Happy I could show that I bowl well at home: Mark Wood

LEEDS: Following his five-wicket haul in the first innings of the third Ashes Test at Headingley, England pacer Mark Wood said that he was delighted to showcase that he could bowl well in home conditions. Wood clinched a scintillating five-wicket haul to put England in control on the first day of the Headingley Test.

"I am delighted," Wood told Sky Sports at the close of play as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

"Obviously I have not played a Test match in a while, but to be able to come back fairly fresh and produce that was pretty special," he added.

Wood said that movement on the wicket helped the bowlers on day one.

"I was really happy that I could show in home conditions that I can bowl as well. Movement, that is what is deadly I think. If you just bowl fast, these top players are just used to that. They face dog-stick guys [throwing the ball] off 17 yards, so they are used to facing quick bowling. So the thing that helped today was the movement really," he concluded.

Wood was very calculated in his bowling, coming to bowl some short, but energetic and speedy spells. "In general the wicket felt to me like, when you went up there, it came onto the bat, it slid on," he said, referencing how David Warner had leaned on Stuart Broad's first ball of the innings and hit it for four down the ground.

"So it was about trying to hold the good length to keep [the batter] on the crease and then I thought, 'right, this is the one I am going to try and get the wicket', push it right up there with a bit of swing, and luckily it paid off," he added.

He also gave England its most essential wicket, a wicket of Usman Khawaja, who has been in fine form throughout the series, scoring 300 runs, including a century and two fifties from almost 20 hours at the crease across two Tests.

"We were discussing it as a bowling group out there," Wood said. "At Headingley, you think, 'full, full, full', but then you can get drawn in, so it's just that balance of when to attack the stumps and when to hold it in. It was more a case of bashing the top of the stumps on that nicking length, and then the odd one full rather than being full all the time," said Wood.

When Wood's action is perfectly aligned with a braced front knee and fully loaded torso, as opposed to a partially buckled load-up for his second spell, when his speeds intermittently dropped below 90mph, it is clear how physically demanding bowling is on Wood's body.

"When I am at full biff, it feels like all my body is going towards the batsman. It looks like an awful position, but it is almost like a catapult sling that, when you let it go, all the chinks in the chain fizz the ball out," he said. But what really thrilled him about Wood's performance was its subtlety, especially in light of the fact that in the past he probably would not have been given first choice on such a ground. "I am usually on the flat ones, to be fair, and my record is much better away from home," he said. "On wickets like today, when the ball moves around, you are automatically thinking Anderson, Broad, Robinson, Woakes. They are your top guys who can trouble people in these conditions. For me, being able to move the ball today, it has really helped me, because that is not something that I have always done to be, to be brutally honest. I have tried to work hard behind the scenes on the wobble-seam, through speaking to the other guys and the bowling coaches." "It is something I am trying to get better at. I am 33, but I am still trying to get better and better, even though it is a slow progress. It does not just happen overnight." "But I like bowling away from home, because it brings in reverse swing. And the bouncer attack on flat pitches, I feel really that suits me, because they sometimes skid through and it is hard to play, especially with the field," he concluded his point. At Headingley, though, the short ball proved to be a difficult weapon to master, especially when Mitchell Marsh, a native of the WACA, was launching his sensational run-a-ball comeback in the afternoon session. "If you bowled it too short, it looped over the keeper, and then if you did not get short enough, it is in that Australian sweet spot, where they play it really well," Wood said. "It is about that happy medium you got to find. Mitch Marsh played fantastically well. He was difficult to bowl at in that period, when the ball went from having that zip off the wicket, and all of a sudden, it looked very different when he was in. But of course, when a new batter came in, it was tough again." "I have had a good day. But let us not get ahead of ourselves, I have got to back it up. This is a must-win game, and we have got to back it up in the second innings. But the outfield is rapid and rock-hard. We are gonna score quickly if the lads can get in tomorrow," he concluded. Coming to the match, England put Australia to bat first and the visitors were bundled out for 263 runs in 60.4 overs. Australia slipped to 85/4, but with a 155-run stand for the fifth wicket between Mitchell Marsh (118 in 118 balls, 17 fours and four sixes) and Travis Head (39 in 74 balls), the Aussies were back on track. But after the dismissal of these two batters, Australia experienced another collapse and was bundled out for 263 runs. Wood (5/34) was the pick of the bowlers for England. Chris Woakes (3/73) and Stuart Broad (2/58) also bowled really well. England ended the day one on 68/3, with Joe Root (19*) and Jonny Bairstow (1*) unbeaten. Zak Crawley (33) played a solid knock but Ben Duckett, and Harry Brook fell for single digits. Pat Cummins took two wickets while Marsh got one.