2nd Test Day 2: Australia Holds Sway as Lyon Levels Lillee

The first day has been lost to rain, and the second day has provided an even contest come the close, and surely the result of this Test will be as dependant on the amount of moisture that falls from the sky as it does the actual contest between bat and ball on the field. If by the remotest possibility there is no further time lost in this match then a result is more likely than not. Which way that result would swing is still not certain.

Personally I thought Tim Paine took a gamble when he won the toss and inserted England. The reasons why he did were sound, but I still come from that Richie Benaud field where you bat first wherever possible. There’s no doubt that the option taken was the one England would have least preferred though. Batting first in tricky conditions with their collapse in the 1st Test no doubt still uppermost in their minds was not what their batsmen were hoping for. We’ll know better this time tomorrow if it was the best decision for Australia’s batsmen.

The dogs will be at Jason Roy’s door once again, but he got a fair delivery early from Josh Hazlewood, and sometimes you get them. The commentators again lauded Rory Burns’ innings, but he was dropped twice in making fifty and he still wasn’t convincing. The jury is still out on his future. Joe Denly made 30 but again fell without capitalising on his start. So many England batsmen have been tried and discarded over the past decade who seem to have the same fallibilities. Vince and Malan from the last Ashes series suffered the same fate that looks to be rushing at full steam towards Denly. Perhaps that’s unfair, but the number of chances that the selectors will offer their stars such as Buttler, Stokes and Bairstow will not be afforded to someone of Denly’s calibre.

Joe Root was pinned in front of the stumps where so often Steve Smith flicks the same ball past square leg. The English media and the heavy influence of the English on CricInfo have pushed Root’s claims as one of the “Big Four” of current world class batsmen, and though he has obvious class his inability to make a score when his team desperately needs it weighs against him. (Now watch Smith go for a duck and Root score a century in the second dig).

At 6/138, Australia should have had England out for 200. That they scrambled to 258 may not look to be a much better position, but with so much time already out of the game it will be important. If they had been dismissed for 200, and Australia was 1 or 2 down for 80 at stumps, the game would have had a much more tilted perspective than it does now. The one thing that hurts Australia about leaving out Mitch Starc is that there is no go-to guy to blast out the tail like he does. 

Nathan Lyon has now taken 355 Test wickets, equal with the great Dennis Lillee and now only behind Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in Australia's wicket taking list. Once again he has come out on what is notionally a first day pitch and managed to snare three wickets. For much of the first half of his career he seemed to have an easy ride, chosen as much for his ability to hold up an end than to bowl his team to victory. In the last three years that has turned around, and he is comfortably one of Australia's match winners on all surfaces. Early in his career the 'experts' claimed he would never be able to be a Test spinner unless he developed a doosra or carrom ball or something that went the other way. Though he dabbled with it, he disposed of these thoughts in favour of a spinners best weapons - the ability to change the flight and speed to deceive the batsman, and spin the ball as hard as you can. Since he started doing this, he has become the bowler he is today. When you look at all of the recent bowlers behind him who were unable to reach Lillee's milestone total - McDermott, Johnson, Lee, Gillespie - you can see just how difficult a mark it was to reach. That Lyon has done so, and appears to have a few years left in him yet, is a remarkable achievement.

Tonight is a good Test for Australia’s batting line up. They now all have recent runs under their belt, and they must produce that to gain a good first innings lead. Khawaja looks good, and this is his moment. It is time for him to deliver and make that big Ashes century that anchors the innings, allowing his teammates to bat around him. If he can do this and take the pressure off Smith it will hopefully allow the middle order of Head and Wade to do their business as well. It won’t be easy, but it should be a great contest between bat and ball, as long as we can negotiate our way through the dismal and frustrating commentary being offered.