England opener reflects on his footballing prowess, New Year's Eve fireworks and the slow Melbourne pitch in his latest blog...
Friday 5 January 2018 16:40, UK
Mark Stoneman talks the Melbourne pitch and Alastair Cook's "great-granddaddy" hundred - plus runs through his Christmas cracker of a goal at the MCG - ahead of the final Ashes Test in Sydney…
Our mood coming away from the MCG was definitely one of frustration.
We had put right a lot of the things we needed to put right and done very well for a large part of the game - bowling Australia out for an under-par total in the first innings and then, thanks to Alastair Cook putting on a big score, building ourselves a lead. Unfortunately, the skill and determination of Steve Smith, David Warner and Mitchell Marsh scuppered us.
The pitch definitely didn't deteriorate as we would have liked and we were unable to force a result. The surface was up there as one of the slowest I've seen - there was a lack of bounce and it offered nothing sideways.
You generally get a little misbehaviour from cracks on the pitch or one or two balls running on the ground and getting you bowleds and lbws, but on this pitch things were consistent. It was hard to force breakthroughs.
You expect something to happen for the bowlers on day one, bat to then take over for a little while and then a bit of sideways movement or reverse swing to come into play.
We got none of that, so it was pretty frustrating for everyone involved, especially the crowd, I would imagine. It was even tough to score unless you were given a really bad ball.
Cookie found a way, though! The work he puts in is phenomenal - he is tireless with his efforts and commitment. He is a role model and a legend in the dressing room, someone we all look up to.
It was brilliant to see what it meant to him to get a big score after his frustrations earlier in the tour - it was an innings that reinforced his greatness.
It can be a lonely place out there as an opening batsman. You are up against the new ball and fresh bowlers and are not always there at the time when things get flatter and the bowlers get tired. You have to make sure you cash in and that's exactly what Cookie does best.
When he gets in, he often goes on to get massive scores. People talk about "daddy" hundreds, but that 244 not out was probably a "great-granddaddy," I reckon.
I remember being sat in the dugout when he scored his hundred and the backdrop was the Barmy Army all stood up, in fine voice, shouting Cookie's name. That was one of the highlights of the trip for me - the emotion of the Barmy Army as well as Cookie. It will live with me for a long time.
Broady was quite happy to score his fifty in that century stand with Cookie for the ninth wicket - I think he enjoyed getting one back on the Aussie bowlers! He loves taking them on and finding the ropes.
It was an outstanding partnership between the two of them as the game was in the balance at that time - those runs gave us some real momentum when we went back out with the ball.
Broady also took four wickets in Australia's first innings in a good match for him personally. Having come up against him in county cricket over the years, I know how tough he is to face. When he's at his very best, the energy around him is something you notice.
It's quite hard to describe but you just sense that something is going to happen. We all felt it against Windies at Edgbaston under the lights over the summer when he got on a roll with the pink ball. That's all down to the work he puts in.
It is a testament to the characters of Broady and Cookie that they were able to put in the performances they did in Melbourne.
They are great for the less experienced members of the team as they have a depth of knowledge and an understanding of staying level, knowing that cricket can quickly bite you on the backside. They also enjoy everyone else's successes as much as their own.
Tom Curran had an emotional rollercoaster at the MCG, having Warner caught off a no-ball on 99 and then coming back the next day to make Smith his first Test wicket. There was real relief and happiness - getting Warner would have been good but I reckon bagging Smith trumped it!
Tom will want to build on that in Sydney, while Mason Crane will be buzzing for his debut - Mason has put in a hell of a lot of work throughout this trip and has got good experience in Sydney from his time in grade cricket and then with New South Wales last year.
He is a natural competitor and is raring to go - he's got that inner steel which you require as a leg-spinner as it can be a tough art at times. Fingers crossed everything goes well for him.
There was a bit of chat about "ball tampering" on day four in Melbourne from the Aussie media - we just laughed at it when we came off for rain thinking: 'What's going on here!?'
We knew there wasn't going to be a great deal of movement with the new ball so we tried to get a bit of reverse swing happening with throws in and around the stumps, which is all legitimate work. Every time the lads needed to clean the ball, they also did it in full view of the umpires. Everything was above board.
It was just an opportunity for the Aussie press to try and deflect and take a bit of pressure off their lads and put it back onto us. Much like they did with the Jonny Bairstow 'non-headbutt' when we had a decent day in Brisbane. It was a non-event from our point of view.
We spent New Year's Eve at the Hotel Palisade in Sydney, not far from The Rocks. At the kind invitation of Colin Graves, we were on the rooftop and had a fine view of the fireworks - the 9pm show for the kids, before we counted down to midnight together. Then we strolled back past everyone who had been welcoming in 2018…
A week earlier I scored the winning goal in our football match at the MCG.
I picked the ball up at the back, played a cross-field pass to the right wing and then carried on running down the left. I'm pretty sure Cookie then played the ball in after I gave him the call of "back post" and I knocked it in on the half-volley with my weaker right foot, pearler of goal! There must be video footage of it somewhere!
It was one of my few good contributions on the football field this trip - I've had a bit of a stinker in that regard - but thankfully Crane and Curran have been playing a heck of a lot worse than I have!
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