15 June 2023 , 17:16
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Fast show comrades Steve Harmison and Darren Gough both ambushed Australia in the first hour of an Ashes series and agree: England must come out swinging with the new ball.
Much as Edgbaston's rock 'n' roll crowds will be baying for Bazball mayhem when England's cavalier batsmen face their moment of truth, taking 20 wickets will be an equal partner in Ben Stokes' blueprint for success.
In a spellbinding first act in the drama of 2005, Grievous Bodily Harmison drew first blood at Lord's – literally – during a venomous opening spell at Lord's. He struck Justin Langer on the elbow, pranged Matthew Hayden on the helmet and cut Ricky Ponting on the cheek with a rasping bouncer which sneaked through an improbable gap between the Aussie skipper's helmet grille and lid.
None of the top three lasted much longer, and by hustling the Baggy Greens out for 190 England served notice that they were not an attack to be pushed around like condiments at the dinner table. And by the time Michael Vaughan's men sealed the return of an antique porcelain urn after seven series on loan in a penal colony, Kevin Pietersen was playing Bazball almost two decades ahead of his time.
Harmison, now 44, had shot to No.1 in the world rankings 12 months earlier and he said: "Even now, when I do Q&A sessions, people still ask if I was pleased to hit Ricky Ponting in the face in that first spell. Are you kidding? I was very happy when he edged me to Andrew Strauss in the slips about 10 balls later.
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“I didn't like it when people got hurt. Getting them out was the confidence-booster. We were fired up, and we bowled out the Aussies for 190 in two sessions, but that was the nature of our attack. Simon Jones, Fred (Flintoff) and myself wanted to let it go at a high pace, so we were always going to be aggressive.
Steven Harmison wasted no time roughing up Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting in 2005“But the whole atmosphere was highly-charged. I remember walking through the Long Room and being cheered noisily on to the pitch by MCC members who would normally give you a polite clap. Does it explain the fire and fury of that first hour? Not really – I think the Aussies were as nervous as us, if not more so.
“The ball that hit Langer he would normally have worked down to fine leg, one of his banker singles. How many times did Hayden get hit on the helmet in his career? Not many – he used to try and bully our attack far more often than he ever got 'sconned.'
“And Ponting was the best player of a short ball I ever faced. Being aggressive was all part of the plan, but hitting him in the face wasn't and yet it happened in the first six overs of the series. We lost the Test because our batting fell apart, with the exception of Kevin, but the way we got stuck into them gave us the belief that we could take 20 wickets to beat Australia.
'In the next game at Edgbaston, Straussy hit Shane Warne back over his head for six in the first hour. In the dressing room, we all sat up and thought, 'This is it.' From that moment, we knew it was on.”
Gough, so often the pied piper of a game attack in the 1990s, led the charge on a steamy morning in Birmingham 26 years ago. Buoyed by a whitewash in the three-match Texaco Trophy one-day series, England skittled the Aussies for 118 and romped home by nine wickets inside four days in the Ashes opener.
Gough, Devon Malcolm and Andy Caddick cleaned up despite an ominous start and the Dazzler, now director of cricket at Yorkshire, recalled: “My first over with the new ball went for plenty because Michael Slater came out firing, just as he did at Brisbane in 1994.
“The Aussies seemed to make a big thing of the first over, to try and knock us out of our stride, but I could never be accused of lacking confidence and it came back to bite them. I remember bowling Greg Blewett with a jaffa which was called a no-ball. On my follow-through I told him, 'Don't worry, I'll get you out next ball' – and I did, caught by Nasser (Hussain) in the slips.
“There's always so much riding on the first day of an Ashes series because it can set the tone. Our confidence was sky-high after we won at Edgbaston in 1997, but then we went to Lord's and it rained for two days. When the sun came out, Glenn McGrath made the ball seam sideways, we lost our momentum and we lost the series.
“But as an individual, it's always important to get your first wicket, or your first score as a batsman, against the Aussies to let them know they are in a contest.”
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