Headingley rises to patience and precision of new hero

Archer lives up to all the expectations to earn hard-earned Yorkshire praise, writes Nick Hoult

Some players never gain acceptance at Headingley, but Jofra Archer achieved it before he had bowled a single ball here. The loud cheers that greeted him removing his jumper and cap to bowl the second over was the kind of reception normally reserved for great players from Yorkshire. Respect is hard-earned here.

The question was whether he could live up to the expectations of a sell-out crowd, his team-mates and the entire country after his heroics at Lord’s last week. Those fears were answered emphatically by the standing ovation from the Western Terrace as Archer ran down to his fielding position at fine leg after taking his fifth wicket on

another remarkable day in this young man’s sporting life.

Moments later he was leading his team off the field with the ball in his hand having dismissed Australia’s last man with the first delivery of his fourth spell. He waved to a packed house, as few had left the ground despite the day’s play drifting to 7.30pm.

He proved Lord’s was not a one-off not just by taking six for 45. At Lord’s his performance was about fearsome pace and hostility. This time it was patience and bowling with skill and precision in conditions where eventually batsmen would make mistakes.

The wickets were spread across his spells, crafted through grafting outside off stump, and dragged England back into the match just when it looked like Australia would survive the day and take a big step toward retaining the Ashes.

Archer’s face led every newspaper’s coverage of this game and his portrait is the front page of the match programme. His decking of Steve Smith has been billed as the ball that changed the series and his pace suddenly made the dangers of facing fast bowling the predominant theme going into this Test. It even forced Ben Stokes, the toughest of cricketers, to wear a stem guard on his helmet for the first time, in expectation of an Australian revenge peppering.

Archer’s showman instincts were on display in the nets on Wednesday when he did a very good batting impersonation of Smith, copying those extravagant leaves and mannerisms. It takes some chutzpah for a tail-ender to