Before it all starts - Adelaide

By Bagpuss
December 3 2006

The Ashes starts at midnight but there was a game just before that! As we listen to Harmy trying to get JL out cheaply and early we can read about the last game beforehand from our friendly neighbourhood pink cat!

ADELAIDE OVAL 17-19 NOVEMBER 2006

DAY 1

Ask most cricket tourists which is their favourite Australian ground and the overwhelming majority will pick the Adelaide Oval. I would have to agree – although the Bellerive Oval in Hobart runs it close. Adelaide is a big-match ground with a friendly, local feel, a bit like the city itself really. Look down the ground from the Bradman Stand to the famous Adelaide Hill (where there is still plenty of room for families to picnic and English fans to hang their flags) overlooked by the equally famous old scoreboard (guided tours available) with the cathedral in the background. The only downside is sometimes the temperatures can soar to 40 degrees – at least the beer, sold from a bar beneath the scoreboard, stays cold.

The temperature is a more reasonable 25 degrees on this first day of England's final practice match before the Ashes series starts in Brisbane. The batting line up picks itself – Cook moving up the order to open with Strauss, followed by Bell, Collingwood, Pietersen, Flintoff and Jones. If this is full dress rehearsal for Brisbane then the spin question seems to have been answered in favour of Panesar. But England may have another dilemma to solve next week as Harmison has woken up with a bit of a twinge in his side/back – he tries a couple of overs in the nets but doesn't seem comfortable so is withdrawn from the match as a precaution. Mahmood gets a chance to prove that he has been written off too soon. Team management will not be pressed on how serious Harmison's injury is – of course there is the scan, but this proves inconclusive. Reports of cortisone injections too. Hopefully Doctor Time will sort the problem but even if fit Harmison will be going into the first Test short on form and match practice.

South Australia may not have the stellar line up of NSW in the previous match but there are still some names known up in the Northern hemisphere. Captained by the irrepressible Darren Lehmann, recently retired from Yorkshire but not ready to hang up his Redback's shirt yet. Surely if he fitted the mould of an 'international cricketer' the man who holds the record for runs scores in Sheffield Shield cricket would have played more for his country. There is another player who had a brief (but, for Somerset supporters, painful) association with Yorkshire at the top of SA batting order in Matt Elliott. A Yorkshire trio is completed by this year's overseas player Jason Gillespie, recovered from the injury that prevented him captaining the President's XI in Canberra. Mark Cosgrove, a niggling but gravitationally substantial thorn on the side of England in Canberra, is at number 4. And finally a hint of Somerset is provided by Dan Cullen (remember him?)

Lehmann wins the toss and inevitably chooses to bat. Hoggard opens the bowling from the City end, whilst Anderson shares the new ball from the Cathedral end. SA make a slow but apparently untroubled start until Anderson makes the breakthrough, Elliot edging to Jones. 21-1 in the 10th over. Hoggard gets in on the act next over getting a thicker edge from Harris, taken by Collingwood with the score still on 21. Hoggard is firing now and in his next over gets 2 in 2, first Cosgrove gloving the ball to Jones then next ball the in swinger gets Ferguson lbw. SA are reeling on 25-4 and Hoggard has taken 3-0 in 12 balls although he fails to convert the hat trick the natives in the crowd have gone rather quiet.

Darren Lehmann has always been one of the first names on my list for my Telegraph team and proves why as he digs in before lunch. He has found a willing lieutenant in Cameron Borgas and together they survived through from the drinks interval to lunch when SA were 60-4 off 26 overs with Lehmann on 24 and Borgas 10. This is probably the first session of the tour where England have comprehensively come out on top.

After lunch Hoggard and Anderson resume, replaced in turn by Flintoff and Mahmood. Panesar gets a bowl, eventually Flintoff turns to Pietersen. But there is no shifting this batting pair as Lehmann and later Borgas pass their half centuries. A fruitless session for England then as SA go to tea 177-4 off 56 overs, Lehmann on 96 outscoring his partner Borgas, 54, by almost 2:1.

After tea Lehmann's progress towards his 13th first class century of the calendar year seems inevitable but is brought to a halt by some slick fielding by Anderson at fine leg. Run out for 99 going for the second run that would have brought up the hundred. 182-5 in the 59th. Keeper-batsman Deitz joins Borgas and adds 24 to the total before becoming Flintoff's first victim of the innings, caught by Jones, followed soon after by his second, Borgas caught by Bell for 73. SA 226-9 in the 69th. A final push to clear up the tail and England can be satisfied with their performance. But Bailey and Gillespie (who can boast a test double century to his name) look secure. Then, with eight overs left to play, Lehmann puts the feline amongst the feathery things by declaring on 247-7. Bailey not out 13 and Gillespie 7. England will have a potentially tricky six overs to face, three of them from an unleashed Shaun Tait, out to prove to Australia that his raw pace would be a better bet than Clark's metronomic accuracy for Brisbane.

Strauss is facing, Tait is bowling from the city end. First ball is wild, really wild, so wide it goes through the slip cordon and to the boundary for four wides. Second ball safely left by Strauss and hits the keepers gloves to ironic cheers from the England supporters. And the third ball sends Strauss back to the pavillion for his first failure so far this tour, out lbw for a duck.

It is Hoggard who is sent out as the sacrificial nightwatchman to a fired-up Tait, five slips, two gullies and hardly a fielder in sight in front of the bat. Must have looked a pretty empty outfield from Hoggy's viewpoint but he hangs on in there. Not sure if he's really got the hang of this nightwatchman lark though as he keeps taking singles to bring Cook back down to the danger end, who then takes another saying “No, YOU face him!” Gillespie seems a much more comfortable option from the Cathedral end and Hoggard finishes the day by turning him neatly through square leg for 4. England finish the day 24-1 off 6, Cook 6 and Hoggard 10. Hopefully Hoggard can hang in there tomorrow morning with Cook for as long as possible. If these two can last the first 10-15 overs then would hope, as in the SA innings, the swing wears off and batting will become easier for England's middle order. South Australians on the other hand will be hoping for a Tait exhibition. News coming in of an injury to Shane Watson whilst playing for WA surely makes the selectors barometer swing back towards Stuart Clark. A match winning performance by Tait would help his cause.

As for your intrepid reporter I'm off to Glenelg tomorrow so may be a truncated report on day 2. But there is more than the beach beckoning me ... More later.

(but no more was forthcoming so we wait with bated breath for the first Ashes report of the season.  As I set this up we are three overs in with Giles being picked ahead of Panesar and Harmison having bowled the widest of wides for his first ball - picked up by second slip - let's all settle down to a few weeks of good stuff...well from one side at least!)