Cricket legends have been left scratching their heads over some bizarre tactics and a missed wicket on the opening morning of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
The England batters were on the attack from the get-go, forcing Pat Cummins into numerous changes to his field in barely the fourth over of the morning.
The biggest moment of the morning wasn’t noticed until after the fact, when replays showed opener Zak Crawley had edged a Scott Boland delivery that leaped off a length and tickled the back of his bat.
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Neither ‘keeper Alex Carey or Boland – nor any other Australian fielder – heard the nick, but a wry smile from Crawley suggested he may have known he’d gotten away with one.
“That ball certainly took off and went away off the seam – one of the few balls that’s done that,” Mark Taylor said in commentary.
“Just the ultra edge there. No wonder there was a wry smile on his face. There was no appeal at all and no reaction from the Australians at all.
“The reaction from Scott Boland there was one of almost disbelief that the ball moved off the seam. Not so much for an edge – I don’t think that he heard a thing. Nor did Alex Carey.”
“There was nothing. Not even a half-shout.”
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Crawley was 41 at the time. His dismissal off the bowling of Scott Boland for 61 brought about the lunch break.
Taylor was also critical of skipper Pat Cummins first-morning fielding tactics, saying he was far too defensive in the face of English aggression.
A burning question leading into the series was whether or not the English batters would bring the attacking Bazball style to the Ashes, and Zak Crawley gave an emphatic answer when he smacked the first ball of the morning for four through cover.
On a docile pitch that offered little to the quicks, Crawley was comfortable driving on the up through the cover region – a shot that would normally be fraught with danger on the first morning of a Test in England.
First ball gets smacked for four
Cummins almost immediately started moving the field around, to the point Kevin Pietersen said the field resembled something seen to two well-set batters.
“Australia have got it wrong, but from an England perspective it is fantastic to see Australia so defensive,” he said.
‘The wicket has been very docile. I just think first morning of an Ashes Series, I would have thought that Pat Cummins would have said ‘OK England, give it a go. We don’t mind. Hit us for six fours … a couple of sixes, no problem. Then we will go to plan-B’.
“I think that they went straight to plan-B.”
“It’s nice playing against you lot these days, isn’t it? Setting defensive fields, not appealing for huge nicks. What’s happening?”
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