'It's a disgrace': Fury over 'ridiculous' tradition that caused Ashes draw
As thrilling and dramatic as the second Ashes Test at Lord’s was, it succeeded in exposing an archaic tradition that robbed it of being so much better.
Australia held on for an extraordinary draw on Sunday, with super-sub Marnus Labuschagne, who replaced Steve Smith in Australia's XI on the morning of day five, scoring 59 from 100 balls as the tourists batted out 47.3 overs to maintain their 1-0 series lead.
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Australia finished 6-154 after being set a target of 267, with Labuschagne and Travis Head doing most of the heavy lifting as Jofra Archer threatened to bounce England to victory on debut.
However the pesky London weather robbed fans of a result, and the spoils were shared after a cracking Test match.
But could more have been done to force a result?
Despite all of day one and the majority of day three being washed out, fans were left fuming when play continued to start at 11am on proceeding days.
The morning sessions were extended to 1.30pm rather than 1pm, and time was supposed to be made up at the end of each day, but bad light and more rain scuppered that plan as well.
Despite the sun shining and the covers nowhere to be seen before the second and fourth days, play wasn’t started earlier as would normally happen in Australia.
Fans were gobsmacked at the decision to keep starting at 11am, with the reason simply being that tradition dictates play can’t start any earlier.
Aussie commentator Jim Maxwell was among those to call for change.
Jim Maxwell speaking a lot of sense earlier on @bbctms, why not start at 10:30? What is stopping this happening? Negotiate it at the start of the series if weather intervenes start earlier. And also shorten lunches, surely 40 minutes is unnecessary? #ENGvAUS #Ashes
— Cricket thoughts (@crickethoughts) August 18, 2019
Don’t you love how archaic our game can be at times? We’ve lost heaps of time but we’re not starting early, can’t do that in England. Can in Australia for some reason though.
— Sandy Lanceley (@sandylanceley) August 17, 2019
I’m not 100% sure, I know they can go late over there, they tend to have more light in summer than we do late at night. But they should be starting early & finishing late. The game has lost 5 sessions already.
— Sandy Lanceley (@sandylanceley) August 17, 2019
Utterly ridiculous. They’ll put unnecessary numbers on the back of shirts but can’t start 30 mins early because “tradition”
— Sandy Lanceley (@sandylanceley) August 17, 2019
I'll never understand why we don't start half an hour earlier when there's overs to be made up. Morning dew pretty much gone by 9am and ODIs start at 10am. #bbccricket #ashes
— Dave 大卫 (@carr2k1987) August 18, 2019
@SkyCricket have a whole channel dedicated to the #Ashes cricket. There is no plausible excuse why they could start the coverage an hour earlier. Its a disgrace play hasn't started today at 10.
— Baggie Buddie (@jasonbright16) August 17, 2019
Can someone explain the logic here? We’ve lost two days nearly to rain and on a day where no rain is forecasted we’re not starting earlier because? Start at 10 or even 9:30 for gods sake. #EngvAus #Ashes
— Tommy Butler (@butlert90) August 17, 2019
What kind of a game is cricket? They've already lost one day to rain, they know its going to rain this afternoon. Yet, they start play today by strolling out to the crease at 11am - why not start earlier? It's so utterly pointless this whole affair #ashes
— Paul Treloar (@PaulieTandoori) August 16, 2019
That's ridiculous.
— Dazza_20 (@Dazza_20) August 14, 2019
Both sides claim upper hand
The five-Test series continues on Thursday, when Smith is fully expected to be an enforced omission because of the frightening bouncer blow to the neck that Archer inflicted on Saturday.
Australia will retain the urn if they win the third Test.
"It's a great situation to be in. This Test was tight all the way ... I wouldn't say it was a great escape at all," Australia captain Tim Paine said.
"If you would have said (prior to the series that) we are 1-0 up after two Tests, we would have taken that every day."
England counterpart Joe Root was just as buoyant.
"We put them under huge amounts of pressure," he said.
"We might look back at the odd missed opportunity, but it was a fantastic effort."
with AAP