The Hindu : Sport : Langer steadies Australia

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Saturday, Aug 06, 2005

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Langer steadies Australia

Ted Corbett

BIRMINGHAM: Justin Langer, clinging to the crease with the same tenacity that he has shown in holding on to his Test place, was the rock around which Australia built its innings at Edgbaston on Friday. The dapper left-hander enabled Australia to save the follow-on but after a dashing start it was forced to battle by an England side imaginatively led by Michael Vaughan. Langer trudged on: four hours over 72, a contrast to the England innings when no-one was guilty of a defensive shot.

On a slow pitch the England bowling outclassed Australia's but the danger of Shane Warne leg breaks still dominated the second Test. He was mocked while taking four for 116 on the first day but he may have the last laugh — as well as his 600th wicket — in the next two days.

Warne factor

Overnight it occurred to me that perhaps Ricky Ponting was not wrong when he put England in and saw 407 runs scored in the first day. A wise man from county cricket pointed out that Ponting might have decided the ball would turn by the third day on this rain-hit pitch and that he did not care how many England scored provided Warne had the chance to bowl on a turning pitch. Ponting expected, not a green wicket on day one, but Warne to be a match-winner on day three. It was exactly the strategy followed by Arjuna Ranatunga at the Oval in 1998 when England scored 460 and lost by 10 wickets. The key was Muttiah Muralitharan; and Warne is at least Murali's equal.

Good knock

Ponting then hit the finest fifty of the series, driving forcefully. Three drives in succession off Simon Jones marked down the class of this fleet-footed attacker. The first through mid-off, the second straight but slightly to the onside and the third to the mid-on boundary; you will live many years to see three finer strokes.

Langer was in trouble from the first over, beaten by the first two balls of the day from Steve Harmison and hit on the head by the third. He is, to borrow an expression from an Australian writer, "as tough as a two dollar steak" and he stayed until lunch, despite being hit in the stomach. Ponting, in contrast, raced to fifty off 51 balls with ten 4s — and to 61 off 76 balls — before he swept Ashley Giles steepling into the hands of Vaughan at backward square leg. Vaughan followed up by running out Damien Martyn, a dangerously quick scorer at No.4, just before lunch, throwing on the turn and hitting the stumps with Martyn almost home.

From lunch at 118 for three — a rate of around five an over most of the two hours — Australia continued to attack. It dealt mainly in boundaries, as England had, although Langer hit just four in fifty that came in the 38th over. Michael Clarke began brightly but calmed down; the follow-on total of 207 was fifty runs away. Langer twitched a turning ball from Giles past his stumps as the run rate dropped below four and a half; with 13 wickets gone already the session was crucial.

Vaughan set a seven-two field for Giles and Hoggard and those important denizens of the Hollies Stand hollered for a success, encouraged by a man playing the National Anthem on a cornet. Whether it was the music or his own technique who knows, but at 194 Giles got Clarke to edge to Geraint Jones and to walk. The longer Vaughan maintained that unbalanced field the more the run rate fell; the Aussies were shaken. Langer might have been stumped off Giles and squeezed the ball past his off stump near Jones's gloves in the next over.

The follow on was saved but Flintoff round the wicket had Simon Katich caught low by Jones and Adam Gilchrist started with a blazing drive through mid off but by tea at 219 for five the day was still anyone's.

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