The much awaited Ashes series has kicked off in Brisbane this morning. England batted first after winning the toss and they dominated the first half of the day as James Vince and Mark Stoneman scored respective fifties.
Vince proved his selection with a gritty 83-run knock and seemed very pleased after helping his team to overcome an early departure of Alastair Cook.
“It’s great to get off a good start. Reading comments like that, it gives you an extra incentive to make a statement. First innings, it’s nice to spend some time in the middle and get some confidence,” said Vince.
“There’s [been] a bit of chat around since I got called up after my last effort at Test cricket and it gives you a bit more fight to try and prove people wrong,” England’s number 3 added. “If I could have my first time at Test cricket again, I would but it was 12-18 months ago now. I’ve been focused since I got the call to try and capitalise on this opportunity and get myself nailed down in the team.”
Cricketing fraternity was aware about the threat of Australia’s pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins. But none of them produced any magic in the first day’s play. However, the conditions at the Gabba were quite strange as the pitch was slow then anyone had thought.
“Conditions were a bit different to what we expected. There wasn’t a huge amount of pace in it at the start of the day. It came onto the bat a bit better as they day went on,” he further explained. “They bowled pretty well, didn’t give us a huge amount. We spoke in the build-up about getting overs in their bowlers’ legs. With only three seamers, them coming back tomorrow might be hard work.”
Vince and Stoneman added 125 runs for the second wicket, before latter perished to Cummins. Afterwards Vince’s stayed, too, cut short by a direct throw from Nathan Lyon. “It was a good bit of fielding. In hindsight I wouldn’t take the run. It was a good pick up and throw to be fair. He bowled pretty well and deserved something from the day,” he commented on his dismissal.
This gave a ray of hope to Aussies and they capitalized on this opportunity. Cummins was the pick of the bowlers today. He trapped English captain Joe Root in front of wicket successfully, which put them ahead after day one. Currently, England has 196/4 on the board with Moeen Ali and David Malan in the middle.
Vince concluded while revealing what lies ahead in day 2 and quoted “It’s reasonably even [now]. The first hour will dictate how the rest of the day goes. If we can get through that without too much damage, Mo can score quickly, Jonny can score quickly. The more overs that their bowlers bowl, the easier scoring will become.”
