Left field

Ashes analysis: England bowlers bounce back in style

When England’s bowlers awoke this morning they would have had the sound of stinging criticism ringing in their ears following their poor performance on day one, but how they responded.

They ripped out nine Australian wickets for the cost of 137 runs as the tourists collapsed from 126 for one overnight to 263 all out, with England closing on 116 for two as bad light cut the day’s play short.

The tone was set for the day by a ferocious opening spell by Graham Onions who took wickets with his first two deliveries, crucially that of Shane Watson, unbeaten overnight on 62 and looking in imperious form.

Onions also took the wicket of Ricky Ponting but not before the Australian captain became his country’s leading run scorer in test cricket. Onions also took the final wicket of Australia’s first innings to finish with figures of 4 for 58.

All credit to Andrew Strauss, who has bounced back remarkably from a shaky first test at Cardiff, for opening the bowling this morning with Onions after the Durham man had been splayed about Edgbaston, going at seven runs an over, the night before.

Onions repaid his captain’s faith by bowling full and straight and got his just rewards.

Swann could be key to England Ashes hopes

At 30 years old England spinner Graeme Swann is no spring chicken, but since his first taste of international cricket ended up with him oversleeping and missing the bus this story could have a bit of a fairytale feel about it if things continue to go well … Not so much Swann Lake as The Ugly Duckling, perhaps?

The focus heading in to England’s second Test has been on local hero Graham Onions, and latterly the West Indies captain Chris Gayle, after he said he would “not be so sad” if Test cricket were to disappear.

While Onions bowled well at Lord’s I suspect Swann has the capacity to have the greater impact during the Ashes series and it’s vital for England that he maintains his form against the WIndies this week.

Swann bagged six wickets and a maiden test half century, earning him the player of the match award in England’s 10-wicket win last week.

There’s no doubt that England will need a solid bowling unit this summer. But equally important is the inclusion of a lower order batsman such as Swann to shore up the innings like he did at Lord’s on Wednesday and Thursday.

England’s Ashley Giles ‘The King of Spain‘ did an important job in that respect in the 2005 Ashes when he averaged 15.5 from 10 innings. That might not sound a lot, but it’s the staying in that counts and he managed that very well, enabling specialist batsmen to compile bigger scores at the other end.

England need Swann to do that sort of job against Australia. Another performance like the one he gave in the first Test would give the English the perfect pre-Ashes boost

Fleet Street tucks into Onions with relish

We speculated here last week how Fleet Street’s finest headline writers would be sharpening their pencils in glee at the prospect of the splendidly named Graham Onions playing for the England cricket team.

True to form, Britain’s newspapers have gorged themselves in a veritable feeding frenzy after the Durham seamer marked his debut with five wickets in his debut test match at Lord’s on Thursday.

‘Raw Onions flavour of the day as West Indies collapse in tears’ chortled the Guardian’s effort while the Independent stuck to the lachrymose theme with ‘Onions gives West Indies five reasons to be tearful’.

Having failed so palpably to keep their powder dry with the gift horse of the Onions name, one wonders how they can possibly keep it up if the Durham seamer is regularly among the wickets.

‘Onions off to a sizzler’ roared the Daily Mail, picturing the bowler prostrate on the Lord’s track after his fourth wicket.

Bottom marks went, surprisingly, to the Sun for their rather nonsensical ‘String of Onions’ adding the technically incorrect ’5 in the Onion bag’ on its back page for good measure. What happened to the glory days of ‘It’s Paddy Pantsdown!’.

We know our Onions, but what about other foody names?

I defy anyone to read the name Graham Onions without letting off a short, poorly subdued snigger. It’s a brilliant name that brings out the schoolboy humour in all of us.

The Durham seamer’s call-up into the England cricket squad propelled him to the pantheon of headline writers’ dreams alongside Usain Bolt, Ian Rush and Mardy Fish.

Onions relishes show of faith (The Times) They’re crying out for Onions (The Mirror) Onions makes Harmy weep (The Sun)

The Onions household will never have groaned so much over their cornflakes as when assessing Thursday’s newspaper headlines.

Mr Onions (I’m still smiling), however, got myself and Reuters sportsdesk colleagues thinking of other great sportspeople’s names, namely those related to food.

A strict set of criteria was quickly established: the name must be spelt correctly (Patrik Berger, sorry mate but you just don’t cut the mustard), Frankie Bunn also fell foul of the rules.