The Ashes Diary (9 page)

Rhino is a relentless bowler, and he can be a nightmare for a new batsman because he hardly ever gives them a loose ball to get off the mark. He was right at Kevin Pietersen, who like most of us is an anxious starter, and drew him into a defensive push which Pietersen sort of wanted to play, but sort of wanted to pull away from. He nicked it, and we had just the start we were after.

Jonathan Trott was in good touch again, with some well-timed fours off his pads, and I rotated the bowlers fairly regularly. I wanted to get Patto into the attack, but he still wasn’t quite able to apply pressure with a consistent line and length, so I alternated some short spells between him and Watto. We managed to calm Trott down, and he was a bit lucky to survive when he gloved one onto his shoulder and then popped one in the air off the leading edge, the ball falling short of the slips cordon both times.

Lord’s has lost the equivalent of ten days worth of rain in the current heatwave, and the pitch is dry, if not quite as dry as Trent Bridge. For us this meant we were in a bit of a race against the sun, to capitalise on our start before the heat sucked the last bit of life out of the strip.

Trott and Bell got through to lunch, but we’ve noticed that Trott plays his pull shot without a lot of conviction. Mostly he manages to keep it on the ground, but it looks a bit awkward, and if he hit it in the air it wasn’t going over the boundary. I placed Usman Khawaja at deep square leg near the Old Father Time weather vane, about ten metres in from the rope. I really don’t like having square leg out, but Usman was there to prey on the batsman’s mind rather than specifically for a catch, to let Trott know that he’ll get short balls and can’t rock onto the front foot every ball.

I’m always encouraging our quicks to use their bouncer. Soon enough, Ryan bowled one – and it didn’t get up at all! It went wrong. But Trott played that half-hit pull shot and connected too well, placing it where Uzzy only had to run in and take an easy catch. I ran straight to Ryan, and we were laughing at the fact that it didn’t go where it was supposed to go but got the wicket anyway.

With England four down for 127, we were back in the game. Our energy in the field was fantastic. The boys were buzzing after the three early wickets, and the feeling was right where I wanted it to be. But throughout the middle session our bowlers lost their control a bit. Their line was on both sides of the wicket, and their length was sometimes too short, sometimes too full. Ashton Agar was struggling with a sore hip flexor after hurting it diving for a ball, and was probably having a first taste of how tough Test cricket can be. We just weren’t tightening the screws, and Bell and Bairstow were able to accumulate the runs. Peter Siddle actually bowled Bairstow for 21, but a replay showed that he’d overstepped by a very small margin. Still, there were no excuses, particularly after all the work we’d done on front-foot no-balls and our zero-tolerance policy. Nobody was feeling the pain more than Sidds.

Towards the end of the day, we were getting a bit desperate and seemed to have lost the advantage. But Sidds bowled a fantastic late spell – no fireworks, but drying up the runs with a succession of dot balls. To batsmen who were well set, this was some achievement.

At Lord’s more than most grounds, bowlers prefer certain ends. Ryan and Pete were more comfortable bowling from the Pavilion end, so their outswingers were going against the slope. Ryan can move the ball back in off the wicket, so the chance to nip one in down the slope suited him. Peter was swinging the ball consistently away, and if he’d been coming from the Nursery end the Englishmen would have been able to leave pretty much every ball. From the Pavilion end, they felt they had to play because it might come down the slope at them. He got wickets when batsmen were dragged into playing.

I think that spell was what set things up for Steve Smith. In the 77th over, I thought I’d give him a couple of overs of leg-spin from the Nursery end before the second new ball fell due. I won’t claim any brilliant strategic vision. I just thought he was worth giving a go. The advantage of bowling out of the back of the hand is that bad balls can still get wickets, because of the extra revs on the ball, and they can catch tired batsmen unawares.

Smithy might not have the accuracy and consistency of a front-line leg-spinner, but he’s always had the knack of producing a jaffa. His sixth ball was just that – Bell, on 109, pushed forward, and the ball came off the edge to me at first slip. I just held it, actually. It lodged between the heels of my hands. The catch came slow. As slips catches go, it was an easier one, and I might have caught it a bit lazily.

