Tim Murtagh’s magic for Ireland makes it a green day at Lord’s
From new heights, to fresh depths. Ten days after England won the World Cup final at Lord’s, they slumped to 85 all out against Ireland – bowled out before lunch on the first day of the first Test of the summer, by a team playing their third Test match.
It was the lowest score England have made at the ground this century and, with Ireland all out for 207, the hosts are facing deficit of 122 runs when the second day begins – having sent out a nightwatchman to face the final over.
Middlesex’s Tim Murtagh did most of the damage, taking five for 13 in nine overs from the Nursery End. It was the cheapest five-wicket haul anyone has taken in a Test at Lord’s. The 37-year-old admitted that Ireland had caught England at just the right moment.
“If you gave us a time to play England, this would be the time we would choose,” he said, “coming off such a massive high of winning the World Cup and with an Ashes series around the corner, they may have their eyes elsewhere.”
Before the match, Murtagh had talked to his team about how they needed to use the timing to their advantage, because England “have guys who are under pressure to get in that first Ashes team next week”. They do, and none of them made a very compelling case. It wasn’t just the World Cup winning players who failed, England’s wobbly top three did too, with Rory Burns out for 6, and Joe Denly for 23. The bowlers did better, with Stuart Broad, Sam Curran, and debutant Olly Stone taking three wickets apiece, but as Murtagh said, Ireland were delighted to have a lead of 122.
Murtagh created havoc with his medium pace. “Growing up as a kid I dreamed of being on the honours board at Lord’s,” he said, “probably not in that particular dressing room, but the way it’s worked out probably makes it a bit more special now. Walking off at lunch was as good a feeling as I’ve had in my career.”
If the second innings goes half as well, he might have a new feeling yet by the end of the week.
Should England win from here, they will be the first team to do it after being bowled out for such a low total in the first innings. But the performance led to a lot of questions about the congested schedule that has been arranged for the summer.
“There aren’t too many sports where you win a World Cup and you’re playing again a week later, but those players were all asked whether they wanted to play,” said England’s batting coach Graham Thorpe. “We have to keep the environment calm and focused, not go into panic mode. I’m sure some of the lads would have liked to stay up on cloud nine for a few days longer but that is the nature of our schedule.”
Thorpe explained that they had “tried to address the change of formats as best we can” but that “we have to accept some players are in a different headspace”.
England, mindful of the Ashes series starting next week, had taken the precaution of resting Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, but had picked five other members of their World Cup squad: Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, and Jason Roy, who was making his Test debut. They made seven runs off 43 deliveries between them.
“The World Cup was a tough tournament, no doubt about it,” Thorpe said. “There’s no harm admitting where some of these players are. We have to react to the fact we have an Ashes campaign coming up.”