The opening day of this Ashes series was a belter, with a packed Edgbaston treated to an absorbing arm-wrestle between England and Australia, a sublime Joe Root century, and the latest aggressive declaration from Ben Stokes.
If this is a sign of what is to come, those pre-match predictions of a classic contest may well have undersold it.
At stumps Australia were 14 for no loss from four overs, not having bowled their hosts out but rather plunged into a 20-minute examination against the new ball. After winning the toss on a pitch offering scant movement, England had raced to 393 for eight from 78 overs – the fourth time as captain that Stokes has pulled the pin on a first innings.
Convention pointed towards ploughing on but then Stokes and Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, don’t do convention. From the moment Zak Crawley crashed the first ball of the series for four, their players were once again on full offensive, even if it took Root’s unbeaten 118 from 152 balls – his 30th Test century – to prevent a derailment.
Allied with this display of enduring class from Root was a run-a-ball 78 from Jonny Bairstow in a rollicking 121-run stand for the sixth wicket. The two Tykes turned things around from 175 for five after lunch and had the ground positively fizzing. But with David Warner and Usman Khawaja holding firm before stumps, and Saturday’s weather set fair, Australia will still sense a chance to go big in response.
This was a glorious sun-soaked day in south Birmingham, the river of spectators streaming through the gates in good time for the pomp, pageantry and pyrotechnics that precede a modern Ashes series. And after a poignant moment of reflection for the lives lost during the recent atrocity in Nottingham, followed by the anthems, came the latest entry into the list of famous Ashes first balls.
The sound off the bat was something else, Crawley leaning into a half-volley from Pat Cummins and sending it careering along the pristine outfield to the cover boundary. As 25,000 onlookers boomed out a mix of cheers and laughter, Stokes sat on the England balcony open-mouthed under his bucket hat. This, needless to say, was a very different statement to Rory Burns’s first-ball duck 18 months ago.
An absorbing first session in which the hosts rattled along at 4.65 runs per over was a departure from some of their recent exploits, with the 12 fours struck a fairly standard return but some 54 singles pilfered along with them. Australia, it was instantly clear, had devised a plan to disrupt the hosts, Cummins deploying three boundary riders from the outset and largely stuck to this all day.
Had the tourists blinked first? After all, Cummins said he would not be departing from the methods that won the World Test Championship. And yet here they were, adapting to their unconventional opponents and having left the man whose removal of Burns set the tone last time around – Mitchell Starc – on the sidelines.
Still, when Scott Boland eventually removed Crawley for 61 on the stroke of lunch to see England 123 for three, they would have felt vindicated. And despite the bowling figures looking burned by the end, and a couple of dropped catches along the way, Australia actually met the challenge of Bazball in enterprising fashion.
That said, it was a tricky start for Boland, who ended Crawley’s bright start with one of the few deliveries that did anything all day – a lifter that was gloved behind – but experienced the first chastening day of his late-blooming career. The Victorian shipped 61 runs from his 14 overs and was the first to be reverse scooped for six by Root.
Josh Hazlewood, who nudged out Starc, was the pick of the seamers – and the only one to send down a maiden. His early removal of Ben Duckett for 12 also handed Alex Carey the first of five dismissals behind the stumps, before Ollie Pope missed a straight one from Lyon to see a busy 31 end lbw on review.
Lyon was operating from around the wicket for the bulk of the day and, though taken for 149 runs from 29 overs, his four scalps were well-earned. Most bizarre among them was the demise of Harry Brook after lunch, bowled for a previously crackling 32 when the ball kicked off the surface, ballooned off the thigh pad and – having been briefly lost by everyone – somehow landed and spun on to the stumps.
When Stokes handed Hazlewood a second, driving loosely behind for one, England were in danger of squandering their advantage at the toss. But Root was in frictionless rhythm – no fielder at point is catnip to him – while Bairstow emerged to play a typically pugnacious hand from No 7. They make a terrific pairing, this their 11th century partnership in Test cricket, again combining wing-heeled running with class.
Once Bairstow fell after tea, stumped attempting to propel Lyon down the ground, and Moeen Ali repeated this for an all-too fleeting 18 on his return to Test cricket, it was over to Root to shepherd the tail, bring out the reverse scoop for Cummins, and secure a precious first Ashes century since the 2015 series.
That barren spell for a player of Root’s standing came while trying to balance the strains of captaincy but now happily back in the ranks, and with the man who replaced him doing things differently, this much-hyped Ashes contest has lift off.
