Bowlers dominate again but Warner finds form

So dominant have bowlers proved in Australia's only warm-up game ahead of the upcoming Ashes battle against England, the scheduled four-day fixture in Southampton has barely made it into the third morning.

While the grass cover so prominent yesterday gave way to billowing clouds of top soil that rendered Hampshire's Rose Bowl more of a dust bowl on another sun-soaked afternoon, batting was no easier against the battery of world-class bowlers operating on both teams.

Today it was the turn of James Pattinson (3-19) and Mitchell Marsh (5-34) to scythe through their teammates turned rivals in the Brad Haddin XII, after Pat Cummins' five-wicket haul restricted Graeme Hick's team to a 15-run first innings lead.

By stumps on day two, during which 15 wickets fell for 229 runs, that slim advantage had been converted into a 121-run victory target, with Cameron Bancroft (25 not out) and Matthew Wade (0 not out) to resume tomorrow morning.

It is unclear what training regime now awaits the expanded 25-man squad over ensuing days once the practice match reaches its notional end, and prior to the expected 16-man Ashes squad announcement that is expected around Friday lunch time (UK time).

What can't be argued is that, while the seam bowlers have proved peerless on a pitch that resembled something out of up-country India by day two's end, most of the aspiring Ashes batters have been sorely deprived of match practice in the middle.

Image Id: C38C994B3D554F02B7B563FA3EDC394A Image Caption: Pattinson's match figures read 4-35 in 23 overs // Getty

And that whatever practice is scheduled for the remaining time before the squad proper decamps for Birmingham (where the first Test begins on August 1) on Saturday won't be staged on the strip of turf that's hosted this lopsided game.

While the combined batting groups of the rival teams convened for a debrief in front of the players' pavilion prior to day two beginning, a heavy roller went to work on the problematic pitch to try and smooth out the wrinkles exposed yesterday.

After 17 wickets fell for barely 200 runs on the first of the scheduled four days, players indicated the track was a curious hybrid of live grass (that enabled the seamers) atop a bone-dry surface that was already starting to crack before the game began.

Thoughts that some extra compacting might put to rest the erratic bounce – the issue to that so unnerved batters on day one – come the second morning were initially proved wrong.

Rather, Cummins and Peter Siddle posed just as potent a threat in their opening spells today as they had the previous evening as the Hick XII's final three wickets fell inside the first hour.

The first of those – fast-bowling allrounder James Pattinson – was the most spectacular, when Cummins from around the wicket speared a delivery through the Victorian's defence and flattened his middle stump.

Chris Tremain was then smartly snared by Marnus Labuschagne swooping low to his left at second slip, and Cummins completed the job when Michael Neser skied a fly ball to keeper Alex Carey.

Cummins's return of 5-24 from 11.1 overs not only represented his best figures in any format on British soil but will also heighten the debate as to where in the fast bowlers' pecking order he will be best deployed come the Tests.

That discussion gained added momentum later in the day when Cummins took the new ball ahead of Mitchell Starc (who did not take the field when the Haddin team bowled a second time, though a post-play scan revealed nothing untoward and he will resume bowling on day three) and promptly knocked over the middle stump of Joe Burns with his fourth delivery.

Image Id: 59E1A6FBFAD14F65AAFD2865BAF3E9D6 Image Caption: Joe Burns made 18 and 0 in the match // Getty

While Starc appeared to feel some discomfort behind his right knee after completing an over yesterday, team officials claimed his absence was nothing more than rest and management given the surfeit of available fielders.

As the Haddin XII's batters eyed a first-innings deficit of 15, the heavy roller went to work once more on the pitch that a number of Australia squad members had privately observed resembled nothing they had seen before in the UK.

For a while, the extra press looked to have quelled the demons.

Likely Test opening duo David Warner and Marcus Harris weathered the new-ball trial from Pattinson and Neser, and gradually added to the score in a first-wicket stand of 40 that posed a stark contrast to the Haddin outfit's first innings.

Image Id: D64FA57B7DCE4E0F8DAD4BCE4A154933 Image Caption: Warner's 58 is the match high-score so far // Getty

However, Harris steered a catch to Burns at third slip from Victoria teammate Pattinson's final over before the lunch break, and when play resumed so too did the pattern of the previous day.

