Your IndustryJul 17 2013

For England, History awaits

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It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t even scintillating, it was a wicket-smashing, record-breaking, controversy-strewn bonanza of an opening test leaving cricket fans up and down the country with plenty to talk about …Was Jonathan Trott really out for a phantom golden duck? Should Stuart Broad have walked? And where on earth did Ashton Agar come from?

But there is little time to catch a breath as the Ashes bandwagon now moves to Lord’s where Financial Adviser has once again teamed up with the mighty MetLife to whet your appetite for the second test. And what a read we have in store - not only will you hear more from our exclusive interview with former England captain and Ashes god Andrew Strauss, you could win some incredible prizes - a bat signed by Jonathan Trott or a session in the nets for you and 20 clients with the man himself. Howzat?!

The nail biter of Nottingham

“The wicket at Trent Bridge will be the one where, on paper at least, Australia look like they’re the most competitive side.” Those were the thoughts of Andrew Strauss going into the first test and, boy was he right. The battle of Nottingham had more twists and turns than a Lynda La Plante novel and with English chances receding by the minute until that decisive Jimmy Anderson wicket in the height of the heat on Sunday, the Australians damn-near snatched a win from the jaws of defeat. It was tortuous and spellbinding to the last and a thriller that we have all come to love from the Ashes.

It’s fitting that man-of-the-match Anderson - who enjoyed his second 10-wicket match and his 15th five-wicket haul in tests - was the hero to avert a collective cardiac arrest across the nation. With the Trent Bridge track hampering any kind of batting flourishes, Anderson used all his guile and experience to take full advantage of conditions.

Anderson has become adept as the Houdini of seam bowling - there were times when the Australians simply did not know what was coming towards them. His masterful dismissal of Chris Rogers in Australia’s second inning was the perfect paradigm - after lobbing missiles at the Aussies all afternoon, a change of tact and a slower ball bamboozled Rogers just after he’d struck his half century.

Credit should also be given to Peter Siddle and James Pattinson, who sussed out any zing from the Trent Bridge wicket early on to set English hearts fluttering. And under new coach Darren ‘Boof’ Lehmann, there seems to be an old-school swagger emerging from a decidedly new-school Australian line-up. Case in point? Step forward 19 year-old Ashton Agar, who broke records and hearts with his historic 98 run plunder in the first innings - the highest ever recorded for a number 11. He’ll certainly be one to watch as the series continues.

HotSpot on the spot

But Agar’s heroics weren’t the only talking points of the Test. No, they largely stem from the Decision Review System, and the powerful impact it had on the game. Introduced to eliminate the howlers that often see captains throwing their stumps out of their prams, the unpredictability of the DRS swung dramatically in favour of both sides throughout the test.

First to fall foul was MetLife maestro Jonathan Trott. While on-field umpire Aleem Dar deemed the English batsman to have survived the LBW cries of his opponents, third umpire Marais Erasmus overturned the decision, despite not having the HotSpot angle available to him. Ironically, it all came down to human error - the HotSpot operator failed to trigger the system to cater for delivery that befelledTrott.

Karma can be a real female canine, though. When the technology was needed the most, the Australians couldn’t call on it. Stuart Broad, on 38 runs and beginning to restore calm to the test, refused to march despite being caught off a thick edge in his second innings. With the Aussies using up all their reviews, technology couldn’t disrupt the game when they needed it, enabling England to set the impossible task that Australia couldn’t quite overcome.

The DRS has broad support among the players, and it certainly gets more right than wrong - hell, England may not be one-up without it. The advantage is that the technological shortcomings are now in the purview of both sides. And they know they’ll be able to use it cunningly as the mightiest of tests at Lord’s comes hurtling towards them.

Lord’s ‘the eighth wonder’

British sporting success, it seems, is all the more sweet when a hoodoo has been broken. Look, for example, to tennis ace Andy Murray’s historic win at Wimbledon just weeks ago - no longer does the shadow of Fred Perry hang over him for the SW19 battles to come. And England now rampage on to the second test with one of the biggest monkeys in international cricket well and truly off their backs.

No longer will England dread that trip to North West London. No more will they hear the echoes of breaking stumps ringing through their ears. Banished are the memories of Bob Massie and his 16-wicket obliteration of our boys in ’72. Gone are the days of Glen McGrath devouring wickets like a gluttonous American at a hot-dog eating contest. Lord’s, after 75 years of hurt, finally belongs to England again.

Nearing its 200th birthday, Lord’s is really the eighth wonder of the cricketing world. History abounds - the ground is home to the crown jewels of cricketing folklore. The row of kits adorned by greats such as Victor Trumper, Jack Hobbs and Donald Bradman; the stuffed sparrow that was expired by Jehangir Khan in 1936; and the 1939 war-time copy of the Wisden Cricketing Almanack that buoyed the spirit of cricket writer EW ‘Jim’ Swanton through more than three years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. And, of course, the Ashes themselves.

The beauty of Lord’s isn’t just buried away in the caverns of the MCC museum, though - its oozes from all around the ground. Be it Old Father Time, the faithful weather vane that harmoniously orchestrates the tempo of the ground, or the futuristic Media Centre, the Trek-esque blimp that looks like it has crashed landed from a distant century, England in their current form will soak up the ground in all its majesty to give the Egg and Bacon Brigade something to truly chew on.

It’s paradoxical, given the history that seeps from every corner of the ground, that the some of the most iconic images of Lord’s now belong to that history-making win of four years ago. It was that second Test where Sir Frederick von Flintoff cemented his place in the annals of English cricketing greats. Freddie’s five for 92 demolition of the Australian front line set the tone for England’s emphatic victory in the series.

That loss should haunt the Australian’s coming into the second test. Where Trent Bridge seemed to be the only ground that could inspire a win for them, the odds are firmly stacked against them at Lord’s. Every part of the ground is quintessentially English, and now that England have reclaimed their spiritual home as their own, it will take a performance of Herculean proportions to prise the test away from the current holders of the urn.

Cook’s food for thought

Despite the gut-wrenchingly close loss, however, it’s fair to say that the Aussies have rediscovered their mojo. For a side drowning in chaos and disarray before the series began, their near-miraculous chase of 311 runs to win, and how England let them get so close to achieving it, will give captain Alastair Cook food for thought.

Steve Finn, the leaky bucket of the English side, will do well to remain in the bowling line-up for the second test. Tim Bresnan, who’ll bring pinpoint accuracy, should put tar on the freewheeling afforded to the Australian batsman by Finn. And the performance of youngster Joe Root did little to quell the rising criticism of his inclusion as opener.

But Andrew Strauss believes that England should persevere with the 22 year-old. “Joe Root’s [been] in sparkling form in his first 12 months in international cricket,” says Straussy. “He’s settled in incredibly quickly and he looks the part.”

Strauss says that it was always going to be “an extra challenge for him opening the batting - that’s no easy task against a good Australian bowling side.” But the former England captain is keeping the faith. “He looks entirely capable of doing it, everything that I’ve seen suggests that he’ll be fine.”

History will reverberate around them this Thursday - and will serve them well to remember what the days of antiquity against their antipodean foes have brought before them. When Australian legend Fred ‘The Demon Bowler’ Spofforth - the first player to take 50 wickets - died in 1926, the flags at Lord’s were flown at half-mast. If there’s to be a repeat of that nearly nine decades on, let’s make sure it’s not an Australian victory that the low-slung flags are mourning.