ENGLAND FINAL
Irish dreams up in smoke but rout can’t mask frailty ahead of Ashes
EngLand can breathe again. This was a match they did not want to play, against opposition craving a place in history. and all the while the australians were praying for a pratfall ahead of Thursday’s first ashes Test.
But, by the most circuitous of routes, this game ended up as the rout many expected in the first place. Set 182 to complete one of the unlikeliest Test wins after England’s no 11 Olly Stone had fallen to the first delivery of the third day, Ireland were blown away for 38 in 15.4 overs by Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad. Blood in their nostrils, they were damned if they were going to let go of the ball.
The upshot was the lowest Test total at Lord’s, the seventh-lowest anywhere, and frankly a bit of an anticlimax after the nip and tuck of the first two days. Ireland were outclassed, but not disgraced.
after the unprecedented high of the World Cup, England were always going to treat this game as a means of readjusting to Test cricket’s main course, which starts at Edgbaston next week. But they also know how close they came to choking on the hors d’oeuvre.
Exhaustion didn’t help. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow both played tired shots, and Moeen ali remains in a rut. The World Cup has taken its toll, physically and mentally.
and while it’s true that England raised their game when they had to, it is also true that if they show the same frailty against Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, there could be some messy scorecards in the weeks ahead. a victory margin of 143 runs didn’t remotely tell the tale.
despite all that, and without wishing to patronise an Ireland team who pushed them hard for all but the last hour and a half of this manic match, there were enough awkward moments to have made the workout worthwhile.
Tim Murtagh skittled England for 85 on the first morning, and when the Irish reached 132 for two shortly after tea, humiliation beckoned. It needed a once-in-a-lifetime 92 from nightwatchman Jack Leach to rescue them, followed by high- class swing and seam from Woakes and Broad in conditions they may still be daydreaming about when they are old and grey.
Woakes, mimicking the fuller length from the nursery End that had worked so well for Murtagh, finished with a career-best six for 17, while Broad exuded hostility, hitting Kevin O’Brien and Mark adair on the helmet on his way to four for 19 — figures he has bethistoric tered only once since January 2016. By 1.56 on the third afternoon, four minutes before the scheduled lunch break, it was all over.
Root described the Lord’s surface as ‘sub-standard’, and there were times when you half-expected an ECB pitch inspector to wander on and call the whole thing off.
But England’s new-ball pair simply licked their lips and gobbled up one Irishman after another. The dismissals reflected their menace: Root held four catches at first slip as the outside edge was challenged repeatedly, and five batsmen were either bowled or lbw, defeated by swing or seam — sometimes both.
In total, Ireland lost all 10 for 27 in 71 balls, with only opener James McCollum making double figures. as captain Will Porterfield put it, his side were ‘gutted’ — a description of their state of mind, and possibly their hollowed- out scorecard too.
The match was done and dusted in 165.3 overs, the equivalent of five-and-a-half sessions. On the first and third mornings, 10 wickets fell before lunch. It was no advertisement for Test cricket, let alone four-day Test cricket — not least because 98 overs a day looked like pie in the sky. The administrators have some thinking to do.
But there was relief in the England camp that this random game is over, and a sense that the adrenalin can now kick in properly as Root’s side look to complete a World Cup-ashes double. Concerns remained as the selectors met yesterday afternoon ahead of this morning’s squad announcement.
Opener Rory Burns has chosen the wrong moment to mislay his confidence, but cannot be dropped one Test into the summer. The same goes for Joe denly, who may still be stewing over Root’s part in his second-innings run-out.
Perhaps the key development ahead of Edgbaston will be a toporder reshuffle, though that would require Root to move up to no 3 — a switch that would give head coach Trevor Bayliss more pleasure than it would the captain.
Jason Roy, who looked vulnerable against the new ball on his Test debut, could then drop to down to no 4, where he can more easily bat with the abandon that has made him a white- ball world-beater.
Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler are set to return to the middle order after their post-World Cup break and Bairstow, who set Ireland’s collapse in motion with a superb left- handed catch to see off Porterfield, can resume his favoured position at no 7.
One thing is clear. If conditions favour them, and they can be persuaded to pitch the ball up, both Broad and Woakes will be a handful against the australians.
In that respect, the decision in May by director of cricket ashley giles to commission a batch of 2018 dukes balls, with their more prominent seam, could yet prove one of the masterstrokes of this absorbing summer.