In the space of just under six overs, the incumbent middle-order from Australia's most recent Test match was sent packing, all three batters in hauntingly similar circumstances.

First innings top scorer Marnus Labuschagne battled for 16 deliveries and scored six before he was pinned on the crease by Pattinson, as the batter desperately tried to get forward as he had done so effectively on Tuesday.

Image Id: C4F50FE396F34A419F7A400037D1F0AF Image Caption: Mitch Marsh took 5-34 in 11.2 overs // Getty

An over later, Haddin XII skipper Travis Head was undone in the same manner by Marsh who was generating appreciable swing and operating around the wicket.

Head's three-ball duck meant he completed a less-than-ideal preparation for the series opener at Edgbaston next week, having managed a single off 19 balls in the first innings.

Then Kurtis Patterson, who like Head had posted his maiden Test century in the previous Test fixture against Sri Lanka in Canberra last February, became the third lbw victim of a fast-unravelling innings, also without scoring.

At that point, the Haddin XII was 4-71 and Pattinson on a roll with three of those scalps to his name.

Image Id: F127624AE8984C07900C19229A02283C Image Caption: Marnus Labuschagne hit six in the second dig // Getty

But Warner drew on his all his experience and resolve to withstand the onslaught, the most intimidating of which was the ball from Marsh that soared from a good length past the stunned opener's chin and over keeper Tim Paine's head.

Warner jokingly motioned to umpire Nick Cook, the former England spinner from whose bowling Australia's David Boon scored the runs that secured the Ashes at Old Trafford in 1989, that the ball had flicked his glove and he should be credited with the runs.

But Cook, like most in attendance, knew that not even a batter of Warner's calibre could have managed a touch on such a brutish ball.

Warner went on to become the first player in the bowler-dominated match to reach 50, a milestone he claimed with a push through cover off Chris Tremain that was as sweetly timed as it was rarely seen.

Image Id: E9215671530F4D6692D27397D7AC69DF Image Caption: Warner salutes his half-century // Getty

But soon after, he departed in dispiriting fashion when he was trapped in two minds against a short ball from Tremain and – in attempting to opt out of a pull shot – the resultant bunt landed limply in the hands of mid-on.

Fears that Australia's sole Ashes warm-up game might be over in less than half its allocated time were then allayed by the most productive partnership of the match, between uncapped pair Will Pucovski and Alex Carey.

The inexperienced pair held firm for more than an hour and 53 runs as Pucovski neatly steered the ball into gaps and Carey took the attack to Test off-spinner Nathan Lyon, aiming a series of reverse sweeps.

Image Id: 30100288BBFC4F9B9D8E92BAB0F6682A Image Caption: Will Pucovski struck four fours in his 37 // Getty

However, when Carey became the fourth lbw victim of the innings for 26, and Pucovski edged Marsh to Steve Smith (clad in a playing shirt bearing Lyon's name for reasons unknown) at slip the end came quickly.

That outcome was largely the work of Mitchell Marsh, who produced an inspired spell of seam bowling with an old ball on a dusty pitch.

That haul, which followed the allrounder's notably fluent 29 from 33 balls the previous evening, included the last two wickets of Starc and Josh Hazlewood in consecutive balls.

Which led trivia buffs to explore whether a bowler has ever completed a hat-trick in the third innings of an unofficial match, should Australia look to extend their somewhat frustrating training exercise further tomorrow.

 

Hick XII: Joe Burns, Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (c, wk), Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird, Chris Tremain, Nathan Lyon

Haddin XII: David Warner, Marcus Harris, Kurtis Patterson, Travis Head (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Will Pucovski, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Peter Siddle, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland.

There will be no live stream or broadcast of this match, but you can follow live scores and get the latest news and video highlights on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Tour match: Hick XII v Haddin XII, July 23-26

First Test: Edgbaston, August 1-5

Tour match: Australians v Worcestershire, August 7-9

Second Test: Lord's, August 14-18

Third Test: Headingley, August 22-26

Tour match: Australians v Derbyshire, August 29-31

Fourth Test: Old Trafford, September 4-8

Fifth Test: The Oval, September 12-16