flat on the ground. It was all too reminiscent of the bouncer that killed Phillip Hughes, an Australian cricketer, after he was hit in the neck five years ago. So why on earth was Smith later allowed to return to the crease to complete his innings? His symptoms the next day, including grogginess and a headache, made it clear just how serious his injury was – serious enough to rule him out of both the second innings and the third Test. The fault lies not with Archer’s “controlled aggression”, but with cricket itself: the sport needs to start putting players’ welfare first, by making them wear neck protection on their helmets, and removing them from a match if a ball knocks them off their feet.
Archer’s performance was the most “startling” Test debut in a long time, said Mike Atherton in The Times. He is already “the most valuable member of the England team” – and his duel with Smith, which electrified the Test before that fateful bouncer, has inaugurated a rivalry for the ages. A bowler like Archer is a batsman’s nightmare, said Simon Hughes in The Sunday Times. “Extreme pace torments the mind and makes the body do funny things.” It’s impossible not to be intimidated: as the ball bounces as high as your shoulder, “it becomes hard to know which ones to duck and which to stand up to”. But it’s not just Archer’s effect on his opponents, said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. He inspires his teammates, too. In their second innings, the England batsmen produced “their best batting of this series”: Ben Stokes hit an unbeaten century. The dynamic of this Ashes feels different now. “Jofra Archer has transformed the biggest series of them all.”