Jonny Bairstow took aim at his detractors, describing the criticism he has faced as “out of order” after lifting England into the boxseat in the fourth Ashes Test.
After bashing Australia’s tiring bowlers in his unbeaten 99 off 81 balls to help England to a mammoth 592 all out, an aggrieved Bairstow continued on the offensive at the end of the third day’s play.
While a golden summer with the bat last year meant he was destined to return after recovering from a horrific leg break he suffered last August, the decision for Bairstow to take on wicketkeeping duties against Australia has backfired as the Yorkshireman has dropped seven catches and missed a stumping.
England have resisted calls to restore gloveman Ben Foakes, dropped to facilitate the return of Bairstow, who believes his knockers have failed to take into account the severity of an injury in which he broke his left leg in three places and dislocated his ankle after slipping on a golf course.
“You’ve got to have a bit of perspective on it,” Bairstow told the BBC. “I’ve not played in months and I’ve not kept properly in three years.
“There’s obviously been a lot of talk and things like that, some of which I think has been a bit out of order to be honest but that’s part and parcel of people having an opinion.
“There are times when if people had a conversation with you individually and found out a bit more about the injury or the ankle and how everything’s going, they might have a slightly different view or perspective on it.”
He added on Sky Sports: “The leg break could have ended my career. There are times when you have aches and pains, and people say you’re limping – yeah I am at times! Because there’s a lot going on in my ankle.”
There is a perception that Bairstow tends to perform well when he feels he has a point to prove and Australia’s bowlers bore the brunt of any ill-feeling he had after flaying 10 fours and four sixes as he amassed his highest score since his injury.
However, Bairstow, who was left stranded one run short of three figures after last man James Anderson fell lbw to Cameron Green, insisted he does not need to be fired up to be at his best.
“Everyone thinks I play better when people have a go at me,” Bairstow said. “It gets a bit tiresome, to be honest.
“I’ve played a lot of cricket now. To keep being told you’re rubbish – if I was that rubbish I wouldn’t have played 94 Tests.
“To score 99 you’re pretty happy, aren’t you. I put on a really nice partnership at the end with Jimmy.”
Bairstow snaffled two catches as Mark Wood’s three-wicket haul helped reduce Australia to 113 for four, still trailing by 162, but unsettled weather over the weekend could dampen their victory push at Emirates Old Trafford.
“The weather is the weather, I’m not Michael Fish,” Bairstow said with a smile. “In the circumstances of the game to get 275 in front and then to take four wickets tonight for 100 is all we could have done.”
As well as his work behind the stumps coming under scrutiny, Bairstow was at the centre of the series’ biggest flash point as he was opportunistically stumped by Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey at Lord’s.
Bairstow stepped out of his crease believing the ball to be dead after ducking a Green bouncer but Carey gathered the ball and in one motion threw down the stumps earlier this month, prompting controversy to the extent that the Prime Ministers of both England and Australia had their say.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to be out down at Lord’s,” Bairstow added. “That is part and parcel of the game. We have seen it in other occasions. I have heard about it in club cricket.
“That’s not necessarily what you want to be hearing. The example for me when you are looking at young kids coming up. You want to be playing the game and play it how I have always played it, you play it tough, you play it fair.”
Bayern star Kane scores 400th senior goal
Harry Kane surpassed the 400-goal mark for his senior career as his double helped Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Kane moved within one of the milestone as he put Bayern 1-0 up after just nine minutes, coolly finishing from close range after Konrad Laimer's pass had set him up.
Then, after Frankfurt levelled through Hugo Ekitike, Kane slotted home a penalty with typical aplomb following a foul on Thomas Muller to move himself onto 400 career goals and ultimately lead Bayern to victory.
Kane scored 280 of his goals in 435 appearances for Tottenham, overtaking Jimmy Greaves to become the club's all-time leading scorer when he netted for the 267th time in Spurs colours against Manchester City last February.
His tally of 213 Premier League goals, meanwhile, puts him just 47 behind the competition's all-time leader Alan Shearer, who scored 260 times for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.
