Mark Wood's fearless belligerence epitomises Bazball and keeps Ashes alive

09 July 2023 , 16:31

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Wood struck 40 runs from just 16 balls over the course of the match in a telling contribution (Image: AP)

Twelve runs needed to avert humiliation and keep the Ashes series alive.

Three wickets in hand but Pat Cummins - the world’s top-ranked fast bowler - is charging in, well and truly fired up.

Mark Wood, playing his first Test match of the year, is on strike and the silence churns the stomach.

The whole of Headingley knows what is coming. The whole of Headingley knows it is going to be short and quick.

So does Wood.

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It is so predictable, he could duck beneath it - after all, there is no rush and the dozen required for victory can be knocked off in ones and twos.

But Wood ducks nothing and he smacks the only six of England’s innings and it sounded like the county of Yorkshire erupted.

Just for good measure in the next over, he finesses a thunderbolt from Mitchell Starc to the extra cover boundary and it is as good as game over.

Now that is what you call Bazball.

Fearless, fearsome, fast, Wood stared down the Australians and walked away triumphant.

Unfortunately, it is no wonder Wood has suffered with injury - this is a player who never gives less than his all.

Wood and Ben Stokes are chiselled from the same stone, granite-tough, never even contemplating a backward step.

And both blessed with incredible talent.

On this Headingley occasion, it was Wood’s turn to be the talisman.

Wood's five wickets in the first innings, at searing pace, proved crucial (PA)

His five wickets in Australia’s first innings didn’t not just restrict Australia to that modest 263, they sent a 95mph statement of intent and aggression to Cummins’ team.

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The same statement was made briefly, but belligerently, by his 24 from eight balls with the bat.

Still at the crease when Chris Woakes knocked the winning runs, he had hit 16 from eight in the second innings.

Seven wickets in the match and forty runs from 16 balls - that is some contribution.

And on day one, he produced the quickest spell of Test bowling in this country for almost two decades.

Again, it was all about fronting up to an Australian team that was developing something of a swagger.

If England are to win the final two Test matches, Wood will be key.

There will, naturally, be calls for the odd change or two and it goes without saying that Jonny Bairstow’s position will come under scrutiny after a mediocre time with the wicket-keeping gloves and two poor, casual dismissals for very few.

Bairstow endured a difficult Test match with the bat and the gloves (Popperfoto via Getty Images)

But the spirit in this team is undeniably strong and you feel Bairstow’s intangible contribution to that will mean Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum will keep faith.

They will certainly keep faith with Wood, whose energy typifies that spirit.

After being handed the Player of the Match award, he gave an interview in which he claimed he would have a nosebleed if he batted higher than nine and in which he suggested fans in the north were more vociferous than those down south.

It was knockabout stuff from a character who does not take himself too seriously and never looks as though he has anything other than fun on a cricket field.

And isn’t that what this new era of English cricket is all about?

There are plenty of contenders for the title but few now have the same contenders for the title.

Mark Wood is Mr Bazball.

Andy Dunn