Australia, meet Bazball
It was a field Australia would not have been allowed in a T20 powerplay. In the third over Pat Cummins, the No. 3-ranked fast bowler in the world, armed with a new Dukes ball and an average of 21.74 had three fielders on the boundary for Ben Duckett.
Leading into this Ashes, which has been dominated with whether England could do it against this attack and in turn how they would respond, Australia openly said that it was their field placements where a response to Bazball was most likely to be seen. They were true to their word. A few minutes earlier, Cummins had stood at the top of his mark to begin the series with a deep backward point in place. Australia had reacted to Bazball before a delivery had been bowled.
Zak Crawley promptly got onto the front foot and crunched a drive through the covers. Mitchell Starc to Rory Burns this was not. By the time Cummins bowled his second over, there were three fielders back on the rope with just two slips and a gully catching. Whereas normally there would be a stacked slip cordon waiting behind the batters, now there were as many fielders on the boundary.
When Nathan Lyon was introduced for the 10th over he started with four men out. Ollie Pope was 11 off 18 balls and there was long-on, deep midwicket, deep backward square and deep backward point. Within the first session of an Ashes series, England were essentially able to milk a bowling attack. The first 25 overs produced the lowest percentage of dot balls in a Test since 2002.
"From a bowling front things went pretty well," Josh Hazlewood, who had won the selection race with Mitchell Starc, said. "Obviously there's things we'd change looking back and we'll probably dig into that. It's a different way of going about it, different fields at different stages. Some worked, some probably didn't."
Even though Bazball is now a year old, it is still often difficult to fully digest what England are doing with the bat, particularly when Joe Root reverse scoops Cummins and Scott Boland over deep third for six.
Did Australia's plan, formulated heavily by the work of coaches and analysts, to effectively go defensive work? England bounced along at 5.03 an over (marginally behind the 5.13 they scored at on the opening day in 2005). Australia did not bowl a maiden until the 37th over from Hazlewood and sent down just two for the day. But they claimed eight wickets having had to bowl first on what is a pretty docile surface.
"Think you have to look at the end score, so eight for under 400, basically all out for 400. You'd take that on that wicket for sure, whether it takes 80 overs or 160. It's the same score," Hazlewood said. "We have to start to look at things a bit differently, not so much strike-rates and economy. It's just about wickets and the score and if we can keep it as simple as that think it will go a long way towards wrapping our head around the new Ashes."
They could even have had a wicket caught a deep point. Boland bowled a short, wide delivery to Harry Brook who flayed it into the off side, but Travis Head was slow to react from the boundary and couldn't hold on as he sprawled forward. The slowness of the pitch largely took out the short ball as a viable option for a sustained approach.
Despite the boundary-riders the scoreboard kept rattling along. It felt Australia had conceded ground very early, but they insisted they didn't lose control. As a rather rough comparison, England hit 40 fours and five sixes today in 78 overs while in Mount Maunganui, where they declared on 325 for 9 after 58.2 overs, they hit 48 fours and one six.
"There's a lot more ones probably but if we shut down the boundaries then that score really doesn't really go through the roof at sevens or eights," Hazlewood said. "If we can keep it at five an over and keep taking wickets throughout the day that somewhat keeps them in check."
Last week, coach Andrew McDonald said the bowlers would have to accept a higher economy rate and it's something they are buying into.
"We talked between the final and this game, we caught up a few times with the coaches," Hazlewood said. "You've got a red ball in your hand, got whites on, you think if I bowl top of off then it should be respected but think those days are long gone no matter who you are playing. India went at a fair clip last week as well. We are used to seeing that sort of stuff and it's almost about taking the batter out of it and keep bashing away."
Australia made regular-enough inroads during the first half of the day to have their noses in front at two stages: when Boland produced an excellent delivery to clip Crawley's glove with the last ball before lunch then when Brook and Ben Stokes fell in quick succession.
With England 176 for 5, Australia were probably one quick breakthrough away from having a chance of keeping them to 250. There would have been very different reflections on the day. But Root and Jonny Bairstow, two Yorkshire mates, combined with an impish stand of 121 in 23 overs. Even when that was broken Australia couldn't stem the scoring. However, the final twist (if it is such a thing these days) of Stokes calling his players in meant they were off the field before the close.
In 2005 when England racked up 407 in 79 overs, there was a view that they had squandered the potential for a bigger total. History shows how that played out and there will be far fewer of those conversations this time given the now sustained approach to Test cricket. But in a similar way to how it took that match to play out to is conclusion to understand the context of the opening day, so too will a fuller judgement on Australia's first meeting with Bazball need a little more time.