I’d have been ready to take the new ball, but with Smithy on a roll it was worth riding it. The first ball of the 81st over, he bowled what seemed a loopy full toss to Bairstow, who chipped a catch back down the wicket. On the basis of ‘when you’re on a good thing, stick to it’, I kept bowling him, and another two overs later he got a nick from Prior, with Hadds taking a very good catch. We were in it again. Smithy was very bubbly, as usual, and the boys were all stoked for him. It was a great note to finish on, being able to walk off the field with the glow of three late wickets.

So in the end, after all the ups and downs, the day finished about even. I’d love to have batted on that wicket, which is only going to dry out further over the next few days. Tomorrow morning is going to be crucial – knocking over England’s last three wickets and building a big first innings of our own. We had Shane Warne come into the dressing room to sit down and help out a few of the boys, and Steve Waugh popped his head in too. The Lord’s Test is a bit of a celebrity magnet. We got a visit from the Socceroos’ captain, Lucas Neill, and the actor Hugh Jackman – a complete cricket tragic, who absolutely loves the game – also came in and was smiling away with the boys. I like bringing the younger guys in the team into such company. It’s good for them to see how these people, who are so successful in all walks of life – Russell Crowe’s been visiting the team, for example – just love their cricket so much. I think it reinforces the players’ pride in what they do when they hear that these people would give their right arm, basically, to have a Baggy Green. It keeps things in perspective when you’re having a bad day (or even a good day) to be reminded how much this position we are in is respected. And also, I guess, on behalf of cricket, I feel proud that it’s held in such high esteem outside the cricket community itself.

We had a few laughs, but when anyone asked me about the game, I was saying how good the wicket looks and how much I’m looking forward to batting on it.

Friday 19 July.
London.

If this tour was going to have a Black Friday, today was it. I really don’t know what to say. I’ve had some disappointing moments in cricket, but this time, as captain – and for this to happen at Lord’s, of all places – I’m taking it to heart a lot more. I don’t remember ever feeling this low after a day’s cricket.

I could never have imagined it going this badly after the start we got. First ball of the day, Ryan Harris got one to nip away from Tim Bresnan, and we had a wicket already. Our plan was to cut off the English tail and get in to bat on a wicket that had plenty of runs in it. You can’t start any better than a wicket with the first ball.

Rhino soon had Anderson nicking one, and I was stoked to see the big fella with five wickets, his name going up on the Lord’s honour board. Not even greats of the game like Shane Warne have achieved that, and Ryan was well aware of what a moment it was. In this team, we celebrate each other’s successes, and there could be no more popular recipient of this honour than Ryan Harris. He may be scared of heights, but he fears no batsman.

On the other hand, Patto was again struggling with his line, giving the batsmen width on both sides of the wicket, and I had to take him off. Due to Anderson having come in as night watchman for Stuart Broad yesterday, England ended up with a pretty strong last-wicket pair, Broad and Swann, both guys who have made centuries in Test cricket. They got away from us a bit, Swann hitting Ryan for three fours in one over, and not even Watto and Sidds could slow them down. I thought they ended up with about 30 runs more than I was hoping for, after a last-wicket stand of 48.

Broad finally nicked Patto to Brad Haddin, and asked for DRS to review it. So we all had to stand there, halfway to the pavilion, to go through the formality, on the off-chance that an official might make a mistake as bad as the one that let Broad off in Nottingham. We hung around for a couple of minutes before the third umpire confirmed he was out. I don’t hold it against a player if he doesn’t walk, or even if he asks for a review if he genuinely doesn’t think he’s out.

Watto and Bucky Rogers went out there and made a good start. The atmosphere in the dressing room felt nervous but confident. We knew what a big day in the series it was. Boof was like the Buddha, sitting on the balcony, listening to the television commentary through his earpiece, totally unruffled.

Lord’s has been Chris Rogers’ home ground in county cricket, so if anyone was used to the slope it was him. Watto, meanwhile, had a couple of big appeals against him in the first two overs. One was for a catch that came off his hip, not his bat, and then Broad appealed for LBW when he hit him clearly outside the line of the off stump. The English spent a long time debating whether to review, which can plant a seed of anxiety in a batsman’s head.

