Perth: In a chaotic opening day of the Ashes, Ben Stokes won the toss and watched his team skittled for 172 before taking a five-wicket haul to give England a first-innings advantage Friday in the first cricket test.
Day 1 lived up to the pre-series hype, with pace bowlers dominating on a sunny day in front of more than 51,000 spectators at Perth Stadium.
Mitchell Starc took a career-best 7-58 as Australia bundled England out by the second session. Jofra Archer took a wicket in the first over of Australia’s reply to show the five-man England pace arsenal wasn’t to be outdone. The home team was 123-9 at stumps, still 49 runs behind.
In terms of wickets, 19 tumbled in 72 overs, as the test is almost half over with four days remaining.
England lost wickets at regular intervals but batted with intent, scoring at 5.23 runs per over.
The disjointed Australian batting lineup went in defensively and lost wickets at even more regular intervals, without the flow of runs.
Batters from both teams were hit in the grill by sharply rising short-pitch deliveries, with Cameron Green struck by a 147 kph (91 mph) Mark Wood bouncer that knocked him off balance and almost had him tripping on his stumps in the 24th over of Australia’s innings.
England’s attack was bowling with the kind of menace that the Australian pacemen usually dish out to visiting teams Down Under.
Bad timing:
England’s late batting collapse caught Usman Khawaja by surprise, the veteran Australia opener in the dressing rooms at the time.
Because he was off for more than eight minutes and hadn’t spent an equivalent amount of time back in the field before England’s innings ended, he wasn’t allowed to open the Australian innings. Marnus Labuschagne had to move up the order to fill in.
Khawaja also wasn’t allowed to go in at No. 3 when Jake Weatherald was trapped lbw to Archer on the second ball of the innings on his test debut, meaning Steve Smith had to go to the crease in the first over.
The Ben Stokes show:
Archer took the first two wickets and Brydon Carse took the next two to have Australia reeling at 31-4.
Travis head and Green combined in a 45-run fourth-wicket stand to revive Australia’s innings before Stokes broke through. He dismissed Head (21), Green (24), Alex Carey (26) and Starc (12) to rip through the middle order before getting Scott Boland (0) in the next-to-last over to return 5-23 in six overs for the day.
Stokes entered the series saying he was desperate to end England’s 15-test winless streak in Australia. So far, it’s advantage England.
Starc’s career best:
The 35-year-old Starc took a wicket in the first over of a test for the 24th time to set the tone, having Zac Crawley caught at slip by Khawaja on the sixth delivery before England had scored a run.
He snared three wickets in his first five overs, including Ben Duckett (21) and Joe Root (0) as England slipped to 39-3.
He took four more after lunch, including the key wicket of Stokes, as England lost six wickets for 67 runs after lunch, including the last five for 12 runs.
Starc picked off the last two wickets on consecutive balls to remove Jamie Smith (33) and Mark Wood (0), and will start the next innings on a hat-trick.
“Nice way to start a series,” Starc said. “There’s been a lot made about (Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood) being not here and I guess me being an experienced one, so nice to lead that way.”
The difference:
A 55-run fourth-wicket stand between Ollie Pope (46) and Harry Brook (52) for England was the biggest partnership of Day 1.
England’s attacking intent kept with the “ Bazball ” method under Brendon McCullum’s coaching, aiming to score quickly and make the bowlers wilt.
The team batting first has won all five tests played at Perth Stadium and that was a heavy factor in Stokes deciding to go against his preferred option of bowling first and chasing.
PTI
