Smith tons up and Johnson fires in Kent

Throughout a 17-year first-class career that has yielded 15 Test appearances, a Lord’s double-century for England and a trophy win as skipper at Kent, Robert Key has never been one to be bound by convention.

A self-confessed unathletic-looking cricketer, Key’s finest county moment – when he led Kent to the 2007 T20 title – also saw him fined for serious dissent when he hurled his bat across the boundary rope to protest his dismissal in the final.

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The following year he was fined £1250 and reprimanded by the England and Wales Cricket Board when he described the role of the Board’s pitch liaison officers who inspected the wicket for a county game against Durham at Chester-le-Street as “a bit of a Muppet Show”.

So it was perhaps not surprising that the 36-year-old, now forging a career as a television pundit alongside his twilight playing days, veered violently from the accepted script when asked to describe how he found batting against a rampant Mitchell Johnson at Canterbury today.

Key was England's best on a tough day for the hosts // Getty Images

Even though Key had defied Australia’s attack for almost three hours and come within a baker’s dozen of a deserved century, he opted not to take the predictable patriotic line and downplay the threat Johnson seems likely to pose in the coming Ashes series.

In doing so, he’s likely sent a flush of fury and a chill of fear through the incumbent England batting line-up.

“I tell you what I thought, for a large part of that (innings) I thought there’s no way I get paid enough to be facing him,” Key told reporters after day two of the tour match with Kent that Australia has dominated for all but about an hour when Key was on song this evening.

“And I do all right for myself, don’t get me wrong.

“He’s a different level, isn’t he?

“The pace that he has and he gets the odd one to swing, and that’s how I think cricket should be played.

“It doesn’t matter what type of pitch you’re on, the bloke’s a serious bowler.

“He can intimidate you but he can also move the ball around.

“He’s tough.”

Johnson, who single-handedly destroyed England’s batting in the previous Ashes 18 months ago as Australia swept to a five-nil series win, has played something of a supporting role behind star turns from Ryan Harris, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in Test and ODI cricket over the past six months or more.

Not that any Test bowler would sneeze at the eight wickets at 18.62 he collected in the Caribbean earlier this month where Hazlewood was named man of the series.

Johnson proved menacing despite a docile pitch // Getty Images

It’s just that in comparison to his 2013-14 Ashes blitz in Australia when he pocketed 37 wickets in five matches at less than 14 runs apiece, some critics have decided his effectiveness has diminished as a result of the increased strike power of his fellow fast bowling cartel members.

Rather like dismissing the tiger shark as a potential menace when it’s hanging out in the same waters as the great whites.

Not even Johnson could bare to watch on day two // Getty Images

To the undoubted displeasure of England’s batsmen who would have preferred he give credence to suggestions the now clean-shaven Johnson has lost his mo-jo, Key scoffed at suggestions that Australia’s fifth-most successful Test bowler might miss the starting XI for next month’s opening Test in Cardiff.

“I think if he wasn’t playing there might be a few (England) bats quite happy because we saw in the Ashes last time, and I was watching it at home, he’s just quick,” Key said.

“In county cricket you don’t face those sorts of bowlers, so for the first bit out there (at the start of his innings) it was strange because you had to remember what you used to do.

“He gets real energy out of the wicket.

“He’s a proper, proper bowler.

“His pace and what he can do and the way (Australia captain Michael) Clarke uses him which is brilliant really because he keeps him fresh.”

Johnson and Harris both delivered in 2013-14

By comparison, the partisan assessment of Steve Smith on Johnson’s effort that netted him a wicket in his first over, two more with the old ball late in the day and even more chances, half chances and near misses was bordering on diplomatic.

Smith, who himself answered the seemingly misguided barb from ex-England spinner Graeme Swann that the world’s top-ranked Test batsman’s technique would be exposed against the swinging ball in British conditions by compiling a seamless century, gave a typically understated critique.

“It looked like he stepped it up today,” Smith said of his teammate’s 3-42 from 13 overs.

“I thought he bowled really well, he bowled with good pace, good aggression and I think that’s what we can expect a lot of through this Ashes series

“I’m not sure that it was a lot faster than what he’s been bowling but it certainly looked like he had good rhythm today.

“Bowlers can often find rhythm on certain days and today looked like one of those days when everything clicked for him and he looked like he had the ball coming down at good pace.”

If England’s Test squad was looking for solace as they gather tomorrow morning to head to Spain in search of ‘el sol’, then the fact that Harris – Australia’s most potent weapon in the previous Ashes series in the UK two years ago – went wicketless in his 11 overs against Kent today might have provided a source.

Ryan Harris is hunting a first Test berth in Cardiff // Getty Images

But once again, Key took the opportunity to talk up the credentials of a fellow veteran who is making his return to first-class cricket after a six-month rehabilitation program designed to have him in peak fitness for this Ashes campaign.

“I don’t think he was far off, from what I’ve seen of him bowl,” Key said of the 35-year-old quick who is pushing for a return to the Test team at the expense of either Johnson, Starc or Hazlewood.

“He can probably go up a notch, but he’s quick, he’s on you, and he gets the ball to move probably more than the others (Australian bowlers).

“I think the more he bowls it won’t be long before he finds rhythm.

“Again, he’s a very good bowler.

“They (Australia) have got a battery of seamers now - they’re all just very, very good.”

Just what England wanted to hear.

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