Ashton who?
Sports Reporter
EVEN A NO. 1 WILL ENVY: Australia’s number 11 batsman Ashton Agar plays an eye-pleasing on-drive for four against England paceman James Anderson during his magnificent knock of 98 off 101 balls on the second day of the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge yesterday. Photo: AFP
When a lanky, floppy-haired, six-feet-plus frame walked out to the field on Trent Bridge wearing the Australian cap, that too for the opening Ashes Test, spectators at the ground and around the world must have been wondering if Australia were dealing with a full deck. Just over a year ago, left-arm spinner Ashton Agar was playing second XI cricket for Richmond in Melbourne, and here he was making his debut in his country’s pinnacle contest.
Agar thus far had averaged just under 30 with the ball from 10 first-class matches, an unremarkable return — not that many knew that at the time, because the general reaction was a bemused, “Ashton who?”. After the first day Agar had bowled seven overs without reward for 24 runs — enough to condemn him as just another in a long line of spin hopefuls after the magician Shane Warne’s departure.
All that changed after the second day however. Ashton Agar’s name will be remembered for a long time, not least by cricket trivia enthusiasts. After James Anderson and Graeme Swann had chopped their arch-rivals down to 117 for nine, in strode the unassuming number 11 and unfurled records one after the next. In the company of specialist batsman Phil Hughes, who played a disbelieving second fiddle to his debutant teammate’s lead guitar, Agar took Australia’s score to 280 (and an unlikely lead of 65) before finally falling two heart-wrenching runs short of a debut 100.
But records had already tumbled and astonishing ones set. Before Agar, the highest a number 11 had scored was West Indian Tino Best’s 95, also against England. Hughes’s and Agar’s 163-run association was easily the highest tenth-wicket partnership, beating the record held jointly by New Zealand’s Brian Hastings and Richard Collinge (1973) and Mushtaq Ahmed and Azhar Mahmood of Pakistan (1998). Agar is also the first debutant number 11 to score a Test half-century, the previous highest score was Australian Warwick Armstrong’s 45 in 1902.
These records will stand at least a while, chiefly because after yesterday’s display Agar will not be batting at number 11 any time soon. It was a world removed from Best’s slogathon last year. It was an innings of a proper batsman, but it was remarkable because of the poise and balance displayed under extreme pressure. An on-drive off an on-song Anderson and two straight sixes off Swann will linger in the memory. Above all it was an exhibition of typical Australian pluck at a time when the once world conquerors badly needed it.
Agar thus far had averaged just under 30 with the ball from 10 first-class matches, an unremarkable return — not that many knew that at the time, because the general reaction was a bemused, “Ashton who?”. After the first day Agar had bowled seven overs without reward for 24 runs — enough to condemn him as just another in a long line of spin hopefuls after the magician Shane Warne’s departure.
All that changed after the second day however. Ashton Agar’s name will be remembered for a long time, not least by cricket trivia enthusiasts. After James Anderson and Graeme Swann had chopped their arch-rivals down to 117 for nine, in strode the unassuming number 11 and unfurled records one after the next. In the company of specialist batsman Phil Hughes, who played a disbelieving second fiddle to his debutant teammate’s lead guitar, Agar took Australia’s score to 280 (and an unlikely lead of 65) before finally falling two heart-wrenching runs short of a debut 100.But records had already tumbled and astonishing ones set. Before Agar, the highest a number 11 had scored was West Indian Tino Best’s 95, also against England. Hughes’s and Agar’s 163-run association was easily the highest tenth-wicket partnership, beating the record held jointly by New Zealand’s Brian Hastings and Richard Collinge (1973) and Mushtaq Ahmed and Azhar Mahmood of Pakistan (1998). Agar is also the first debutant number 11 to score a Test half-century, the previous highest score was Australian Warwick Armstrong’s 45 in 1902.
These records will stand at least a while, chiefly because after yesterday’s display Agar will not be batting at number 11 any time soon. It was a world removed from Best’s slogathon last year. It was an innings of a proper batsman, but it was remarkable because of the poise and balance displayed under extreme pressure. An on-drive off an on-song Anderson and two straight sixes off Swann will linger in the memory. Above all it was an exhibition of typical Australian pluck at a time when the once world conquerors badly needed it.
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