England out tomorrow, we give ourselves a great opportunity to win this Test. That will surprise a few people and put us in a good position. It’ll be hard to take another eight wickets on a flat track against class players. But if we keep bowling as we did today, we’ll get the rewards for our hard work.
Friday 12 July. Nottingham.
This was the key day, a controversial day without doubt, and at the end of it I feel that we’ve shared the honours.
The light was smokier than yesterday, and it was a few degrees warmer. All day it felt like the crowd was getting sun-baked, and was quite sedate compared to what I’m used to in England. To us, having been in the subcontinent recently, it was almost like we were playing an Indian Test match. This was the test of how well we’d learnt our lessons from that series.
Chris Rogers took the field with a black armband, after the death of a friend.
Part of the plan against Cook and Pietersen was to dry them up. Cook is known for his patience, and Pietersen not so much, but we felt we could get the breakthrough if we frustrated both of them. We thought we could tie them down until the ball started reversing, and then attack a bit more. With Pietersen, it was a matter of taking the ball away from him, and with Cook it was to frustrate him until he came to us, reaching for balls he didn’t normally want to hit.
As it turned out, they spent most of the morning trapped up each end. Sidds bowled around the wicket to Cook, and Starcy around the wicket to Pietersen. Cook was becalmed, but Pietersen took the bait. He hit four fours in the first half-hour, but we didn’t mind him playing his shots and taking a risk or two.
I rotated the bowlers fairly quickly. Patto came on and beat Pietersen first up. Sidds thought Pietersen was vulnerable to the yorker, and speared in quite a few with great accuracy. We felt that we did frustrate them, and ultimately Pietersen went a bit too hard at a short one from Patto, and chopped it on.
Ashton Agar was bowling very well to Cook, using the rough outside the off stump, and I had the pleasure of helping Ash take his first wicket in Test cricket. What a wicket to get – Cook, closing the face, getting a leading edge and popping the catch to slip. If one day someone asks if I can remember where I was when Ashton Agar took his First Test wicket, I can say, ‘Yes, I was at slip taking the catch!’
With Bell and Bairstow in, our bowlers were starting to get the ball to reverse. Both Jimmy Pattinson and Shane Watson extracted some big movement in the air and were unlucky not to take a bunch of wickets. We lost referrals in the Decision Review System when I made a couple of errors. Patto appealed for LBW against Bairstow and our referral was turned down. Then Watto got the umpire’s finger when he hit Bell in front, but England’s referral overturned the decision. Both times, the ball had been veering off down the leg side, according to Hawk-Eye.
As far as our process is concerned, it’s pretty straightforward. I talk to the people who have the best view, who are generally the wicketkeeper and first slip. If needed, we then go to the bowler, who’s more emotionally involved and obviously thinks every ball that hits the pad is out. Within the few seconds we’re allowed, we make a judgment call. Today we got two of those wrong, and lost our referrals. I take responsibility for making the final calls, but the replays showed that while we made mistakes, they were very, very close.
We got Bairstow and Prior, and took the second new ball. I thought that even though the old one was reversing, a new one might charge up the bowlers and give them some conventional swing. I’m not sure if it was the right decision, because the ball also began to come off the bat a lot harder.
We were holding up well through a hot day. The ball was beginning to shoot, Patto unsettled Broad with some short ones, Agar very nearly had Broad caught in close by Cowan and out
Friday 12 July. Nottingham.
This was the key day, a controversial day without doubt, and at the end of it I feel that we’ve shared the honours.
The light was smokier than yesterday, and it was a few degrees warmer. All day it felt like the crowd was getting sun-baked, and was quite sedate compared to what I’m used to in England. To us, having been in the subcontinent recently, it was almost like we were playing an Indian Test match. This was the test of how well we’d learnt our lessons from that series.
Chris Rogers took the field with a black armband, after the death of a friend.
Part of the plan against Cook and Pietersen was to dry them up. Cook is known for his patience, and Pietersen not so much, but we felt we could get the breakthrough if we frustrated both of them. We thought we could tie them down until the ball started reversing, and then attack a bit more. With Pietersen, it was a matter of taking the ball away from him, and with Cook it was to frustrate him until he came to us, reaching for balls he didn’t normally want to hit.
As it turned out, they spent most of the morning trapped up each end. Sidds bowled around the wicket to Cook, and Starcy around the wicket to Pietersen. Cook was becalmed, but Pietersen took the bait. He hit four fours in the first half-hour, but we didn’t mind him playing his shots and taking a risk or two.
I rotated the bowlers fairly quickly. Patto came on and beat Pietersen first up. Sidds thought Pietersen was vulnerable to the yorker, and speared in quite a few with great accuracy. We felt that we did frustrate them, and ultimately Pietersen went a bit too hard at a short one from Patto, and chopped it on.
Ashton Agar was bowling very well to Cook, using the rough outside the off stump, and I had the pleasure of helping Ash take his first wicket in Test cricket. What a wicket to get – Cook, closing the face, getting a leading edge and popping the catch to slip. If one day someone asks if I can remember where I was when Ashton Agar took his First Test wicket, I can say, ‘Yes, I was at slip taking the catch!’
With Bell and Bairstow in, our bowlers were starting to get the ball to reverse. Both Jimmy Pattinson and Shane Watson extracted some big movement in the air and were unlucky not to take a bunch of wickets. We lost referrals in the Decision Review System when I made a couple of errors. Patto appealed for LBW against Bairstow and our referral was turned down. Then Watto got the umpire’s finger when he hit Bell in front, but England’s referral overturned the decision. Both times, the ball had been veering off down the leg side, according to Hawk-Eye.
As far as our process is concerned, it’s pretty straightforward. I talk to the people who have the best view, who are generally the wicketkeeper and first slip. If needed, we then go to the bowler, who’s more emotionally involved and obviously thinks every ball that hits the pad is out. Within the few seconds we’re allowed, we make a judgment call. Today we got two of those wrong, and lost our referrals. I take responsibility for making the final calls, but the replays showed that while we made mistakes, they were very, very close.
We got Bairstow and Prior, and took the second new ball. I thought that even though the old one was reversing, a new one might charge up the bowlers and give them some conventional swing. I’m not sure if it was the right decision, because the ball also began to come off the bat a lot harder.
We were holding up well through a hot day. The ball was beginning to shoot, Patto unsettled Broad with some short ones, Agar very nearly had Broad caught in close by Cowan and out
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