DEEP ROOTS

A red letter day for Joe Root has prevented England being gobbled up at the Gabbatoir.

There is a reptile that lives in the red centre of Australia called the thorny devil. It lies motionless in wait for one of the 3,000 varieties of ant that live around the area. It’s saliva neutralises the chemical excreted by the insects when they are killed (a natural warning to other ants), meaning its prey literally wanders into its mouth. (It is not called a “devil” for nothing.)

Australian cricketers – especially bowlers – are the same. They may not sometimes look especially dangerous (Mitchell Starc excepted in this Test) but they lure you in with a persistence and an inconspicuous methodology and snuff you out when you are off your guard. They feed ravenously off unsuspecting visitors to their territory.

The turning point of the first day at the Gabba illustrated that. It was post tea, or supper, or whatever you call it, and the floodlights were on full beam. But the ball – 50 overs old – was doing nothing. Ollie Pope and Harry Brook had already wandered blithely into the lizard (Starc’s) mouth but England’s fifth wicket pair – Root and Stokes – were patiently rebuilding, seeing Starc off and taking the score past 200. The overrate was so slow that the Aussies had no chance of claiming the second new ball before the close.

The second string bowlers had kept an immaculate line and length and restricted the scoring. Stokes was becalmed and Root kept in check. Seeking a quick single to keep the score ticking, Stokes set off, was rightly sent back, but beaten by Inglis’s superb pick up and throw. 210-5 was immediately 211-6 when a decent nip-backer from Boland nipped through Jamie Smith’s gate.

After some resistance from Will Jacks, Starc returned to gobble him up, followed by Atkinson and Carse (via two brilliant catches from Alex Carey.) The lizard had had a feast.

But he couldn’t persuade Root into his mouth. The chemicals this Yorkshire prodigy gives off neuter all bowlers’ threats, whatever their poison. The dangled offering outside off-stump – ignored initially and later steered into gaps, getging his hands high to allow for the extra bounce. The angled-in lbw ball resisted with a little step out of the crease and resolute block, or neat work off his pads. The maidens with the keeper stood up to the stumps negotiated, the attempted yorker dug out or eased past the bowler, the bouncers flat-batted or paddled round for ones and twos, or a brace of boundaries to take him to 96. Even the knowledge that he had been involved (though not to blame) for the runout of his captain was sent to the back of his mind to concentrate on the job in hand and devote his body and soul to the English cause.

The moment he glanced Boland for four to bring up his hundred all English fans rejoiced in the knowledge that he could now be officially anointed as England’s greatest batsman, and even the Aussies must accept that now. And it was chanceless too (Steve Smith didn’t a hand on that early offering in the slips, although it was catchable height. Otherwise this was a near faultless performance, his 40^th Test hundred, leaving him now on 13686 runs, just 2235 behind Sachin Tendulkar. Needs a lot more than a thorny devil to kill him off. More importantly it has given life to England’s Ashes hopes…