Although Broad’s 600th Test wicket received the largest applause, the all-rounder had the biggest influence with four crucial takes.
Chris Woakes had an auditory memory of the last Test at Headingley. “The sound of that roar, the crazed Western Terrace… If you could keep that in a bottle forever and think about it, you would,” he continued. Woakes had more to add to that mix-tape over the course of a few hours on the first day of the fourth Test at Manchester. The loudest cheers were understandably for Stuart Broad’s 600th Test wicket, but the raucous applause was reserved for Woakes’s achievements: getting rid of David Warner, who looked composed for the first time in the series, of Cameron Green, who despite his struggles was putting together a 65-run partnership, and a peach to get rid of Australia’s best batsman Mitchell Marsh, who was on the verge of a century give Australia command with that stand with Green, and send a tempter outside to get rid of the persistent Alex Carey.
Every time Australia, who was given the bat because the weekend weather isn’t looking good and England wants to win to keep the Ashes alive, tried to gain an advantage, Woakes, with the aid of his carpool buddy Mark Wood, knocked them back. Australia finished the day with 299 for 8 instead of the 350 for 5 that seemed easily probable earlier.
And to think that Woakes’ Test playing days were ended only a few weeks ago, especially after an injury forced him to miss England’s Bazball summer of last year. “You sometimes think the ship has sailed,” the 34-year-old had stated. Instead, Woakes and Wood were responsible for patching up a leaky England ship in the previous game and guiding them in this one. He can easily recite what he said during the third Test: “It’s extremely emotional… But it’s days like these that make the major decision I took at the beginning of the summer to skip the Indian Premier League pay off, comfortably.
In his bowling, everything is so perfectly in harmony. Smooth run-up, fluid release, seam position (tilted to first slip for his trademark outswinger), delivery that wasn’t quite a nip-backer but was more of a runs-in-with-the-angle type, jumbled seam ball, and the acumen to utilise the angles at the crease so deftly. And in England, not many people have such a tremendous aptitude for striking the ball the right length.
Woakes struggled with the nipbacker to the right-hander for the majority of his formative years until his coach and former Warwickshire bowler Steve Perryman introduced him to the yo-yo practise. He would walk with the toy for days while running down the fingers in a motion similar to swing bowling, which helped Woakes perfect his wrist position. His international career can be metaphorically compared to a yo-yo, which is up and down but always a joy to watch when it’s on a string.
Warner was put into a slack drive by the delivery that was angled across. Prior to then, he had been working on the Australian debut. In order to test Warner’s equilibrium, he would abruptly slide in an inward-curler on the centre and leg line while driving them across and repeatedly smashing against the inner edge. Sunlight flashed from the stands’ rails directly into the batsmen’s eyes, forcing a temporary break. But when play resumed, Warner’s memory of the game would be dominated by Woakes’ talent. Warner stepped right into the trap because it was the ideal Woakes length—not too full, not too back.
Woakes reentered the room later in the day as Marsh carried Green and Australia with yet another forceful knock. The lbw has been Green’s issue ever since Mohammad Siraj unveiled it to the public in the 2021 series. He has experimented with his posture, attempting to widen it and avoid pressing his front foot across, but this would bring up a new issue: the straightener outside off can cause him to edge. He may either swing a little carelessly or withdraw within himself, so his amazing striking style hasn’t exactly ever worked in a Test match. He hasn’t yet mustered the confidence in this format to prove to the world what he is capable of. As expected, Woakes slid his yo-yo-triggered angler into
However, the video that would likely receive the most views on YouTube was the stunning away-shaper that he managed to extract from the cherry to remove Marsh. Once more, that flawless Woakes length, but this time it was the stock chipping away delivery that sounded the death knell for Marsh, who could have gotten away with his prod had it not been for Jonny Bairstow, who somehow managed to bend low to his right and snag the ball inches off the ground. He then sat there exulting in his excellent catch while perhaps also showing a hint of astonishment.
When Australia appeared to be putting together another late-order comeback just 39 runs later, Woakes struck again with the yo-yo angler, forcing Carey to feather an edge.
But it wasn’t all Woakes; Wood also reached 90 mph in Steve Smith, despite not being as consistently terrifying-pacy as he was at Headingley. After lunch, Wood and England continued to ping Smith’s outside-off line before England abruptly bent one in a line of stumps to put Smith out via LBW. Soon after, Sky Sports flashed a statistic stating that Smith’s average versus high-pace (defined as over 90mph) is roughly 25. Any batsman would likely struggle against that pace, as Mike Atherton, who provided the statistic, added. However, Smith is involved, so that statistic can be anticipated to come up in English pub conversations.
And as usual, Stuart Broad was there doing Stuart Broad things. Getting the crowd going; winning against Australia (passing Ian Botham to become the bowler with the most kills against the longtime foe); and, coincidentally, capturing his 600th Test wicket from the James Anderson End. In an otherwise unimpressive first spell, the 599th delivery was his best; it was full, it had pace, and it came in to defeat Usman Khawaja’s shaky prod to slam into his pad. Travis Head calmly smashed the 600th bouncer to a deep backward square-leg after taking his eyes off the ball and having his head pulled out of place. Broad then departed on his celebratory run. Marsh would do everything he could to Woakes would have the Australians on edge despite the fact that it was the last English celebration of the day.
Australia 299 for 8 against England (Labuschagne 51, Marsh 51, Woakes 4-52, Broad 2-68).