Kane is also the most prolific player in England's history, his 62 goals for the Three Lions coming in 89 international appearances.
He memorably missed the chance to surpass Wayne Rooney's previous record of 53 when he blazed a penalty over the crossbar in the Three Lions' quarter-final defeat to France at the 2022 World Cup, only to clinch his place in history in a Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy three months later.
The very first goal of Kane's senior career came in League One during a loan spell with Leyton Orient as they thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 in January 2011.
That was the first of five goals Kane scored in O's colours, while he also netted nine times in a loan spell with Millwall in 2011-12 and twice during a stint with Leicester City the following season.
IPL: Fraser-McGurk leads the way as Capitals hold off Mumbai
Delhi Capitals withstood Mumbai Indian’s late surge and held on for a 10-run victory at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Jake Fraser-McGurk top-scored with 84 – hitting 50 off just 15 balls – while Tristan Stubbs (48) and Shai Hope (41) also chipped in with important contributions as the Capitals set a target of 258.
Mukesh Kumar (3/59) and Rasikh Salam (3/34) did their best to halt Mumbai’s revival, but they turned up the pressure to require 25 runs from the final over.
However, despite Luke Wood and Piyush Chawla’s best efforts, Delhi held out for a second successive win.
Data debrief
Wood almost made amends after conceding 68 runs during the opening innings – the joint-most in the IPL this season, matching Reece Topley’s tally against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Tilak Varma led Mumbai’s attempted revival with 63 for his sixth half-century in the IPL, though they have all come in defeats
Chase outdone by opposite number Paudel as West Indies A suffer four-wicket loss to Nepal
West Indies A’s tour of Nepal got off to an unfortunate start, after they suffered a four-wicket loss to their host in a high scoring opening fixture of their five-match Twenty20 series at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, on Saturday.
Set a formidable 204 by West Indies A, Nepal’s thrilling victory, which was set up by a captain’s knock from Rohit Paudel, etched their names in the history books, as they successfully got to their target at 206-6 with two balls to spare.
Paudel smashed a 54-ball 112, including 10 fours and two sixes to see his team to a 1-0 lead in the series, which West Indies Head coach Darren Sammy said offers his team a chance to define roles and personnel more clearly for their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad.
However, the Caribbean side’s all-round effort was found wanting, as only captain Roston Chase (74), Alick Athanaze (47) and Keacy Carty (38) offered any resistance with the bat, while only Obed McCoy (2-34) and Matthew Forde (2-49) had some semblance of success with the ball.
Scores: West Indies A 204-5 (20 overs); Nepal 206-6 (19.4 overs)
Asked to take first strike, after losing the toss, West Indies A suffered an early blow, as they lost Johnson Charles (zero) off the last ball of the opening over, with 16 runs on the board. Andre Fletcher (13) stuck two sixes off five balls, before he too departed via the run-out route, leaving West Indies A at 43-2 in the fourth over.
However, Athanaze went about business, striking three sixes and five fours in a 25-ball knock, as he put on 43 for the third wicket with Chase, prior to his demise. From there, Chase and Carty added another 60 runs in a fourth-wicket stand that defined the innings.
Carty’s 38 off 26 balls, included two fours and three sixes, while Chase, who anchored the innings with a captain’s knock, struck nine fours and two sixes in his 46-ball 74. Kadeem Alleyne, on 14, and Keemo Paul, one, were left not out.
No Nepal bowler took more than one wicket.
With runs on the board, West Indies A would have felt confident of wrapping up a win, even more so, after Forde and McCoy combined to remove openers Anil Sah (five) and Kushal Bhurtel (16) to have Nepal at 38-2 in the fifth over.
West Indies remained in the ascendancy when Fletcher and Charles combined to run out Kushal Malla (16), leaving their host on the ropes at 82-3 at the halfway mark.
However, Paudel showed class, in not only reviving his team’s innings, but pushed them all the way with some aggressive stroke play, assisted by wayward bowling from West Indies A attack at times. Dipendra Singh Airee (24) offered support to his captain in getting Nepal across the line for a famous victory.
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