The Ashes – Second Test, Brisbane Day 1: Alex Carey as Sam Gamgee

 

 

Day 1, Second Test, Australia v England. Woolloongabba, Brisbane.

England 9/325 (JE Root 135*, Z Crawley 76, JC Archer 32*, MA Starc 6/75)

Thursday. Test cricket.
Of all the sports, of all the games, Test cricket is my favourite.
So many stories exist within any moment. So many what-ifs.
Plans, ideas, improvisation.
Eleven in white.
Two in white.
One against one against many against one against self.

There arrives a moment at the beginning of each Test when all the support staff have left the field, when all podcasts are silent, when conga-lines of previews are confined to an appropriate void. When the opening bowler stands alongside a bespoke spray-painted line on the grass, among many bespoke spray-painted lines for others on the grass and loops the brand new cherry to the closest fielder. When the opening batsman checks his guard (again) and scratches out his guard (again). When he fidgets with his helmet (again) and tugs on his gloves (again). When he looks over his shoulder and he squints. When the bowler takes a breath. When the fielding captain claps his hands.

There is nothing else.
There is sun, there is cloud, there is the pitch.
There is toss of the coin, there is selection.
There is context of the series.
There is history.
There is expectation.
There is the everlasting search for presence.
There is nothing else.

==

Thursday, Day 1, Second Test, Australia v England. Woolloongabba Oval, Brisbane.

For the sake of this article, I leave out sun, cloud, swing, pitch, coin, selection, series context, history and expectation. I leave them all out because what I see on Thursday stands as a monument to presence.

Presence and skill, it should be said.
Presence and skill and improvisation, more accurately.
But presence comes first; without presence, skill and improvisation cannot shine.

Because what I see on Thursday is a most remarkable day of keeping the wicket and I write about it here for its preservation. I’ve seen a lot of cricket and played a fair bit of cricket and I cannot remember a better day’s keeping than that performed by AT Carey on Thursday.

==

Brisbane. Thursday. It’s a December day in subtropical heat. Maximum temperature of 28 degrees C, 54% relative humidity.

England win the toss and elect to bat.

Players selected to use the pink ball for Australia in this Test are:

MA Starc (1.96 m tall, left arm fast, 35 years old, from Sydney, New South Wales).
MG Neser (Right arm medium fast, 35 years old, from Pretoria, South Africa, these days Brisbane).
SM Boland (Right arm fast medium, 36 years old, from Melbourne, Victoria).
B Doggett (Right arm fast medium, 31 years old, from Rockhampton, Queensland, these days Adelaide).
CD Green (Right arm fast medium, 26 years old, from Perth, Western Australia).

No spinner.

Thursday. Brisbane. Australia in the field and AT Carey adjusts, notices, adjusts, notices and adjusts some more. He sees things and he wonders.

Australia with a fast-medium-fast attack. England with a tactical idea to throw the bowlers off their length.

Thursday. Brisbane. AT Carey sees that some English batsmen vary the length where they take guard. Sometimes they are deep in the crease, sometimes well outside it. Why would they do that? They would do that to try to thwart the battery of Australian fast-medium-fast bowlers. They would do that to spoil the bowlers’ attempts to find a consistent length to bowl. By mixing up their position of taking guard, English batsmen force Australian bowlers to notice and adjust, notice and adjust. Notice, adjust and execute. It’s not easy to perform, consistently.

On this day, AT Carey notices and now HE adjusts and HE executes.

He adjusts so that his bowlers don’t have to.

Once he notices, how does he adjust?

He decides to keep up to the stumps.

To SM Boland. To MG Neser. To the fast mediums and the medium fasts.

AT Carey stands up to the stumps.

That’s right. AT Carey notices that there is a way for him to potentially help his mates and help the mission. It could help. But it would also invite the prospect of great danger and great embarrassment. And it would mean doing something very rare – something for which he never trains.

As AT Carey steps forward, he steps into the shoes of the hobbit Sam Gamgee.

