Men’s Ashes First Test Report Card, Day Four

Featuring first ball reverse scoops and near-spoonerised awkwardness

First Ball Reverse Scoops
Grade: A

After much of the previous day’s play was rained out, the fourth day was extended. However, in another typically childish display from the ECB, the extra time was added to the end of the day’s play, when it was 4am for Australian viewers back home, rather than the beginning of the day when it’s 7:30pm. Easily the most disgraceful act of the Ashes so far.

Nevertheless, England, in the impish form of Joe Root, began the day in typically nonsensical fashion, apparently planning to declare in the first half hour of the day, as he tried to reverse-scoop Pat Cummins for six first ball. Sure, it didn’t work, but he had the idea to do it and the willingness to attempt it, no matter how crazy it might seem to the naysayers and the establishment squares. And that’s what Bazball is all about.