Hazlewood channels hurt to lead Australia’s fightback
After being left out of the World Cup, bowler makes England pay, writes Isabelle Westbury
Suppressing instincts is not the Australian way. Our Ashes cricket memories are framed by moustachioed Australian speed demons, a threatening glint in their eye, or singular moments of magic which can define a whole era. Maybe an emotional captain, spouting profanities at a sub-fielder or tailender, depending on the situation.
There was no reason this series should depart from that. Pat Cummins was the quick bowler who was meant to light up each encounter, David Warner the dashing opener set to pummel England’s attack and Mitchell Starc, the World Cup’s leading wicket-taker, was supposed to continue his form in red-ball cricket.
This was the script, the Ashes was their stage and all they had to do was continue in that age-old vein of the Australian way. And when an upstart debutant tries to hog those headlines? Give ’em hell and show them how; you have to earn those plaudits, Jofra Archer.
“This is the way we play,” however, is a refrain associated more recently with Joe Root, in post-match press conferences, and only ever following defeat. Australia, instead, have been taking notes. They cannot play their way, all the time.
Josh Hazlewood, left out of
Australia’s World Cup squad, despite insisting he had recovered sufficiently from a back injury, was the most earnest student of all. By his own admission he had found it “too painful” to watch his country’s World Cup progress. He was left, in true Australian vernacular, “feeling sore”.
Hazlewood therefore, frustrated, hurting and impatient to let rip, smelt blood. And Australians, they are headline-makers, Hazlewood no less so. No one, surely, could deny him his day in the sun. The last time Australia tried to smother their natural, extroverted spirits and play instead the way others Jason Roy edges Josh Hazlewood and David Warner snares him Ben Stokes is the victim as Warner takes a catch off James Pattinson thought they should, Warner bore the nickname “The Reverend”, the mask duly slipped and cricket’s most sinister sin ensued. Taking this tack again was a risk.
It was the last one Australia would take. Opportunity and aggression gave way to line, length and perseverance. And Hazlewood? He embodied it. He also reminded us that however much hostility any Australian holds towards the English, when they have their best to hand those instincts can be suppressed, they can be channelled.
Hazlewood has been compared to Glenn Mcgrath since the day he Joe Root out for a duck as Warner and Hazlewood strike again Warner and Hazlewood once more as Jonny Bairstow falls pulled on the emu and wallabystraddled crest; a tall, rhythmical seamer of nagging line and length. And yesterday, as he poached three of England’s top six in identical fashion on the scorecard – bowled Hazlewood, caught Warner (at first slip) – the Mcgrath era, of stifled rage but experienced sage, was stirred.
The bowled-mcgrath-caught(mark)-waugh at second slip combination produced 34 wickets in all, while Shane Warne took 30 Mcgrath-induced catches stood at first. As a proportion of overall wickets taken, this Hazlewoodwarner combination, should it continue on its current trajectory, will prove just as prolific.
One bowled, four caught at slip and two caught-behind tell the tale of Hazlewood’s bowling in this series to date. Yesterday, even the soft numbers stood up; in his five for 30, Hazelwood pitched 69 per cent on a good length, 65 per cent on a good line and 44 per cent on both a good line and length.
By lunch on day two, a blistering, flat-track batting kind of day and with only 179 to defend, Australia, implausibly, were on top. Warner, the day before, had played within himself, as Hazlewood soon would. The bristling attack dog straining at the leash. England could not find the same resolve.
While England have ridden their roller coaster, Australia have stayed within their margin of error. England’s bowlers on Thursday peaked and troughed; Australia’s plateaued, at great height. England have beaten Australia in sessions, but they have had disastrous ones, too. Australia have stayed in the frame throughout, even during those in which they were beaten. England have had whole days, even, in this series where the headlines were all theirs, where they were poised to win. Australia were never far behind.
“The key to doing well is not having a disastrous session,” said another Waugh, Steve, now