Australia are on the brink of a huge victory thanks to a strong showing on the 4th day of the Adelaide Test. Australia's declaration, first thing in the morning ensured that England had to either chase down a mammoth 500 plus score or bat out the next six sessions. Neither of which seems possible now, with the top six of the English line up, back in the pavilion. Matt Prior and Stuart Broad are holding fort, trying to delay the inevitable.
The possibility of showers and an impending Australian victory kicked off the 4th day of the 2nd Ashes test match being played at the Adelaide Oval, here on Sunday. With just ten minutes to go for the start of the day’s play, Michael Clarke declared the Australian innings at the overnight score of 132/3. This declaration not only meant that David Warner would miss out on a probable century but also ensured that England faced the most daunting task of batting out the two remainder days to salvage a draw and save themselves from a second consecutive defeat.
The man responsible for England’s 1st innings collapse, Mitchell Johnson was handed the bowling responsibilities in the second over of the day and he produced instant results. The English skipper, Alistair Cook attempted a pull off a short & fast delivery from Johnson, the extra pace got the top edge and the ball went safely into the hands of the fielder at long-leg. Cook’s wicket, in just the second over of the morning seemed to give a psychological edge to the Australians, while the Poms geared up for a long hard day in the middle. But what happened after that was beyond anyone’s imagination, as in the twelfth over, with just 20 runs on the board, Michael Carberry tried pulling a Peter Siddle delivery and instead helped it along to Nathan Lyon, who took a low catch at long-leg. That delivery wasn’t as quick enough as Johnson’s was (that got rid of Cook), and seemed to be anything but a wicket-taking one. England entered into lunch on Day 4 with the scoreboard reading 26/2. In the post-lunch session, the onus was on Kevin Pietersen and Joe Root to stabilize the innings, which they did fairly well, putting on 111 runs for the third wicket. Pietersen who was the more dominant out of the two, scored 53, before getting bowled-inside edged by a Siddle in-swinger. In the process of scoring those runs, Pietersen treated the Adelaide crowd to some brilliant batting – hitting leggie, Steven Smith for three sixes, the best of them being the one hit straight down the ground, bringing up Pietersen’s half century. Just an over before tea, Smith got lucky as Ian Bell gifted his wicket away to the Australian bowler for the third time in his career. The ball was a low full toss, which was there to be hit, but all Bell did was to chip it up to mid-on, where Johnson took a comfortable catch. At tea, England were 143/4, facing an uphill task of saving the Test match. Of all the English batsmen, Joe Root seemed to be the most comfortable, his patient and well-paced innings lasted for over four hours and saw decisive footwork, against both the fast and the slow bowlers. His innings ended with on 87 and with that, the signs of an English capitulation grew stronger. However, Ben Stokes, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad provided some kind of resistance after Root’s exit and scored 76 runs between them with the sole wicket of Stokes as England survived to fight out another day of what’s turning out to be a disastrous Ashes campaign.
With no rain eventually taking place, the match is firmly now under Australia's control as Michael Clarke's boys would look forward to seal the victory before lunch.
The possibility of showers and an impending Australian victory kicked off the 4th day of the 2nd Ashes test match being played at the Adelaide Oval, here on Sunday. With just ten minutes to go for the start of the day’s play, Michael Clarke declared the Australian innings at the overnight score of 132/3. This declaration not only meant that David Warner would miss out on a probable century but also ensured that England faced the most daunting task of batting out the two remainder days to salvage a draw and save themselves from a second consecutive defeat.
The man responsible for England’s 1st innings collapse, Mitchell Johnson was handed the bowling responsibilities in the second over of the day and he produced instant results. The English skipper, