New Year. New England?

Cricket | Test | Ashes 2021-22 | England | Australia | Fourth Test, Sydney

6 balls to survive. 1 wicket in hand. Fading light and pride at stake. Test cricket's leading wicket-taker among pacers set to go up against a batter, who many consider second only to the Don. Cricket doesn't get any better. But, hold on, the roles have been reversed. It's Steve Smith with the cherry in hand and Jimmy Anderson taking his guard to face him. Still, whoaaa....!!! Anything could happen. Test cricket doesn't get any better.....

When Zak Crawley and Haseeb Hameed walked out to bat this morning, they had already put on England's best opening partnership on this tour. But their team needed more. After all, surviving over 90 overs on a Day 5 Sydney pitch is not considered easy in cricket. India managed to do it around the same time last year, but that was down to immense grit and fortune. To be honest, this England batting line-up doesn't give too much confidence to its fans. When they've been good, they haven't able to take home the advantage and when they've been not so good, well, they've collapsed. So, it was clear that today, they needed to be better than good to escape unscathed.

The overnight score of 30/0 soon became 46/1, 74/2 and 96/3, Crawley being the latest casualty, after stroking his way to a wonderful 77, with 13 boundaries. Of all the opening batters in English cricket right now, I haven't seen anyone time the ball better than this player. I remember his innings in India last year in the pink-ball test. It only lasted some 50-odd runs, but the way he hit the ball made me a fan. He also has a 267 against Pakistan. Again, sublime. He looks promising for England but a bit more consistency would do his team a world of good.

Joe Root and Ben Stokes, two of England's best cricketers, then stitched a 60-run stand for the 4th wicket before the former got out caught behind, prolonging Scott Boland's dream introduction to Test cricket. Joe Root is a wonderful batsman undoubtedly, it was a treat to watch him score those three consecutive centuries against India. If only he could get more proactive as a leader and a batter. He is unable to dominate bowling attacks like some of the batters of his generation do and that is not down to his batting ability, rather his mindset. Before the start of the tour, he spoke about how this Ashes would define his captaincy. Has it? Is he still the best man to lead England? We all know. Period.

Jonny Bairstow took over from Root and watched Stokes edge one off Lyon after a fine half-century, his second of the match. It seems like he is finally coming back into his groove after his mental break from cricket. I'm still counting on him to take the England Cricket Team forward. Jos Buttler and Mark Wood followed being outdone by some Pat Cummins magic with the new ball. The ball to Wood was a "thing of beauty", taking me back to the Oval, where Jasprit Bumrah bowled a peach of an inswinger to knock off Bairstow's stumps. 17 overs remaining and Australia are into England's tail. With the ball doing some tricks, England needed their first-innings hero to see them through. He was nursing an injury, but "playing in an Ashes Test match" was enough motivation for Bairstow as he had counter-attacked his way to a brilliant hundred in the first innings. I think his Test-match credentials are underrated. He's got the composure as well as the ability to battle it out for his team in foreign conditions. Today, he blocked his way to 41 and saw off 105 deliveries before Boland had him caught at silly-point. Still 64 balls left to play out and if you thought Jack Leach, Stuart Broad and James Anderson couldn't, no worries, it was the popular opinion back then.

But Leach and Broad blocked and blocked and blocked. They also took every available opportunity to add runs to their Test-match tally, thanks to the ultra-aggressive field set(understandably) by the Australian captain. They took it to within three overs of a draw, seeing off thunderbolts from Starc, Boland and Cummins. There was some thrilling cricket. Then the light came to England's rescue as Australia were only allowed to bowl spin for the remaining three overs. It was now that Steve Smith "did the vice-captain thing and said I will bowl", as Cummins confirmed later on in the post-match interview. Everyone thought it should be Labuschagne as he had more match-practice but Cummins stuck with Smith and boy, did it work! After playing out the first five balls of the over, Leach poked outside off to the last one and David Warner took a good catch in the slips to hand Australia their 9th wicket. Next over, Broad played out Lyon but not before he gave the English fans some nervy moments as the ball beat the bat off the third delivery. It was as if the whole of SCG was appealing, but the umpire shook his head.

If you had to choose one number 11 to see out the last over of a test match, it has to Anderson. After all, he has donned the role more times than anyone and has the most not-outs in Test cricket. Therefore, it was very much believable that he survived the Steve Smith over to hand England a well-deserved draw. They finally managed to not lose a cricket match. Phewww...... A roller-coaster of emotions was over for the day and in the end, Test cricket won. And England won the respect of a few around the world. Will they keep up with today's performance? Only time will tell. But given how tumultuous these past few weeks have been for them, you gotta say, "Happy New Year, England." 

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