But our guys responded well. Watto began patiently, and then took 21 runs off two overs from Anderson and Bresnan, all through the off side. Graeme Swann was off the field, having been hit in the arm, and there was a strong sense that this was our day. Anderson switched to bowling around the wicket to Chris, but drifted onto the pads and was clipped away. Swann came back on just before lunch, but Watto and Chris were into their rhythm now, and it looked like they were going to come into the break together and put us all in high spirits.

In the last over before lunch, Cook switched Bresnan from the Nursery to the Pavilion end. There had not seemed enough time for that over, but Swann had got through his quickly. What a crucial twist it turned out to be. Bresnan bowled three inswingers to Watto, obviously going for the LBW, but he either let them go or laid bat on them. Then, on the fourth ball of the over, Bresnan ducked one in and hit him on the front pad. The umpire gave it out. We’ve talked a lot about getting our DRS reviews right, but basically there’s no other way than trusting the two guys out there, the batsman and the non-striker. Shane thought it was sliding down leg, and he talked to Chris, who said he agreed that it was questionable.

They’re both experienced cricketers, Shane and Chris, and I back them if they think it is worth reviewing. But only part of the ball has to be hitting the stumps to uphold the onfield umpire’s decision, and this was what Hawk-Eye said was going to happen – by millimetres, again. It was desperately disappointing.

Still, we had 42 runs on the board, and it was only one wicket. Chris and Usman Khawaja got ready to go out again. Resilience is something we’ve talked about since India – not letting one or two wickets panic the rest of the batsmen into a collapse. We all know that a big part of mental strength is being able to forget what’s gone before, and just treat the present moment for itself.

Unfortunately, Watto’s dismissal had a knock-on effect after lunch. Swann was bowling to Chris from the Nursery end, and the ball must have slipped out of his hand. It came out as a high full toss, angled down the leg side, but Chris missed it. The ball hit him in the box, and it didn’t look anywhere near out. But such a weird happening must have unhinged everyone a little. Umpire Erasmus gave it out, and Chris and Usman had a chat. We were thinking they had to refer it. But Usman mustn’t have got a very clear view of it, as Swann was bowling on a big angle across him from around the wicket, and from Chris’ point of view, if he reviewed this and it proved to be out, he would have been party to us losing both of our DRS reviews and we were only two wickets down. So he did the unselfish thing and decided not to review, when the replays showed the ball clearly missing the stumps. All I can put it down to is both the batsmen and the umpire being thrown off-kilter by such a bizarre ball.

Usman soon edged one from Swann straight to slip, where, luckily for us, Jonathan Trott put it down. If we felt that the rub of the green was turning our way, we were soon put back in our place. Phil Hughes went up from number six to four in this match, and I moved from four to five. Two days ago, I sat with Darren Lehmann and discussed the best order for that wicket at Lord’s. It’s been said that I prefer number five because I have better Test stats there, but the number I bat is irrelevant to me. I’ve batted number four my whole career at New South Wales and made a few runs. The number has no impact. It is all about what is best for the team in the specific circumstances, and taking into account the wicket itself.

After that discussion, I told Hughesy. Like me, he’s not bothered where he bats. At any rate, he flashed at a wide ball from Bresnan, and was given out caught behind. He didn’t feel anything, and reviewed it, but the third umpire didn’t have enough evidence to overturn the onfield umpire’s decision.

Throughout, I waited in the dressing room on the first floor of the pavilion. When the decision was confirmed, I made my way down. It’s pretty nerve-racking going out to bat at 3/53 at any time, but at Lord’s it’s unique, coming down the internal stairs and then walking through all the members in the Long Room. They usually clap and say a few words, not always encouraging, but I was just shutting it all out. I never pay attention to anything as I walk out to bat.

That includes what the fieldsmen were saying. They’ve said something to me every time I’ve walked out, but I don’t hear it. Usman and I shared a few words of general support, and he faced the next five balls from Swann before taking a single. I had one from Swann, which I defended to the on side. Next over, ultra-keen to rotate the strike, Usman called me through for a very quick single and I was nearly run out when Bairstow’s throw hit the stumps. The umpire called for a replay, but I was safely in.