No… but that was close! Full and straight from Boland, met with a firm push from Pope back down the ground. The big Victorian got a fingertip to the shot to deflect it onto the non-striker’s stumps. Root was alert enough to turn and jab his bat down before the bails came off. Yowza!
Has Root been run-out backing up?
Half-an-hour gone, time for some brief reflection. The pitch: no demons, true bounce. The ball: doing nothing laterally. The bowlers: aside from Starc’s first over, wayward, struggling to find that very precise length. The batters: as expected, playing their shots, without always looking assured.
7th over: England 33-2 (Pope 12, Root 0) In comes Joe Root, the key protagonist in the series? And after an easy leave he flashes and misses a Starc stock ball angling across him. Replays of the wicket ball show a skerrick of in-swing that turned a half-volley on Duckett’s pads into a wicked delivery. Classic Mitchell Starc. Without Cummins and Hazlewood he was required to step up as the leader of the attack and that’s exactly what he’s done.
Pope works a two then a single without much fuss, which brings Duckett on strike. Starc then pulls a classic full, straight, missile, out of nowhere to thunder the new ball into the England opener’s pads bang in front. Very very plumb. Unless there’s an inside edge? Duckett reviews, on the off-chance, but no dice. Starc has two, and years of Bazball preparation is being unstitched in Perth.
