The Ashes Daily: Australia battle back after Root's brilliant century

0:00Oh, that's a start, that is from Crawley.

0:02Nas:Chris Wokes nails it for four. The Ashes alive and Test cricket alive.

0:08Ath:Ice in his veins. Pat Cummins has led his team to a famous victory. Yeah, go! Down, he gets his goal. It's a landing. England's captain, Ben Stokes.

0:19Nas:While he is there, England have hope. Put the beer away. Put the champagne on ice. 24 years of pain in Australia. finally they're beaten at home by England

0:31Ath:OK, end of the day, second day at the Sydney Cricket Ground it's a bit gloomy, it's just started to rain but we've got a full day's play it's been a very interesting day's play Nass is only one place to start really and that's Joe Root who played quite magnificently today

0:46Nas:He has, you said yesterday he hasn't got many fond memories of this ground well he has got now he's got another magnificent Test Match 100 his second in Australia 41st Test Match 100 equaling the great Ricky Ponting and he only has Callison Tendulka ahead of him and the statisticians are starting to look at Tendulka and his run getting but Joe Root was quite brilliant I mean it was an exhibition on how to play the ball late play right underneath your eyes in fact today was slightly tricky I don't know if you agree but I thought it was a bit more bounce and a little bit more nip and a bit quicker today so those run those shots he was running down off the face of the bat yesterday became a bit more risky today I thought his balance through mid on he's always been strong through that offside but he played some shots wide of mid on straight of mid wicket that shows he's in good order and your balance at the crease is spot on absolute joy to watch and you know what you wait so long for 100 in Australia and he's got a pink ball 100 and a

1:45Ath:red ball 100 yeah I don't think I've seen him well he's certainly not played better here in Australia I'm not sure I've seen him play better anywhere, actually. I thought it was one of his very best innings. If we look at the day all told, with Australia a couple of hundred behind, at the end of the second day, how would you give the overview of the situation? Nasometer. The nasometer. I thought 382 because of what you said. That was quite a decent competitive score.

2:11Nas:Yeah, Nasfiz, I thought it was because it was nibbling and nipping today. There was a lot of balls. Even Joe was walking down the pitch and it bounced and moved and he looked and went, oh, it's just doing a bit more today, a bit quicker. But then England didn't bowl particularly well. So looking at it at the end of the day, I would say the positive for Australia is they have fought their way back in the game and they've got a very long batting line-up. I mean, Stark is coming in, what, now at number 10 because Nisa's up there. So you've then got also the fact that they may have to bat last on it depending on how the next couple of days.

2:45Nas:and I think it will get uneven. So there's still a lot of cricket to be played in it, but as ever, Australia in that little first session with the two wickets fought back. What did you make of the Brook dismissal up front?

2:56Ath:Yeah, well, let's go through the dismissals. I thought that was a poor shot. You know, you've got to start again, haven't you, the next day? You've got to try and get yourself in. People can make mistakes, but if you just look at the dismissal in isolation, it was neither defensive nor aggressive shot, neither a straight back nor a horizontal shot. It was a slip and a gully and he was kind of just fencing it to them. I didn't quite know what he was trying to do. Poor shot, I thought.

3:22Nas:It was. And I think a reason for that is the fact that it was just a bit quicker and a bit bouncier today. I think yesterday you could sort of just run that and guide it. You had a bit more time. Today the extra bounce and nip meant that he just nicked it and ended up like he often, not often, he sometimes does, plays away from his body. Stokes next.

3:42Ath:Good ball, obviously. A couple of things here. One is Mitchell Starks got his number. 14.

3:49Nas:19 you were with McGrath. He's catching you up. The trouble is, Mitchell Starks, 35. How long is he going to play for?

3:55Ath:Can we get him to another Ashes series? But that was a good ball.

3:58Nas:Did you think he was out? I mean, with Snicker, I think there was a noise.

4:01Ath:Yeah, I thought it was out in real time. And although it wasn't like the most convincing appeal, it just looked so close to the edge. the problem with Snicko at the moment is just that there's a general lack of confidence so now every time a decision goes to Snicko it's like ooh what have we got ahead of us but I think that was a fair enough decision I think he nicked it it was a good ball but it's the fifth time Stark has got him and four of those for single figure scores so that was the other issue about Harry Brook playing that shot it meant that Stokes was in early while Stark was fresh

4:33Nas:And Smith strikes me very much as a clash of, this is my match-up with this bowler, with this batter. He does it all the time when Jamie Smith comes on, Scott Bowling. When Stokes comes in, it's Mitchell Stark. And you're right, because of Brook's shot so early, I think that's something they've not quite done. He didn't get out to Stark today. But I think what they haven't done in this series is the understanding of the drop-off maybe from Stark. They've sort of gifted wickets away and meant that Stark is often bowling to new batters, as he was today with Stokes. Stokes took his time again. There's a bunch of bananas behind us.

