The Ashes started today. It must be the greatest sporting rivalry on the planet. Even the start of the match is so much more. Teams presented, mascots with flags, a tenor singing Jerusalem, a fly over by the Red Arrows, a packed Trent Bridge…it’s a celebration.
I was weeding Sidney’s space out the front this morning with the radio sat on a window sill, firmly tuned to Radio Five Live, listening to the morning’s play on Test Match Special. And what an exciting morning’s play, it was!
With Australia the underdogs (how strange that is to type), it was up to England to stamp their ownership on the match from the off. They started well enough but it didn’t last. Wickets started falling while the runs were increasingly hard to come by. (I was very happy to see Kevin Pietersen dismissed for a paltry 14.)
The Australian youngsters (Agar, 19, who no-one had heard of, played his first international, for instance) gave it their all and managed to restrict the English to a meagre 215. The weather helped a lot, it has to be said. While the sun was baking me in Surrey, the clouds were covering Trent Bridge, giving the ball a bit of movement.
The commentators were unanimous that the English batsmen were nervous, jittery with the atmosphere. If so, it really managed to get to them. They didn’t perform like they definitely can.
The demoralised English then took to the field, defending their hard won runs. And they were repaid in spades. Australian wickets tumbled (the crowd went wild when Clarke went for a duck) and, at the end of play, it was 75-4.
At one stage, Steven Finn was on a hat trick and, according to Jonathon Agnew, the ground erupted in a wall of noise as the crowd willed him on.
A thoroughly absorbing day’s cricket (such a pity I wasn’t at the game), which promises to continue tomorrow with Australia looking for a couple of heroes to build a decent score for the first innings.
How could anyone call cricket boring? If this is an indication of how the Ashes tour will be this year, I’m certain it’ll be one to remember forever.
