Ashes | Twitter cheers as Archer gets underway Down Under by leaving dismantled Weatherald on all fours

England were in for a good time but not a long time in the Ashes opener at Perth Stadium on Friday as they tumbled out for 166 midway through the second session, with Harry Brook their only batter to surpass 50. The England quicks had a tall task ahead of them to defend the paltry total, especially given both their new-ball wielders were making their first red-ball trip Down Under. Fortunately for the visitors, one of them was Jofra Archer who had terrorized the Kangaroos in his debut series at home in 2019, and with the tea behind him the Caribbean import delivered exactly what skipper Ben Stokes would have hoped.

Archer had debutant Jake Weatherald in his sights first up and began with a back of a length delivery angling across the southpaw that beat his willow emphatically as the South Australian let slip a huge groan. Prepared for more of the same, the opener took guard and shuffled across the stumps with his trigger movement, only for Archer to go straight and full to take Weatherald completely bu surprise. The rookie tried to compensate with quick hands but the Kookaburra deviated a long way after pitching before rapping him low on the front pad to send hurtling to the ground on all fours. England immediately went up in loud appeal and then upstairs once the on-field umpire refused to comply, which revealed the ball was projected to hit the leg stump all-hands up and Weatherald was on his way.

Twitterati was quick to remind the cricket fraternity how eerily similar the dismissal was to that of Rory Burns four years ago when he fell to Mitchell Starc on the first ball of the series.

Destroyed

Yup

Wow

Blockbuster

What a ball

Crazy

Superb

Dream

Superb

2019 vibes