This has been an Ashes series of nip and tuck, of ebb and flow, of fine margins and a pendulum that has swung one way and then the other. But on a giddy second day at Old Trafford these themes were burned to the ground by a frankly absurd 189 from Zak Crawley and three sessions of outright English dominance over Australia.
Will it be enough to set up a blockbuster decider at the Oval? The weather gods may yet have their say. But England could scarcely have put themselves in a better position to make it so, their plunderbats having treated Pat Cummins & co with a level of contempt last witnessed from the Fast Show’s competitive dad all those years ago.
At stumps, as Australia’s players clanked up the metal stairs to the safety of the dressing room, their bowling figures were in tatters and their brains slightly fried. England had stuck 384 for four on the board in reply to 317 all out and done so in just 72 overs. Some 38 fours and three sixes had been struck for a run-rate 5.33 per over – a figure tempered by some watchfulness from Ben Stokes and Harry Brook late on.
Crawley was in his tracksuit by this stage, an innings of 182 balls, 21 fours and three sixes shut down after tea when a weary bottom edge off a weary Cameron Green cannoned into the stumps. But the damage was done, his stands of 121 with Moeen Ali (54) and 206 with Joe Root (84) setting up an overnight lead of 67 runs.
Was this the best of Bazball? Perhaps the time these hell-raisers blazed 506 for four from 75 overs against Pakistan on the opening day in Rawalpindi tops it. But then that was a road of a pitch, a slightly callow attack and a blank canvas at the start of a series, not the reigning Test world champions and the pressure of a 2-1 Ashes series deficit.
Both were set up by Crawley, a player Stokes and Brendon McCullum have backed and backed and backed again despite the feast and famine nature of his output. They only see the upside and when Crawley plays like this, swatting bowlers both sides of the wicket, the magic eye picture the pair have been pointing to becomes clearer.
This was Crawley’s fourth Test century but perhaps the first to truly live up to the hype that followed that breakthrough 267 against Pakistan three years ago. It was streaky early on, granted, but developed into a thing of wonder over time, the opener’s half-century taking 67 balls and those hallowed three figures just 26 more. The back-to-back fours off Cummins to pass 150 at a run-a-ball were chef’s kiss stuff.
The first of those milestones came via a reverse sweep off Travis Head, then followed up a slog sweep over cow corner. Both shots summed up what was an increasing madhouse for Cummins out in the middle; a captain forever chasing his own tail with the field and surely ruing the decision to go into this match without a frontline spinner.
There were also signs that uneven bounce was starting to creep into this pitch when a grubber from Josh Hazlewood bowled Root to end a typically frictionless knock. Stokes, who finished unbeaten on 24 alongside Brook, 14, also did well to keep down a delivery that reared up alarmingly late on – not that he would have minded this one iota.
England first needed to dislodge the final two Australian wickets in the morning and it took one ball to get things moving. With it this day of increasing crow’s feet for Cummins began before the clock had even ticked round to 11am, Australia’s captain slapping an outswinger from Jimmy Anderson to have the locals smiling early.
From there it was over to Chris Woakes to wrap up his first five-wicket haul in an Ashes Test match and a richly deserved one too, even if there was a false start. Penalised for a no-ball that would have seen Australia 300 all out when Josh Hazlewood edged to slip, Woakes had to wait a further 15 minutes or so to produce a legal repeat.
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Australia had chiselled out 17 more runs in this period and when Ben Duckett feathered Mitchell Starc behind in the third over of the reply, and Moeen strolled out in his new permanent berth at first drop, it was hard not to wonder how relevant this might prove. After all, this is a series where seemingly minor events have had major impacts.
Such thoughts soon melted away, however, Moeen equal to the task and one half of the first significant pushback. As well as unfurling those buttery cover drives, the all-rounder had secured a personal milestone by the time England reached lunch on 61 for one, becoming just the 16th man in history to combine 3,000 Test runs with 200 wickets.
Though eventually dismissed by a flying catch from Usman Khawaja – relief for Cummins, having failed to pick up a chance at mid-on moments earlier – Moeen had made the highest score by a No 3 in this series. He had also kept Root away from the new ball, with the runs that followed from England’s lynchpin offering further vindication.
But while Root was impish, his 45-ball half-century brought up with a reverse scoop over the slips, this was Crawley’s day. The opener personally plundered 106 of the 178 runs scored in the afternoon – the sixth England player to hit three figures in a session of Ashes cricket – and trashed plan after plan from the tourists. When he launched the ineffective Mitch Marsh for six to put England into the lead, Old Trafford gasped its approval.
Australia were ragged, some 11 no-balls sent down, and left worrying about the state of Starc’s shoulder overnight after a late tumble in the field. The tourists need those rain clouds to roll in pronto or they face the prospect of a shootout in south London.
