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There was a period, just after tea, when England started looking decidedly fast-medium. Fortunately for Alastair Cook, it was a day when persisting with right-arm fast-medium wasn’t actually the worst ploy imaginable and Kumar Sangakkara’s wicket precipitated a sudden flow of wickets that gushed so strongly that most people didn’t even notice Stuart Broad’s hat-trick.
The hat-trick was spread over two overs with a Liam Plunkett wicket tucked away inside it – but you should always notice three in three. A hat trick ball is one of the great panto moments in cricket and it only really works with the proper comedy build-up. Sadly, Broad’s third will look like just another wicket on the highlights.
Plunkett bowled well. It seems he had been given the famously unproductive ‘enforcer’ role at Lord’s simply because he is the fastest of the four right-arm fast-medium bowlers England have fielded in these two Tests. He probably would have bowled more like he did today if left to his own devices. This raises the possibility that England’s bowlers will all be striving to become second-fastest so that they get to bowl how they want to and aren’t just a forlorn stab at ‘variety’.
Making your fast bowler eight overs on the trot will sometimes have that effect.
Liam plunkett is much taller than I remember.
Liam Plunkett can take England high,if he can be consistent.
When you say “a forlorn stab at variety”, do you mean like a song-and-dance act or ventriloquism? Because I can’t see anything wrong with that as a tactic for England right now. Cook is a singer – he could do Ave Maria for the grannies in the audience. And several of the players have been practicing their comedy juggling routine in the last two tests. It’s just a shame Graeme Swann has retired from his role as jolly northern comedian.
That picture of Liam Plunkett reminded me of a picture I took years ago in the stunning Phobjikha Valley in Bhutan:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ianlharris/8610227217/in/set-72157633139798955
Just thought I’d share that thought.