Cricket: Strauss and Langer a picture of defiance

Justin Langer and Andrew Strauss have in common a devotion to duty, a doggedness, pride and a reluctance to leave the batting crease. They play old-fashioned cricket, head down, eye on the ball, protecting their wickets with bat, pad, body and anything else at their disposal. Both have played substantial innings in this dramatic match.

At 75 not out when stumps were drawn early on day two with his side 112-0, it is Langer who had the chance to shape Ashes history, after Strauss had made his mark with 129 on day one.

Matches dominated by these doughty left-handers are unlikely to contain those moments of insouciance that attract admirers of nouvelle cuisine. They work at their cricket and it shows. They are defiant and disciplined. While some batsmen are oblivious to danger, they understand the perils of the next ball and prepare themselves accordingly.

Neither man expects the game to come easily.

Neither plays with a smile, except the rueful grin that appears when a moment of danger has passed. Grimacing is their natural mien. Doubtless they sleep on beds of nails so that a corrosive softness cannot creep into their souls in the unguarded time reserved for shut-eye.

The Australian relishes boxing rings and the martial arts. At the Academy he was forever shinning up ropes, lifting weights and practising. Strauss is a more confident type but also enjoys the sense of pitting himself against a formidable force and coming out on top. He seeks satisfaction, the feeling of a job well done.

Of course the similarity between the pair is not surprising. Although Strauss is too intelligent a man to copy anyone lock, stock and leg glance, he clearly learned a lot in his time under Langer's captaincy at Middlesex. Perhaps he found the model he needed as he made his way from promising youngster to hard-boiled professional. Distant figures may inspire but they cannot point the path.

With Langer digging away at the crease like a peasant trying to grow vegetables in a barren field, he must have thought, 'I can do that'.

Perhaps he'd doubted his abilities. Now he understood that it is not their extent that counts but the use to which they are put. He had found a fellow thinker and subsequently made his way from the Mosman third grade team to test-match cricket.

He played a fine innings on the first day of this match. No one was surprised because staunchness of character and technique have been revealed often enough.

Like his opening partner, Marcus Trescothick, he's most effective when he's thought about his game and built a plan.

At first Shane Warne worried him from around the wicket. At Lord's he lost his wicket without offering a stroke. Determined not to succumb meekly a second time, he countered with optimistic sweeps and failed again. From the third test onwards he has found a balance between defence and attack. Batting with impressive organisation and purpose, he played the innings that might secure the Ashes.

Langer lost nothing in comparison. Originally a grafter, he's learned to expand his game. On the introduction of spin he was down the pitch and taking the initiative. Nowadays he counts among the game's fastest scorers. Not that he has changed in every way - even now he takes convincing when dismissed.

They are both sturdy characters capable of surviving the buffetings of time.

- THE INDEPENDENT