You're Running Out Of Time For A Score, Mark!

Tim Wigmore is concerned about the form of an England opener who is failing to cash in on a series of fine starts

- Tim Wigmore

Perhaps this time would be different. Mark Stoneman had endured a fraught start to the Sydney Test with several balls narrowly escaping his edge and one lackadaisical flick to mid-on almost ending with Stoneman being caught. Yet he had responded by counter punching with a series of pristine drives, racing along while Alastair Cook seemed near comatose.

And then it happened. Again. Stoneman had reached 24, at better than a run a ball, when he edged Pat Cummins behind, prodding at the ball a little tentatively. And so, once again, Stoneman had got in but failed to cash in: his series in microcosm.

He has had a curious series. Selected on the basis of his sanguine temperament and assurance against the short ball, the product of a decade of playing in grade cricket in Sydney, Stoneman has largely vindicated the selectors. He has been hit and been harried but never lacked zest for the fight. Most importantly, he has only been dismissed once for under ten in eight innings, which is a sterling effort by any opening batsman Down Under, let alone one facing an attack as hostile as this.