5:12Nas:OK. Doing various things. So, yeah, I mean, Stokes took his time to get in and he just got stuck at Stark's end. When are we going to talk about the Jamie Smith dismissal?

5:23Ath:Well, we'll have to talk about it now. It was witless, wasn't it? I can't think that I've seen it all the time. I can't think I've seen a worse dismissal from an England batsman. So the context is we're just a little before lunch, 15 minutes about before lunch. The new ball, second new ball is obviously beckoning. So they're trying to get through to it with head at one end, Labashane at the other. Labashane's not bowling legs, spinny's bowling, bounces at about your pace, 68 miles an hour. Everybody's out. There's one man out in front of square on the offside. That's Scott Boland and Jamie Smith in the end.

5:55Ath:Flaps, I think he was trying to hit it down the ground, wasn't he? It was a kind of tennis shot, an almost overhead smash, which ended up going into the hands of Scott Boland. And you just thought, what is going on?

6:06Nas:It's what we've talked about with Harry Brook, with Ollie Pope, with a variety of people. It's the situation again. It's nine minutes till lunch. You know Stark is going to come after lunch with the new ball, which is five overs away. You've got one of the greatest batters of all time at the other end on 130, grinding his way to a massive score. Just understand the situation of the game. This team has a lot of talent, but part of talent is understanding situations as well, and they don't seem to grasp it. And I'm sort of getting a bit tired of talking of the shot. What I need your reaction to, what I want to talk to you about, is what is the reaction in that dressing room?

6:48Nas:Is anyone saying to Jamie Smith yesterday, when he's pulling that with eight men out and it lands between them, Is anyone at any stage saying, Jamie, look at the field, what was going through your head? Is anyone saying to Jamie Smith today, situation of the game, Marnus Labashain, five minutes to go till lunch, what were you thinking? Or do you think they're just leaving?

7:09Ath:Well, I don't know because we're not in the dressing room. But one of the things about this team is that it's been a slightly no consequences set up, hasn't it? You can continue to get picked when you average 30 in 60 test matches. you can't think of people who have been dropped along the way for a poor shot, poor performance or whatever. Now, of course, there's a balance to be had. I was thinking, actually, we mentioned Damian Martin on our podcast a few days ago, and I understand the news is a bit better where Marto is concerned. We wish him absolutely all the best in his recovery. But I was thinking, you know, he was dropped for, there was a test match that Australia lost here to South Africa in the early 90s.

7:50Ath:he played a bad shot and he kind of took the brunt of the criticism and I think he was dropped and didn't kind of come back for six or seven years after that but you don't want a situation where people are frightened to play their game because they're worried about the fear of the axe falling because you're back into the days of of the 90s but there has to be some consequences as well it has to be performance based and outcome based um you know what the reaction will be I don't know The reaction publicly will certainly be a very negative one.

8:19Nas:Yeah, I'm more interested in the reaction in the dressing room. Because that's the only way you improve as a team. You have some honest chat and you talk about the good and you talk about the not so good as well. I just want to talk to you about, if you don't mind, about your idea before the game of having another voice in there. You mentioned Alistair Cook as an assistant coach. How would that work in a situation like that? Because you may have one coach in Brendan McCollum saying, go harder, commit to the shot, go all in and the method and the mindset. And you may then have another one, say Alistair Cook, say whoever it might be saying, hold on.

8:53Nas:Confusing matters. Yeah, so isn't that mixed messages?

8:56Ath:Yeah, and I don't know how that would work. It should happen. It was an idea. Yeah. But the reason that I put forward that idea is that because it's not been working in the last 12 months, you know, the Stokes-McCollum-Key regime had a massive lift over the first two years. but in the last year or so results and performances have declined and therefore what are you going to do you're just going to say well let's carry on and nothing will change so something has to slightly change and I don't believe that England want to rip up the whole project because there's been far too much good come out of it and therefore how do you redefine it how do you slightly tinker with it and you know one more there's a general feeling that there's a you You know, a bit of group think there that nobody is prepared to say, what about that?

