I think it’s stupid because you have the same chance of getting both Warner and Khawaja out tomorrow as you did in these four overs. You’d have more time (how likely is it that you’d get two openers in four overs on a flat pitch like this for one?), energy and less pressure to do so too. It’s one thing to do it when the ball is doing things and the conditions are difficult to bat in but they were not. I haven’t even come to my main stickling point which is that Warner averages 26 in England and Khawaja 18. Both had horrible series last time around. These are not blokes you should be afraid of in the first place or try funky stuff to get out. The worst part is that they didn’t even give the ball to their ATG new ball bowler who didn’t bat and would have been presumably fresh, what was the point of the declaration then?
The ploy has already failed IMO, even if Warner or Khawaja get out first ball in the morning anyone would argue that it would have happened irrespective of today’s short session and the only difference is that Australia have cut the deficit by fourteen runs instead of England potentially raising it by at least twenty runs (and I’m being very generous here, England could have got to 450 easily with ten overs left). This may well turn out to be a “we’ll have a bowl, thanks” type of moment in Ashes history.
