Ireland’s Tim Murtagh starred as an action-packed first day unfolded at Lord’s, where wickets tumbled and England crashed to Earth
“What goes up must come down”, or so the old saying goes. It could not have been more true for England today as, just ten days after they won the World Cup to reach an unprecedented (for them, at least) high, they sunk to an equally extreme low as they were bowled out – after choosing to bat first, no less – for the humiliating total of 85 on the first morning against Ireland at Lord’s.
In hindsight, such a performance was arguably an accident waiting to happen. The ommission of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes from the team, though in reality a pragamtic decision to rest them ahead of the Ashes after a intense World Cup, will probably now be pereceived by many as an act of hubristic arrogance which England deserved to suffer for.
On top of that, the collective failure of England’s top order was probably at least half-expected by most onlookers going into the math, even if the ultimate scale of the entire team’s capitulation stunned everyone. Rory Burns had mostly failed to convince in his test career to date and had so far had an unremarkable County Championship this year, Jason Roy, for all his limited-overs success, was widely viewed as a long-odds gamble to succeed in the Test arena and Joe Denly, as a respectable country pro given a late-career (second) chance to shine internationally, is as vulnerable to high-quality swing bowling in helpful conditions as any who have played the game.
Which brings us nicely on the the third reason why England struggled so badly – Tim Murtagh – with (before today) 800 first-class wickets to his name at the impressive average of 25.33, highly respectable performances in his limited test career to date and a wealth of experience playing for Middlesex at Lord’s (“I mean, I should know how to bowl on this ground” he said, whilst being interviewed during the lunch interval), many expected him to trouble the English batsmen.
In the event, he did far more than this – his spell of 5-13 simply blew away a test side which is still unable to – or perhaps refuses to – adapt and fight when the going gets tough, and may well prove to have been the catalyst for Ireland’s first test win, in only their third game.
Of course, there was more to the day’s play than just England’s innings (their shortest ever on home soil, by the way). Ireland were also bowled out before the end of the day’s play, in an innings with will have provided frustration for both teams – England bowled poorly early on and wasted the new ball, compounded by dropping catches, whereas Ireland, after batting well to reach and 132-2, found themselves 207 all out thanks, in part, to some poor shots (and, in the case of Stuart Thompson, non-shots) – whilst they will rightly be overjoyed with the day’s play on the whole, they will probably feel they missed a chance to build a massive, rather than merely really quite big, first-innings lead.
Because, despite their disastrous start, if England perform to the level that they can, they are still very much in this game – batting should be much easier than it was at the start of today and if they can set Ireland even a modest total, that may well prove a tough test of the inexperienced side’s nerve.
Or, then again, maybe it won’t – if this match has done anything so far, it has reminded us that when it comes to test cricket, expectations are only there to be defied.
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