SAM MORSHEAD AT EDGBASTON looks back on an excellent Friday for England as Rory Burns' hundred put the hosts in charge on the second day of The Ashes
The Zing bails might have gone but their spirit lives on in this Ashes series.
There was plenty of controversy during the World Cup when the light-up bails failed to fall on numerous occasions despite the stumps being struck, with the manufacturers so concerned they issued a statement on the matter.
We have swapped back to old-fashioned wooden apparatus for these Tests - albeit painted in the green of sponsors Specsavers - but the old problem remained.
Joe Root was on nine when he was beaten by a delivery from James Pattinson which nipped away off the pitch and passed by his outside edge to a distinctly wooden sound.
Umpire Joel Wilson was convinced and raised his finger, but Root quickly called for a review and TV replays showed the ball missing bat and clipping off stump.
The Aussies were incensed, lifting the bails and gesturing at the standing umps. What to do? What to do?
The captain made plenty of his good fortune, of course, going on to post his fourth successive half-century in Tests against Australia, sharing a fine second-wicket partnership of 132 with Burns to take England into a position of serious strength.
Nathan Lyon is going to have a big say in the ultimate outcome of this match.
Australia’s offspinner looked dangerous from ball one on Friday, with his first delivery of the series ragging out of the rough and veering towards Rory Burns’ stumps.
The deviation was fully 6.3 degrees - not quite the most of the Test - but only two had turned more. And that was a loosener.
When Lyon got his lengths right, he continued to threaten both Burns and Joe Root, and he should have had the former lbw with a straightening ball which rapped Burns on the front leg pushing forward.
Umpires, spectactors, commentators and players were all happy it was drifting down legside but DRS had other ideas. The problem for the Australians? They chose not to use it.
Nathan Lyon went wicketless despite bowling well
It’s not easy being Tim Paine.
But for the fact he is generally regarded as Australia’s best option with the gloves, there would be very real pressure on the selectors to remove the 34-year-old from the national captaincy, which would be somewhat harsh given the weight of responsibility he has shouldered since the Newlands debacle.
After all, Paine still has just one first-class century to his name, is seen as something of a soft touch in the lower middle order despite a healthy Test average of more than 35 and in some ways is blocking the way for the likes of Alex Carey, Kurtis Patterson and Peter Handscomb.
Speak to Australian journalists who follow their team around the world, through ups and downs, however, and there is a conviction that he will last at least to the end of this series, if not until Steve Smith becomes eligible for a leadership role again next April.
One obstacle to that supposed natural order, though, could be if Paine becomes clumsy behind the stumps. And at Edgbaston on Friday, there was a hint of the slapdash about his keeping.
A couple of fumbles down the legside, being nutmegged for byes by Nathan Lyon, failing to call for a review for an lbw shout against Rory Burns which DRS said was thumping into leg stump - it all added up to an untidy afternoon.
Paine said on Wednesday that he was in the team to “captain and wicketkeep to the best of my ability”. This can’t be considered his best. If it is, Australia may act earlier than some might think.
The ICC were driven to distraction by political messages being trailed through the sky during the World Cup, so much so that no fly zones were enforced.
No such air traffic control was in operation over Edgbaston on Friday, however, and that leant the opportunity for a morning visit from another biplane dragging a pointed message.
On this occasion, however, there was no sensitive message. Instead, the Barmy Army were making their point that Ben Stokes deserves a knighthood for his World Cup-winning exploits (several hundred masks of the England allrounder were distributed in the Hollies Stand on a day dedicated to Stokes).
But was the Queen listening?
Rory Burns reached a maiden Test century
Mitch Marsh - much-maligned, the subject of many a joke in times gone by. But here, as Australia toiled and searched and plugged away in search of a wicket that refused to arrive, Marsh saw his stock rise in his own absence.
If you were to search for the exact moment at which Australians were pining for their fourth seamer, it would come in the bearded figure of Matthew Wade. A wicketkeeper in all 22 of his previous Tests, here he was trundling in to bowl. He possesses eight first-class wickets and has bowled more regularly in recent times than when he was Australia's gloveman.
But having just reached a thrillingly hard-fought ton, the sight of Wade trundling to the crease at a raucous, booze-kissed Edgbaston will have been all that Rory Burns could possibly have asked for.
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