Australia 280 and 174 for 6 (Rogers 52, Broad 2-34) need 137 more runs to beat England 215 and 375
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Four days of enthralling, gut-wrenching and at times quite remarkable
Ashes cricket came to rest at Trent Bridge with England favourites to
take a 1-0 lead in the Investec Test series. Favourites, but not so
confident that they would sleep soundly. Nobody sleeps soundly at the
start of an Ashes series.
Australia will begin the final day still 137 runs short of victory with
four wickets left, aware that the first Test tilted towards England in
the final hour when they accounted for Michael Clarke, Steve Smith and
Phillip Hughes within 17 balls. "Cut off the serpent's head," Graeme
Swann had urged before the series began and the loss of Clarke, caught
at the wicket off Stuart Broad, caused the Australian body to begin
thrashing.
Clarke's dismissal possessed the high drama that already this series is
producing at will. The umpire, Aleem Dar, strolled to square leg to
discuss whether the ball had carried to Matt Prior, and it was such a
critical juncture that he would have probably asked for a TV verdict if
he had caught it above his head. Then Clarke upped the tension by
reviewing, only for the third umpire, Marais Erasmus, to confirm the
decision dint of the lightest mark on Hot Spot and by audio.
Steven Smith followed to the next ball - the first wicket for Swann, in
his 22nd over. Swann has never made a match-winning contribution at
Trent Bridge, his home ground, and even though this worn pitch seemed
made for him, it was so pedestrian that it allowed time to adjust, and
left the shrewdest, most adaptable batsmen scenting that runs were
possible.
But, uplifted by Clarke's dismissal, Swann suddenly summoned more turn.
Smith fell lbw on the back foot and Hughes followed for 0, the ball just
pitching on leg stump and spinning back sharply for another lbw
verdict.
No side had ever scored as many as 311 in the last innings to win a Test
at Trent Bridge, but the heavy roller further deadened the pitch for a
prolonged period and Australia also drew sustenance from the hottest day
of the year and a lack of extravagant swing for the new ball.
Their first task was to gnaw away at England's expectations and they did
so impressively in a first-wicket stand of 84 between Shane Watson and
Chris Rogers. They lost Watson by tea but even that was unfortunate, as
he fell to a marginal lbw decision for Broad.
Whereas Watson departed for 46 with sorrowful shakes of the head after
his review narrowly failed to overturn Dar's lbw decision, Rogers did
win a reprieve on 38 in the following over. He is a survivor: the
gnarled gunslinger who pops out briefly from behind a rock and then
disappears from view again.
"Caught behind?" he mouthed at Kumar Dharmasena after the umpire had
upheld Swann's appeal. Lbw or caught behind, it did not matter; replays
found him innocent on all counts.
Australia's new opening combination has already developed a presence.
They complement each other naturally and not just because they are right
and left-handed. Watson is a domineering figure, always eager to take
up the cudgels; Rogers is more furtive, using his wealth of experience
to maximum effect.
Upon Watson's exit, Ed Cowan came in on a pair. His first Ashes Test had
brought him little pleasure: a first-ball duck and bouts of nausea. For
15 balls, he wondered where his first run would come from but then
Steven Finn released the pressure with a short wide one that he
gratefully despatched.
On the brink of tea, England's conviction that they could win the first
Test soared - and it came from an unlikely source. Joe Root's first Test
wicket could hardly have come at a more opportune time. Cowan, enticed
into a drive against an offspinner that turned out of the rough, edged
to first slip. Rogers chipped a slower ball from Anderson to mid-wicket,
a dismissal plotted at tea which brought a celebration between the
bowler and David Saker, the England bowling coach, applauding on the
balcony.
England's morning had been one of jubilation. As they added a further 51
for their last four wickets, two batsmen walked off to standing
ovations as recognition of efforts largely made the previous day. But
for Ian Bell and Stuart Broad, the messages were very different.
The applause for Bell was appreciative, regard for perhaps the finest
innings he has ever played for England, the deftest of Ashes hundreds
made when England needed it most. The ovation for Stuart Broad carried
more meaning: a significant show of public support on a day when he was
castigated in the media for allegedly betraying the spirit of cricket
for not walking when Dar erroneously gave him not out for a blatant edge
to first slip, off the wicketkeeper's gloves, on the third evening.
If Broad was going to receive public support anywhere, it was from his
home crowd in Nottingham but when he edged James Pattinson to Brad
Haddin on 65 and approached the old pavilion, he will have been moved by
the response.
At stumps, Clarke offered unabashed support to Broad on Sky TV. "I've
always been a believer that umpires are there to take decisions," he
said. "If everybody walked, we wouldn't need umpires. It is an
individual decision but I don't think any less of Stuart for what he
did."
They were wise words: less than an hour earlier, Clarke had also
legitimately stood his ground when he probably knew he had hit it. His
edge was considerably less obvious than Broad's but personal morality
cannot be decided by how obvious something is. For Australia, though,
frustration was understandable. The odds favoured England from the
moment that Bell and Broad amassed their seventh-wicket stand of 138 in
48 overs.
If the Broad furore made him the victim of overstatement, Bell's 109,
his 18th Test hundred, possessed understated excellence. He was 95 not
out overnight and could not have hoped for any more munificence than the
immediate present offered up by Mitchell Starc, a low full toss which
Bell carved through gully to reach 99. He scampered a hundred off a
misfield in Starc's next over. Starc finally silenced him, caught at the
wicket, but not before he had reprised the deft cover drives and back
cuts which had been the hallmark of his innings.
Broad, 47 not out at start of play, passed 50 to rousing cheers when he
edged between Watson and Clarke at first and second slip. Australia must
have reflected that it was not the time for the two, who have not
always seen eye to eye, to behave to each other with infinite
politeness.
When Broad fell for 65, edging a back-foot force at Pattinson, Australia
rounded up the rest within nine overs. England's innings ended when
Swann again invited Watson and Clarke to take a slip catch, both dived
and this time Clarke came up with the ball.
David Hopps is the UK editor of ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: David Hopps
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