==

“‘Go back, Sam. I’m going to Mordor alone.’

‘Of course you are. And I’m coming with you.’”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

==

If AT Carey could keep up to the stumps to the fast-medium-fasts, incredulous English batsmen would be forced to abandon their tactic. They would be forced to bat from behind the crease.
This would help the bowlers enormously.
It’s one thing to notice and to hatch this plan.
It’s quite another to execute this plan.

==

Can you imagine standing up to the stumps to SM Boland in a Test match?
Bravery in physical and mental forms both apply.

Well, not only does AT Carey stand up to the stumps to the Australian fast mediums and medium fasts, he continues to GLOVE EVERYTHING CLEANLY.

This is extraordinary.

As I watch from Melbourne, the batsmen sometimes play and miss. But not AT Carey. He consistently catches each ball as it comes down. Off side, leg side. At shin height, at waist height, at ankle height, at chest height.

I know that what I see is outrageous.

I cannot believe my eyes.

==

Many years ago when I was a young man I had the great fortune to be able to bowl great hooping outswingers off a medium-ish run-up. I could never bowl fast, but I could swing it around at a local suburban second XI sort of level. And though I was never close to fast, I remember being shocked when our ‘keeper one day shuffled forward to keep up to the stumps to me. The late Neal Butterworth was a generation older than me – wise and competitive – and he’d noticed the batsman inching forward, inching forward, to counteract the swing. I thought it his decision was exciting. Neal gloved them all. In fact, when I pushed one accidently down the leg side and the batsman overbalanced as he missed it, Neal even got us a wicket via a heroic stumping.

Back in the clubrooms older senior fast bowlers got stuck into me.

“Geez, Kanga! A stumping! That’s embarrassing!”

But I wasn’t embarrassed. I was amazed. Thrilled. We’d got the wicket.

==

Why don’t we see wicketkeepers standing up to the stumps to fast-medium-fasts more often? We don’t see it more often because it is hard.

==

Kudos to AT Carey.
Kudos for his presence of mind and for his clarity of thought.
Kudos for his skill and for his work.
Kudos for his presence.

AT Carey later said that he never practices standing up to the stumps to the quicks – it would be too dangerous. Too chaotic. But in the heat of the match, on Day 1, he chooses to do it.

==

Later in the night, AT Carey stands back again. He stands back to MA Starc as England’s AAP Atkinson flays at a short ball. He flays at a short ball and gets an edge that flies high into the Woolloongabba air.

Look at the ball, look at the field and you will see AT Carey already running at top speed. He runs with the flight of the ball in the direction that he thinks it will land. Alongside him runs M Labuschagne, who has set off from a closer position at slip.

But it is AT Carey who arrives first at the fall of the ball. He dives, M Labuschagne dives – they both dive – and AT Carey manages to hold his position, shrug off the footballing tag from M Labuschagne, and simultaneously send himself into the lower stratosphere. On a warm Thursday evening, he catches the ball at full stretch.

It is a stunning exclamation mark on a stunning day. This moment also signifies the fifth wicket of the innings to MA Starc.

==

And so this is a nod to AT Carey. A nod to Sam Gamgee. And a nod to all brave and skilful improvisors who operate outside their comfort zones for the benefit of the collective.

 

“I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. ‘Don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee.’ And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

Watch a video of Alex Carey’s performance, posted on Instagram.

 

The full Second Test scorecard from Cricinfo.

 

Match stats
England 334 (JE Root 138, Z Crawley 76, MA Starc 6/75
Australia 511 (MA Starc 77, J Weatherald 72, BA Carse 4/152)
England 241 (BA Stokes 50, Z Crawley 44, MG Neser 5/42)
Australia 2/69 (SPD Smith 23*, AAP Atkinson 2/37)

Australia win by 8 wickets

Australia 2 – 0 England after two Test matches.

 

 

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This piece also appears at Substack here.

 

 

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