Ollie Robinson, in his second Wisden.com column, writes on the captivating finish at Lord’s, sharing his thoughts on the Jonny Bairstow stumping controversy and Ben Stokes’ “better than Headingley” in-vain, counter-attacking hundred.
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The cricket we’ve been playing has been entertaining but now it’s time to knuckle down and try and keep the series alive. We still want to go out there and play aggressive cricket, so I don’t think you’re going to see any change there. But there’s that understanding that we really need to pull something out of the bag in this game to keep it going. There’s definitely that real focus that this is it and we need to really perform.
I don’t think we’re too far away. I think the Aussies have played to quite high in their potential, and we’re still searching for that game where we don’t miss any chances and batters get hundreds instead of fifties and bowlers are consistent the whole game. We haven’t really put together a solid game yet, there’s been a lot of mistakes from all parties, and I think if we can string together some serious performances, there’s a good chance that it will be two-all going into the Oval. We won three in a row in Pakistan, we won three in a row last year against New Zealand. It’s not like the team’s not done it before. And there’s a lot of confidence in the dressing room that we can do that again.
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We went with a short-ball strategy in the second innings, and they lost 77 for seven. So there’s definitely that belief in our camp that we can turn them over. That tactic was down the pitch. The Lord’s pitch was very two-paced, and you saw some balls were flying through and Jonny was taking them above head height and others weren’t even reaching him on the second bounce. And as a batter that’s really hard to line up.
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The passage of play after Jonny got out was captivating. We were all watching Broady at one end getting stuck into the Aussies and watching Stokesy at the other end whacking it all over the place. Before Stokesy goes into bat he’s always the same person. It wasn’t until the Jonny incident when I thought, he is really not the guy you want to fire up, because he will tear you apart. And in the next two hours, he proceeded to take their bowlers apart. Some people have got that switch in them where they go into a different gear and Stokesy did that on Sunday. And for an hour or so you saw the Aussies lose the plot a little bit, they really didn’t know what to do or where to bowl. That’s the power and the impact that Stokesy has on the cricket field. It’s a shame that he couldn’t get us all the way but it was still one of the best knocks I’ve ever seen in my life.
That was definitely better than the knock he played at Headingley. The way he commanded the whole innings was incredible. I don’t think we will ever see another cricketer like that for a long time. He’s capturing imaginations and making people want to play cricket when they grow up. I think everyone at the moment wants to be Ben Stokes, and so do I!
Ollie Robinson will be writing for Wisden.com throughout the Ashes.
