On a day when Australia admitted they were buffeted by “the perfect storm” Zak Crawley was the whirlwind, scoring 189 off 182 balls, an innings decorated with 21 fours and three sixes, before insisting that he had “felt in better touch at other times” and “it wasn’t actually that easy to score”.
Crawley, who has retained the fierce loyalty of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum despite some inconsistent returns, said: “It’s fair to say that under any other coach or captain I probably wouldn’t be playing this series.” But he repaid their faith by manoeuvring England towards a dominant position, already 67 ahead after reaching 384 for four at stumps, sharing partnerships of 121 with Moeen Ali and 206 with Joe Root, both of whom made half-centuries.
“I rode my luck at times,” he said. “I played some really good parts in the innings and then the other parts I was a bit streaky. After my hundred, that’s as good as I’ve felt, but before that I’ve felt in better nick at other times. It wasn’t actually that easy to score at times, which might sound really arrogant. There were times when I was struggling to score but I took a punt against their bowlers and it came off.”
After nine innings this summer Crawley is averaging 55 at a strike rate of 90, when before England’s trip to Pakistan last winter he had never finished a series with a strike rate above 65. The reason he is currently scoring so fluently, he explained, is that Australia’s bowlers are too good not to.
“They’re so good that I feel if I sit there for too long they’ll get me,” he said. “I like to be positive against them. I’ve scored quicker in this series than most and I think that’s just the quality of their bowlers. I don’t want to sit there for too long because there’s a good ball in there.
“[Previously] I was thinking too much about the score rather than being immersed in the moment. Baz talks a lot about being present. I was a lot more present today and I think that helped me get a big score, rather than worrying about getting a big score. [And] I was trying to sit on bowlers, make them come to me, trying to build an innings like that.
“I found that at this level you get so many good balls, especially at the top of the order, so I was getting a couple of nice scores and then getting out. It wasn’t really me. I always felt an itch to attack a bit more.
“When you play with great players like Joe you try to emulate them, but there comes a point where you have to bat your own way. Being a bit more positive is a bit more me.”
In an extraordinary second session England scored 178 for one off 25 overs at a rate of 7.12 runs an over, with Crawley getting 106 of those, while an Australia side without a frontline spinner looked increasingly short of ideas.
“In the back of our minds we always knew England had this in them, because they play so aggressively,” said Daniel Vettori, Australia’s assistant coach. “I think you see the respect the players have for their tactics with some of the fields that we’ve had to set to mitigate that at times, but today was that perfect storm of them coming hard at us and us not being able to come back.
“It was a taxing session because Crawley was so dominant and played so well from the outset. We had some plans but he was too good on a wicket like this. That period where him and Root got together was almost all-out attack. We knew how important that partnership was and the run rate got away from us because the two batsmen were too good on the day.”
Crawley eventually played on to his stumps when a Cameron Green bouncer kept low, while Root was bowled by a Josh Hazlewood delivery that barely bounced at all. “That was unplayable, and I hope we get a few of those when we bowl,” Crawley said.
“I think the pitch is going to start to play a few more tricks. Anything can happen with Stokesy but I think the gameplan will be to bat well tomorrow and bat once. We’d like a big lead and bowl them out and not have to bat again. We’re not expecting that, but that would be ideal.”
