Bairstow back to his best with Ashes 99 as England put Aussies to the sword
A short while before Cameron Green brought England's first innings to a close by trapping Jimmy Anderson plum in front, Ben Stokes had risen to his feet in the home dressing room.
Of those who spotted the skipper, a few assumed he was getting ready to call in the lads and get cracking at the Australian batting line-up. Not a chance. Stokes was merely positioning himself for a better view of the Jonny Bairstow pyrotechnics.
He could have declared. Considering the dismal weather forecast for the weekend, some pundits thought he should have declared. But, hey, why spoil the fun? Because fun is what this England team is all about - at least that is what they keep telling us.
And they are seldom anything but true to their word. So, a capacity Old Trafford crowd was treated to the sight of Bairstow bludgeoning four maximums on one of cricket’s grounds and briefly threatening to score the fastest-ever Test century by an English batsman.
That he fell one short of his ton - and that he would not have beaten Gilbert Jessop’s 121-year-old record of 76 balls anyway - did not matter. This is what the punters had paid for. Gary Lineker, no mean cricketer in his day, had tweeted: “Win or lose, @englandcricket are reinventing - and saving - Test match cricket. Love it.”
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Idealistic? Perhaps. But not far wrong. It was compelling viewing, not least for Stokes. When Bairstow flat-batted one six towards the train lines, Stokes turned to his mate and predecessor as skipper, Joe Root, and looked aghast. “THAT’S MASSIVE,” he mouthed.
Stokes is a great player, a great captain … and a fan. When Anderson hooked Pat Cummins to the square elf boundary, Stokes banged on the window with a celebratory fist. But there was another reason why Stokes must have been particularly delighted.
Not for the first time in this match, he was watching his - and Brendon McCullum's - faith in a key member of their project (and Bazball is a project) pay glorious, riotous dividends. First, Zak Crawley and, now, Bairstow. Between them, Crawley and Bairstow - hardly in the form of their lives coming to Manchester - scored 288 of England’s 592 runs, from 263 balls, registering 31 fours and seven sixes.
It was brutally brilliant. On the phone-ins, in the pubs, even before this series had started, there were murmurs about Crawley and Bairstow. And in the latter’s case, murmurs became rumblings after his struggles in the previous three Tests, both with the bat and with the wicket-keeping gloves.
But the foundation of this England team’s philosophy is not fearing failure, never letting your confidence take a hit. Bairstow followed the tastiest 99 since Mr Whippy rolled into town by taking another couple of catches, taking his match tally to five.
It is, of course, necessary to remind both sets of supporters that England trail 2-1 in the five-match series and that either rain or Australian resistance - or a combination of the two - could mean Cummins’ men retain the Ashes come Sunday evening. But the way England have responded, at Headingley and here at Old Trafford, after two agonising defeats in the opening two Tests - one snatched from the jaws of victory - has been a credit to their attitude, to their spirit, to their togetherness.
If the weather and Australian fallibility allows them to take this compelling series to the Oval wire, then it goes without saying they will be the team with all the momentum. And, now, in Bairstow, they have a player back to his buccaneering best.
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