Old Trafford Pavilion End named after James Anderson
At a ground where the outfield has been badly damaged by a recent Radiohead concert, England will be hoping they do not suffer the bends yet again in this fourth and final Test against South Africa.
Despite winning in style to take a 2-1 series lead at The Oval earlier this week, England have for too long had the life sucked out of them when they are seemingly on the rise.
Since the summer of 2015, when Australian Trevor Bayliss took over as coach, victory has been followed by defeat in Test cricket on no fewer than six occasions.
The most recent of those setbacks came at Trent Bridge last month, where England managed to follow a 211-run win at Lord’s with a 340-run hammering.
That levelled up the series at 1-1 with two to play but now Joe Root is hoping what appears certain to be an unchanged team can press home their advantage and seal what would represent England’s first home Test series win against South Africa since 1998.
“The message to the lads is to make sure we try to win this series 3-1,” said Root. “If weather is around, that shouldn’t affect the way approach things. It’s all about making sure we do everything we can to win.”
One player who will be feeling more buoyant than usual will be James Anderson, who has had the Pavilion End here at his home ground named after him ahead of this match.
“I’m blown away, really, by the gesture from the club,” said Anderson. “I can’t quite believe it has happened. It is something that usually happens when people have stopped playing or are further down the line. So, to have this happen when I’m still playing and potentially bowling from that end in the game is a bit surreal.”
Such a gesture is unheard of for a current player but although he turned 35 last Sunday, Anderson is not thinking about retirement just yet.
“I don’t like looking back on my career too much because I am still playing and I still have things I want to achieve, personally and with this team,” he said. “I think this team can achieve great things in the next couple of years and I’d like to be around to be a part of it and help the team improve. For me, that’s what keeps me going and keeps me hungry to keep playing the game.”
Unsurprisingly for Manchester, the forecast over the coming five days is not promising. Any rain that does fall when the match starts tomorrow will take significantly longer to clear because of the damage inflicted by that Radiohead gig at the ground last month.
Sunlamps have been used to dry the affected areas in the run-up this Test and Root admitted the condition of the outfield is a concern.
“It is about being street-smart with it,” he said. “The outfield is not going to be 100 per cent and we will have to be quite clever about things. It is difficult to tell people not to play with 100 per cent in Test cricket. Whether they go about it slightly differently is up to them. It is definitely important they are made aware of it and there are no unnecessary injuries that occur.”
The performance at The Oval, where England batted patiently in difficult conditions to post what proved a matchwinning first-innings total of 353 was a significant improvement on what they produced in the previous Test at Trent Bridge, where they were unable to bat out even 100 overs in the entire match.
“The response the guys came up with was excellent,” said Root. “It’s obviously a new challenge this week, and a slightly different frame of mind going into it. There is no reason why we can’t do that again.”
Key to backing up that performance – and achieving backto-back Test wins for only the fourth time under Bayliss – will be repeating that batting approach that proved so successful at The Oval. “If we try and harness that and repeat that over and over we will give ourselves the best chance,” said Root. “I think it’s important that we drive that forward and it’s not just a one-off thing.” THE INDEPENDENT