Aussies to win two on bounce
AUSTRALIA coach Darren Lehmann fired a warning shot across already battered English bows on his arrival in Adelaide by insisting he was expecting the pitch for the second Test to be spicier than the Gabba.
The hosts bounced their way to a 1-0 lead in the series in Brisbane, peppering England’s top order with a short-pitched assault from Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins and knocking over their tail easily.
But while Adelaide will almost certainly offer more to England’s swing bowlers, Lehmann was having none of it.
“We’ll get more joy from this pitch,” he said. “There’s a bit more pace and bounce. It was the quickest wicket last year, so hopefully that’s a good sign for us.
“The way we bowled to some of their batsmen [was good] for all that I thought they played well at times. But when the wicket quickened up, it played in our favour.” Starc was the chief aggressor in Australian ranks. He bowled 80 bouncers, more than Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. He caught Joe Root on the helmet in a ferocious assault late on Sunday as the England captain and Mark Stoneman withstood a difficult last hour. But it is against the tail-enders that Starc, nicknamed ‘the Mop’ by his team-mates for his ability to clean up, is particularly effective with lesser batsmen unable to deal with his pace and accuracy. In fact, three-quarters of all balls delivered to the tailenders were short. Starc showed his liking for Adelaide and particularly the day-night conditions, where the pitch speeds up after dark, in a Sheffield Shield match against South Australia last month, taking 8-73 in the second innings and 10 in the match. While England need to block out the 10-wicket defeat in Brisbane in order to grab a toehold in the series, Lehmann, above, insisted that Australia will not be resting on their laurels either. “Our boys have been good but we start from scratch now,” he said. “It was a good result at Brisbane, but it’s about the right preparation for Adelaide. Hopefully we can keep that going.” Australia are considering giving a debut to Chadd this week. helps but he [Sayers] has done really well and his record is outstanding in Adelaide,” said Lehmann. “We will look at the conditions before making a decision.”Sayers if any of their big three – Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins – fail to make it through training “They have had a day off which Lehmann was also asked whether he believed the first Test had opened up any cracks in the opposition’s defences.
He said: “We can only worry about what we do. We’ve still got some areas we want to improve from Brisbane but if we do that we can put them under pressure.” He also had no doubts that the incident involving Jonny Bairstow and opener Cameron Bancroft in Perth at the start of the tour – and which was the source of some fierce sledging on Sunday – will not spill over into animosity.
“The spirit between the two sides will be fine – Cameron Bancroft gave one of the best press conferences you’ll see yesterday – but it’s just good banter. Hopefully it will stay on the field, though,” said Lehmann. England’s back-up keeper Ben Foakes hit 67 for England Lions on day two of their three-day match against a Queensland XI in Brisbane, watched by head coach Trevor Bayliss and batting coach Mark Ramprakash.
Foakes will join up with the main squad in Adelaide a day late today but with a bit of useful middle practice under his belt just in case anything should happen to Bairstow. “When you come out as back-up keeper you know your gametime will be limited but it has still been special to be out here,” said Foakes.