England needed to come out fighting on the first day of the 3rd Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Wednesday and that is exactly what they did in favourable conditions at the Birmingham venue.
England could have been forgiven for thinking ‘here we go again’ after Michael Clarke won the toss and chose to bat under blue skies but by the time the match began the clouds had come flooding in much to the delight of England’s seamers.
On what turned out to be a very helpful wicket for the bowlers England made no mistake and soon got stuck into their opposition with only Chris Rogers making batting look anything like comfortable as the tourists were shot out for just 136 in less than 40 overs.
Australia didn’t help their own cause with some very loose shots outside off stump and some misjudgements along the way as well but immediately their joy of victory at Lord’s was wiped away and England were back in control of their own destiny in the series.
When the home side came out to bat you could tell they were better suited to these conditions. They left well, knew where their off stump was and put the many bad balls they received away. One concern remains in the form of Adam Lyth who was out driving wildly for 10 but on the flip side Ian Bell returned to form with a fluent 50 and England will go into the second day in a great position.
They closed the opening day just three runs behind with seven wickets in hand and with conditions expected to suit batting on Thursday there is a chance for England to put themselves out of sight in their first innings on a ground where they have a truly wonderful record.
Looking ahead to the rest of the match and there are a couple of bets I like going forward.
Jimmy Anderson took 6/47 on Wednesday to run through the Australians and it is a surprise that he is as big as even money to be named the man of the match now. Given the position England are in even a century from one of their batsmen is unlikely to make much difference unless it is a huge score like a 200 but even then any win England pick up will have been based on Anderson’s first innings spell.
Of course it isn’t completely set in stone that England will win the match from here and if they don’t then that throws the door open to the rest of the field but England will be disappointed if they don’t have a lead of 150 at the very least on first innings but they’ll be targeting 250+ for their lead overall. I expect England to win from here and if they do surely Anderson is the man of the match so that even money could be a better value bet than the 2/7 on England winning.
I think barring any bad weather we can rule out this match going to a final day already. Both these sides score quickly and only one innings of the nine completed in the series so far has gone over 105 overs and that was on the flat deck Lord’s served up which this clearly isn’t.
Both matches so far in the series have finished on the fourth day and I think there is a good chance this will too. Of course we can’t rule out the match ending on the third day but with batting expected to be easier with the sun out for the rest of the week we have to assume Australia won’t bat as badly again second time around. By the same token England aren’t likely to need too many in the final innings so a fourth day finish looks on the cards at this stage to me.
Back J.Anderson Man of the Match for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betway
Back Test Match End – Day 4 for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Blog 2015 cricket record: -8.96pts
