An explosive century: How Australia turned the first Ashes test on its Head

Australia needed a volunteer to replace an injured opening batter in the most hostile of scenarios. Enter Travis Head.

What ensued is already Ashes folklore. Given it’s the oldest and most storied international rivalry in cricket, Head’s hundred was a truly extraordinary achievement.

“Travis was like ‘I want to do it.’ So I was like: ‘Mate, go for your life!’” captain Steve Smith said after Australia’s remarkable eight-wicket win on Saturday.

And so the mustachioed left-hander replaced Usman Khawaja at the top of the order with Australia set a target of 205 to win on an apparently brutal pitch where neither the hosts nor England had accumulated more than 172 in an innings.

The highest individual score in three innings before Head strode to the crease was 52, and 30 wickets had tumbled in the 1 1/2 days in an almost incomprehensible start to the five-match series.

Usually a middle-order batter, Head started cautiously and took three runs from the first 14 deliveries he faced. Then he erupted, plundering an England pace attack that had skittled Australia for 132 in the first innings for a century from 69 balls. It was the third-fastest test century by an Australian, and the sixth-fastest by anyone.

He hooked, pulled, ramped, cut and clobbered 16 boundaries and four sixes to all parts of the Perth Stadium for just over two hours before he was out for 123 with Australia just 13 runs from a famous win.

“Today was just incredible, wasn’t it?” Smith said, talking about the context of the game. “That innings from Travis Head was out of this world. He just played some outrageous shots.

“Even when he shanked it, he seemed to hit it in the gap. He was kind of toying with them.”

No nonsense, though. When he hit the ball, it stayed hit.

In one over, Head clubbed Ben Stokes for four boundaries. And this was only 24 hours after the England captain had completed a five-wicket haul to curtail Australia’s first innings.

At that point on Day 2, it was clear Australia was going to win with three days to spare.

“ A little bit shell shocked there. That innings from Travis was, yeah, pretty phenomenal,” Stokes said in his post-match interview. “It’s quite raw, quite fresh at the moment. Jeez, that was some knock.”

Head said in his post-match TV interview that he was “not even close” to processing the magnitude of his innings. “I thought that was the right process, right way of thinking, go out there and see what happens,” he said of his approach to the situation, “and it’s worked today.”

For Head, his 10th century in 61 test matches turned the Perth game on its head after the five-pronged England pace attack was so dominant on Day 1 against a disjointed Australian lineup.

“We tried three or four different plans with him, and, you know, when he was going like a train those plans can change quite quickly,” Stokes said. “Because those runs were coming down quickly.

“I’ve seen Travis play a lot of knocks like that, whether it be in test cricket or white-ball cricket, and he’s very hard to stop.”

With Khawaja doubtful for the second test starting Dec. 4 in Brisbane because of back spasms that meant he couldn’t open in either of Australia’s innings in Perth, there’s plenty of reasons to think Head could be batting at No. 1 or 2 again this series.

“I was pretty keen to do it,” Head said of his jump up from No. 5 to the top of the Australian batting lineup on Saturday. “Nice to be able to do a role when it was needed.”

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket