An electric performance from England’s five-man pace attack, led by five wickets for Ben Stokes, turned a thrilling opening day of the Ashes on its head after their batsmen had been blown away by Mitchell Starc.
Replying to the tourists’ anaemic 172 – a performance that confirmed in many local minds the worst excesses of Bazball – Australia collapsed to 123 for nine, and staggered to stumps still 49 behind.
Whatever your nationality, a crowd that eventually passed 51,000 – a record for a Test in Perth – enjoyed a day of rich, often madcap, entertainment. If the rest of the Ashes is like this, hold on to your hats.
It was Starc who made the early headlines, taking a Test-best seven for 58 as England were dismissed inside 33 overs – the shortest completed innings of the Bazball era.
But while he was a lone ranger, England hunted as a pack, with two wickets each for Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse, and five for 23 in six remarkable overs for Stokes.
Gus Atkinson played his part during an immaculate opening spell, while Mark Wood was the quickest of the lot, passing 94mph and clattering Cameron Green on the grille. It was awe-inspiring stuff, and Australia – even Steve Smith, jeered to the crease by the Barmy Army after his bizarre broadside against Monty Panesar – had little answer.
England’s five-man pace attack, led by five wickets for Ben Stokes , turned a thrilling opening day of the Ashes on its head
Replying to England’s anaemic 172, Australia collapsed to 123 for nine, and staggered to stumps still 49 behind
In the best Western Australian traditions, this was cricket in the raw, whetting the appetite for the next seven weeks.
The storylines came and went as a quickly as the wickets. A six-ball duck for Zak Crawley, then a seven-ball duck for Joe Root. A composed 46 from Ollie Pope, and an outrageous half-century from Harry Brook, who repeatedly gave himself room outside leg in an attempt to access the off side. A collapse of five for 19 that angered England fans and amused Australians.
Threaded through it all was Starc, who reacted to the absence of the injured Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood by rising magnificently to a challenge made harder by the fact that Scott Boland was going at a run a ball and Brendan Doggett was feeling his way into his debut.
After inducing a careless waft from Crawley in the first over, Starc ended Ben Duckett’s punchy 21 with a full-length delivery that would have hit leg stump had pad not got in the way, then turned Root round, a leading edge flying to Marnus Labuschagne at third slip. To Root’s quest for a first hundred on Australian soil this was a hapless start.
Starc, though, saved his best for Stokes, who was set up a series of awayswingers before appearing powerless to a ball that snaked past the inside edge and on to the top of middle and off.
Twice, England suggested they had weathered the storm. First at 94 for three, with lunch approaching and Pope looking comfortable. Then at 160 for five, with Brook and Jamie Smith strutting their stuff.
But Pope unaccountably missed a leg-stump half-volley from Green, and Brook gave himself out as soon as Australia reviewed a leg-side strangle, providing Doggett with his first Test wicket.
If England’s innings ended in a mess, Australia’s began just as untidily. Archer, in his first Test in this country, moved his second ball into the pads of debutant Jake Weatherald. Umpire Adrian Holdstock said not out, but Archer was adamant, and DRS backed him up: pitching leg, hitting leg.
Mitchell Starc who made the early headlines, taking a Test-best seven for 58 on Friday
Harry Brook top scored for the tourists with 52 before being caught by Brendan Doggett off Alex Carey’s delivery
In the 10 overs until tea, England were outstanding, with as high-class a pair as Smith and Labuschagne barely able to land a bat on it. After tea, though, the bowlers got their rewards. Labuschagne played on trying to leave Archer alone, and Smith edged Carse to second slip.
But the procession had barely begun. Carse removed Usman Khawaja, down at No 4 because of an unspecified illness, with a snorter, though Khawaja’s bottom hand may have been off the handle when the ball brushed his glove.
And while Green, dropped by Atkinson on five off his own bowling, put on 45 with Head, it was merely a breather before Stokes took the game by the scruff in inimitable fashion.
Head pulled him to mid-on, providing Carse with the first of three catches, and Green drove heedlessly at one that straightened and edged behind. Starc slapped to mid-on, before Boland completed a miserable few hours by pushing low to Brook at second slip to register the day’s fifth duck.
Had these strokes featured in the England innings, they would have been roundly mocked. But it was clear that England’s pace-bowling blitz had got under Australian skins, forcing normally rational players to make decisions they would usually forego.
Whatever happens from here, Stokes’s attack has made a statement so resounding that – as the crowd headed for home, perhaps pinching themselves at the madness of it all – the wastefulness of England’s batting had been almost forgotten.
