A review of day two of the third Ashes Test of the 1981 series at Headingley, written from the perspective of an English cricket fan at the time.
Saturday July 18
Australia 401/9d (Dyson 102, Hughes 89, Botham 6/95)
England 7/0
Pain pain go away. Despite heroics from Ian Botham, the next few days feel like they could drag on and on. Australia declared their innings just over 400 and look well set to put the Ashes to bed. The scary thing is that without Beefy it would have been a lot worse.
At one point Kim Hughes' men had reached 332/4. Naturally England shot themselves in the foot along the way, Graham Gooch dropping Australia's skipper when he was on 66. At this point you wondered if the Hughes-Yallop partnership would ever end. Botham decided to take matters into his own hands.
After tea the old Beefy returned. Bowling a 16.2 over spell, our star all-rounder took 5/35, at one point removing Hughes, Border and Yallop in the space of 35 balls. Yet for all his hard work you are left with the feeling that the damage has already been done. At least Australia did not reach 500 though.
Hughes (89) and Yallop (58) put on 112 runs for the fifth wicket in 165 minutes that made you consider if any of this nonsense is worth it. Willis, Old and Dilley continued to frustrate. Whether we see any of them for the rest of the series remains a debate for another day.
Stating the obvious alert: Today is crucial. If England can bat sensibly (stop laughing) and knuckle down, then the first target of 202 to avoid the follow-on should be well within their grasp. But we know how good we are at grasping things when you watch us field. Four dropped chances in this innings, to go with the 117 spurned at Trent Bridge, makes you want to scream with frustration.
My main concern is that Lillee will extract a lot more out of this strip than the English bowlers. Assisted by Alderman and Lawson, we will see the real value of Australia's 401 after England have faced up to this challenge. You can only ever judge a pitch after both teams have batted. Let's hope the experts have read this one wrong.
Are England up to the task ahead? We will find out today, but I fear we will be viewing most of this innings from behind our settees. Let's hope that Geoffrey Boycott can repeat his Ashes century of four years ago at the same ground, or that Gooch, Gower and Gatting can build an innings of substance.
Inevitably the spotlight will shine on Brearley and his batting. He has been in fine form for Middlesex this season but there is obviously a difference between first class and world class. Any kind of failure will be seized upon by the Aussies, and sadly by the English press. Hopefully he can silence the doubters.
And then there is Beefy. It would be nice if we didn't see him today, yet you wouldn't put it past him to come out and entertain a Saturday crowd at Headingley. Is it too much to ask for a century to go with his first innings 6/95? Possibly. But there were signs of the old spark returning after tea today, and the glint in his eye seemed brighter.
Fail to score 202 and I would beg you all to enrol quickly in an Open University course on rain dancing. Because the Ashes will be gone if we have to follow-on. If that happens then the last three Tests may be played out in front of sparse crowds. Test grounds could become ghost towns, to slightly misquote The Specials.
What the papers said...
Peter Laker, Mirror: "And while England at seven for no wickets are now committed to bat like fanatics to survive the challenge, no one can deny that Botham has pointed them in the right direction."
What they said...
Ian Botham: "The ball swung around all day and Mike Brearley had faith in me to bowl a long spell. Not being captain had nothing to do with it."
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