9:43Ath:You know, that wasn't very good because they don't like negativity within the dressing room and within the group.

9:50Nas:It's not weak, though. I mean, I've played with Alan Borda at Essex. Can you imagine Alan Borda stood at that SCG dressing room if an Australian had played a shot like that and come in?

10:00Ath:You'd probably lock the door there and you'd have to go and sit amongst the members.

10:04Nas:Can you imagine the volley you would have got? I've played with some captains that would have just tore a piece off you, to be honest, for a shot like that. So it's not just, it's not a little dig at Jamie Smith. It's because there's just so many, and it's not even just on this tour. You go back to Lords and the Last Ashes where they're all hooking when Nathan Lyon's off the field. They don't seem to understand the situation, and that's not making the most of your talent. Because I think we both agree, Harry Brooke and Jamie Smith are two very, very talented individuals, but they're not making the most of their talent if they're gifting wickets away.

10:38Ath:And the issue after the tea break, England lost five for 61 after Smith's dismissal. So that's the other aspect to that dismissal, that going along pretty nicely with Joe Root. Then there was a good hour of bowling with the second new ball. Then Nisa came on, got Will Jax, who'd battled hard for an hour. But then, you know, the last five fell for 61. on and then the the criticism of England's new ball bowling would be very different from that criticism before lunch where you're talking about you know talented players who are misreading the situation whereas with the new ball they just didn't get it right and Potts hasn't played for five weeks and it showed didn't it in his opening three overs he was short rhythm he was short you

11:20Nas:know of a gallop really had no pace as well the pace was down hasn't played since Canberra as you say five weeks ago I'm not sure for all those reasons I would have given him the new ball I see this as a bit of a new ball pitch look at yesterday morning how much it did in that first hour I would have gone probably tongue and if anything you could argue should have gone tongue and Stokes who have been the most reliable the fullest how did Stokes end up getting his two wickets by bringing in the stunt I mean Jake Wetherill you do not have to have 15 meetings about where to bowl to Jake Weatherill.

11:53Nas:He stands in a crouched position with his head way outside the line of the ball. How many times has he been out? Five times in the series, LBW. You bowl full and he falls over. You don't bowl short and wide. Travis said, most left-handers like it short and wide. Him more than others. So I would have gone. Who would you have given the new ball to? Not after the event.

12:13Ath:No, sure. I was listening, actually, to Michael Vaughan and others talk on Fox, and they were talking about Ben Stokes, the new ball. Mind you, they also talk about Ben Stocks going up to number three. That's a lot of work. You know, he can't captain number three and open the bowling. So there's issues there. But it's no surprise that the wickets fell, came to full balls. As you say, Weatherall, full ball, played across it. Labashane, drawn into the shot, drive. But almost every other time that I looked up from my desk, I was watching Travis Head cut the ball. I mean, he's played brilliantly this series.

12:46Ath:And he's vying with Stark and Carey, isn't he, for the player of the series for Australia. 100 at Perth, 100 at Adelaide, and now closing in on one hand. But the way England, he's not easy to bowl to because he sits deep and leg side. But my word, I think he's hit 53 runs either side of point in his 90-odd so far. And the number of cup balls England have given him, they've got a really tight knock to Travis Head.

13:11Nas:Well, they've only got one more innings possibly to do it. I mean, they look like they'd got better in the last game. They did bowl well, full and straight. The other thing they did was put down a cup. One very difficult chance.

13:23Ath:I don't think people said Rue. I don't see how that's a chance. He's jumped. He's at full stretch and just gets his fingertips to it. Well, I mean, he got a tip to it, but I don't see what more he could have done. But then Duckett put down a very simple chance, didn't he, off Wetherold at square leg. And that really just, again, showed the contrast between the one area of Australia's game that has been absolutely top-notch in this series has been their fielding, and England has not.

13:47Nas:Is that just a sign of a scramble brain from Duckett? Do you think it goes from one to the other because he's had a tour to forget really? He can't get a run. He's put down quite a few chances now. That was a very easy chance.

14:01Ath:Yeah, it wasn't a costly one because Weatherall was dismissed shortly afterwards. But it just maybe signifies where he's at and showed where England are at in the field, which is a long way behind Australia at the moment. and then Joe went off clutching his back, looked like he got a back spasm, carried the team.