Rocketman announces his arrival with devastating statement of intent
Fans desert the Oval’s bars as new bowling hero Archer torments South African batsmen
England already had one bar-clearing star: Jos Buttler. Now they have a second. Drinks will be plonked down and chats ended when Jofra Archer comes on to fire balls at batsmen at 90mph-plus. How do you sell a sprawl of 48 games, 11 venues and 6½ weeks? One way is to plant a fresh headliner centre stage on day one and parade the kind of menace only the quickest bowlers bring. Like some of the great West Indies pacemen, Archer runs up to the launch pad with deceptive ease. His action is no less fluid. But when the white ice-ball nips the turf and picks up speed towards the batsmen’s ears, breathe in, and be glad you are not the one holding the bat.
Modern tournaments try all sorts of tricks to catch the audience’s attention. Here at Surrey’s home, the curtain-raiser was a flow diagram of how modern sport presents itself: food from corrugated retro Citroen vans, charging stations for phones, card-payment-only bars, crispy duck rotisseries, Neapolitan sourdough pizza ovens and “extra hoppy craft lager”.
When Eoin Morgan hit consecutive sixes off Lungi Ngidi, hundreds of spectators were beneath the stands enjoying this food and drink festival. They watched the ball sail off Morgan’s bat on screens above their heads.
They were digging in for a month-and-a-half of 50-over action – and of eating and drinking. Soon, though, they were to be drawn back to their seats by the realisation that English cricket has made a fabulous discovery.
There had been hints from Archer of future mayhem in the recent series against Pakistan, where his introduction to a settled one-day squad was quickly vindicated. World Cups however are a different order. Everything is
amplified. Implicit in the scale of the occasion is that fresh talent will be held up to a more penetrating light. This was the test facing Archer when he came out to bat and announced himself with a four. In the afternoon, there was a total of 311 to protect, which is when Archer really went to work.
Archery is no bad label for what England’s new pace bowler did to South Africa in an exhilarating tournament debut. Three South Africans left the field in the conventional manner, their wickets taken by Sussex’s 24-yearold quick. A fourth, Hashim Amla, went in a manner that will plant doubt in the heads of every batsman facing Archer at this World Cup. In the fourth over, Amla thought he could pull an Archer bouncer. Instead, it smashed into his helmet grille and forced him off the field with him rubbing his head. It was the 32nd over before Amla returned to face his tormentor. The first ball Archer sent him in the rematch was no get-well card.
The first of Archer’s tournament
This was the day that Archer passed through the door to being a talismanic English cricketer
victims was Aiden Markram, caught by Joe Root at slip from a ball that gained extra bounce. The second was Faf du Plessis, whose pull was caught by Moeen Ali at fine leg. Archer was exceeding 90mph without difficulty and there was accuracy in his rockets.
One bouncer sent Buttler, the wicketkeeper, leaping and twisting to pull the ball from the sky. Archer’s third wicket, on his return to the front line, was Rassie van der Dussen – another Moeen catch – for 50. In his first five-over spell, Archer came of age as a box-office star. A fresh electricity ran round the ground. When he jogged back to the outfield at the end of that destructive contribution, the crowd rejoiced. Hands were thrust above heads for the ovation. The crowd seemed to flutter with joy.
The first Jofra Archer chant was heard. When cricket crowds embrace new heroes, the adoration washes over the player. This was the day Archer passed through that door to being a talismanic English cricketer. Graduations of this kind are never linear. Batsmen will learn the signs that his bouncers are coming and react faster. There will be twists and setbacks. There is no guarantee either that the Ashes will be kind to him.
The chances are that he will thrive there, too, because he has precision and variation as well as pace. For now, in this World Cup, his main weapon comes with a premium. In one-day cricket the odds are stacked in the batsman’s favour. The white ball is passive. A 91mph bouncer, though, is the same in any language, as Amla was reminded. It defeats the thinking time of the batter.
Halfway between the manic snacking of T20 and the marathon of Test cricket, the 50-over game has much to commend it. You see some proper batting, with a
pleasing degree of urgency, and at World Cups you observe almost all the game’s best players in one place. It is a good compromise between the other two forms of the game. Every side at this tournament has someone you would pay to watch; and all the games are likely to be contests – at a cost, some would argue, to the emerging or smaller nations.
For all this to work, you need stories, you need lasting images, arresting tales to enter the insane modern news flow. A spectacular Ben Stokes catch was one. Stokes’ 89 runs were also memorable. As Eoin Morgan said meanwhile: “Jofra Archer bowled fast and accurate on a slow pitch, it was outstanding from a young guy. He’s taking everything in his stride, it’s very exciting.” The crowd saw the truth of that. Archer’s fiery bowling and breakthrough wickets felt like the start of something big.