Tim Paine has assessed where the Australian side sits after Day 1 of the fifth Ashes Test against England at The Oval.
The performance of Pat Cummins and co. on the opening day of the final Test ebbed and flowed throughout, but ultimately ended with the Aussies in a fairly handy position.
Australia dismissed England for 283 after the hosts at one stage were 7-212 and it could have been somewhat worse after the openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett raced away with a 62-run partnership inside 12 overs.
Former Test captain Paine was frustrated by the way that Aussie quicks Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood bowled early, allowing Crawley and Duckett to get on the front foot.
Paine’s main irritation was with the misuse of the short ball which he feels could have been a weapon for the tourists.
“The thing I’ve found frustrating is our use of the bouncer in this series,” Paine said on SEN Tassie Breakfast.
“It seems to me like we’ve either not used it at all… I can’t remember a bouncer being bowled in the first hour last night and I think it’s a great option for Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett.
“For two reasons - because they’ll take it on, firstly. Zak Crawley I don’t think is a great player of the short ball. But also, when you plant the seed of a short ball to an opening batter, he’s not going to be coming forward as much, then that opens up Mitch Starc’s ability to pitch up, swing it down the line and hit pads and stumps.
“For me, we’ve either been all-in on the bouncer and bowling it every ball with the field out, or we haven’t used it all. I’d like to see just a little bit more of a balance with it because I think it’s a key weapon for all of our bowlers with the pace they bowl at.”
Despite that negative, Paine was thrilled with the way skipper Cummins bowled and changed the momentum of the first session after Crawley and Duckett got off to a flying start.
Cummins looked fatigued during the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, but sprung back to life in south London.
“What I was most impressed with, is we spoke about Pat Cummins and I thought he looked tired,” Paine added.
“I thought last night he looked fantastic. His pace was up, he looked zippy, his energy even in his run-up. He’s bowled a hell of a lot of overs in six weeks and bowling at his pace is not easy to do.
“He is a phenomenal athlete and the way for him to recover and come back like he did last night. I thought he was sensational, particularly after we got off to a pretty ordinary start. When he came on first change the game started to change, he had a nick dropped first ball, he looked like he was troubling Joe Root and changed the whole momentum of that first session.”
Overall, Paine felt Day 1 went in favour of the Aussies after they were staring down the barrel when Harry Brook and Moeen Ali were doing as they pleased in their 111-run partnership before the latter was dismissed trying to slog-sweep spinner Todd Murphy.
That gave Starc the opportunity to upend England captain Ben Stokes’ off stump with a peach of a delivery which set the wheels in motion for Australia.
“Was it a bat-first or a bowl-first (toss)?,” he said further.
“It ended up working out really well. If you bowl a team out for 283 before Day 1 and you’re in 1-61, you’d take that as a massive tick.
“After they were 3-180 and teetering on Harry Brook and Moeen Ali taking the game away from us in that middle session. The real turning point was Moeen Ali hurting this groin and then slogging and basically gave us a wicket which allowed ‘Starcy’ to come back on and knock over Stokes with one of the great balls from a big fast bowler.”
Australia finished the day with bat in hand on 1-61, 222 runs in arrears, with Usman Khawaja (26) and Marnus Labuschagne (2) at the crease.
The action at The Oval continues from 8pm AEST on Friday night and you can hear it across the SEN network and the SEN app.
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