A Lord’s Test, the Epsom Derby and the FA Cup final at Wembley made for a congested day in the British sporting calendar, but many of those arriving at the first of that trifecta this morning would no doubt have expected England to have things wrapped up by lunch.
The mismatch between Ben Stokes’s side and their Irish counterparts across the first two days had been stark - the visitors rolled for 172 on the first day, then punished at a rate of knots by Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope on the second.
It was to Ireland’s immense credit, then, that by the time England’s victory, by ten wickets, was confirmed, Aidan O’Brien was already celebrating another Classic winner and Ilkay Gundogan had struck twice under the Arch.
Mark Adair led the pride-restoring fightback, in with a shout of breaking Stokes’ record for the fastest Test hundred on this ground before he was out for 88 off just 76 balls, a partnership of 163 with Andy McBrine by then Ireland’s highest ever in Tests. McBrine went on to an unbeaten 86 himself, left stranded within sight of a century when Stuart Broad bowled No11 Graham Hume after tea, injured opener James McCollum not fit to return.
Josh Tongue led the home side off having turned three-for overnight into five-for on an impressive debut. Remarkably, though, the job was still not done, Ireland, having started the day 255 behind, setting a target of 11 to win. Zak Crawley, blessedly, skirted a banana skin that might have had his name on it with three boundaries in four balls.
McBrine and Adair played with the freedom granted by a seemingly inevitable outcome, typified in the latter reaching his half-century with a subtle reverse-sweep after his partner had done likewise uppercutting Broad over the ‘keeper’s head for four.
Ireland are a fine white-ball side, their justified prioritisation of shorter formats part of the reason for the gulf in class across the first two days here. It cannot have been easy to accept the narrative of the week, of a team of whipping boys thrown to the lions, particularly since the most recent meetings between the nations in T20 and ODI cricket had each gone the way of the men in green.
Playing at a more familiar tempo, they gave a truer representation of the country’s coming force in the global game, even if external forces will see it confined to limited-overs tournaments for the foreseeable future and, quite probably, beyond.
Day three toil aside, this week had marked a decent start to England’s blockbuster summer, though one that in the end fell short of ideal. For all Ireland’s final flourish with the bat, with an eye on the Ashes, England would surely have benefited from a stiffer examination from the ball, and, certainly, could have done without more worrying signs concerning the state of the skipper’s knee.
Stokes issued a positive fitness update on the eve of the Test and, given he did not bat or bowl in the match, its veracity ought to still be something of a mystery. A hobble and grimace when holding Curtis Campher off Joe Root, however, gave the game away and the deterioration of England’s potency once a seam attack missing its fourth prong tired is a huge concern.
That Root, for instance, was required inside the first session of the day was another indicator of the trouble England will have finding balance without the all-rounder’s overs, Ireland’s success against the part-timer proof that he cannot be any serious part of the Ashes solution.
Jack Leach, too, was expensive, dragging a couple of rancid deliveries down the leg-side to gift Ireland back their momentum straight after lunch as Adair swept for successive fours. Australia will come after the spinner, a fact accepted and adopted into the English plan, but after three first-innings wickets, a return of one-for-90 in the second was too heavily lopsided.
Just as the cash-in run-scoring of Friday came with clear caveats, there was a degree of salt-pinching to be done here, neither complacency nor as flat a surface likely to be an issue at Edgbaston, where England’s seam lineup may be entirely refreshed. The Stokes conundrum, though, is an awkward one, with no obvious solution at hand.
