England’s bowlers took three early wickets on Day 4 to stall Australia’s push for victory in the second Ashes Test, despite an injury in the warm-up for captain Joe Root which prevented the English captain from taking the field for the start of play.
Resuming Sunday at 1-45 in its second innings, Australia lost opener Marcus Harris, Steve Smith and nightwatchman Michael Neser early, before a rally by first innings centurion Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head guided Australia to 134-4 at the break, with a lead of 371 runs.
At dinner, Labuschagne was 31 not out with Head on 45 from 44 balls.
Australia will likely look to push its lead past 400 runs before declaring sometime in the middle session to maximize the use of the evening conditions to attack England’s top order under lights.
Before play, England skipper Root was hit in the lower abdomen while batting in the nets and was taken to hospital for further assessment. Fortunately, Root was cleared of any serious injury and returned to the field later in the session.
Allrounder Ben Stokes stood in as captain for Root as the tourists found their line and length early to make inroads into Australia’s batting line up.
In the space of three balls Neser was bowled by James Anderson for three, before Harris was caught spectacularly by Jos Buttler diving to his left off Stuart Broad for 23.
Buttler, who has had mixed fortunes with the gloves here in Adelaide, then dropped Smith from Broad’s next ball. The following delivery Broad thought he had trapped Australia’s star batsman lbw, but the television review upheld a close on-field decision of not out.
Smith’s reprieve was short-lived, with Ollie Robinson having the stand-in captain caught down the leg side by Buttler for six reducing the hosts to 55-4.
Labuschagne, who scored 103 as part of Australia’s 473-run first innings, and Head then combined for a 79-run partnership to seize back momentum for the hosts.
Australia lead the five-match series 1-0.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
