At one end,number eleven Ashton Agar stroked a languid 98. At the other,number six Phil Hughes made 81*. On Twitter,ex-players,journalists and fans remarked that they were more surprised by the latter innings.
This has been Hughess fate right through his career. Coming into the Ashes,he had endured a horror tour of India. He was neither the only batsman in his team nor the first overseas player to do so,but few before him were written off with such finality. Experts said he didnt have the technique to cut it at Test level.
Unlike Sehwag,Hughes is left-handed. When hes in form,the predominant angle he faces gives him more room to play these shots. When he isnt,hes much likelier to edge the ball. Unlike Sehwag,Hughes is jumpy and diffident at the crease; his body language doesnt betray a great deal of confidence in his own methods.
Because of all this,he looks ugly when he fails. When someone with a textbook style gets a string of low scores,critics dismiss it as one of those things that can happen to anyone. When Hughes fails,however,its because of his technique.
At this point,Hughes has middling numbers in Test cricket. An average in the mid-30s,and three centuries in 25 matches. But what centuries they were: two in one Test,his second,against Steyn,Ntini and Morkel in Durban; a match-saving third-innings 126 in Colombo to defy Rangana Herath,who took seven wickets in the innings.
Despite that effort,his struggles in India earned him the label of being clueless against spin. Graeme Swann,who boasts a phenomenal record against left-handers,was expected to swallow Hughes alive during the Ashes. But during that innings of 81,he played the off spinner very well. He stayed back to almost everything,and defended with an open front shoulder. It wasnt orthodox,but he ensured that his front pad wasnt getting in the way of that skidding straighter ball,thus negating Swanns deadliest weapon. In this case,the unconventional method became the sensible method. But dont expect technique fetishists to agree with that.
Karthik is a principal correspondent based in Delhi.
karthik.krishnaswamy@expressindia.com
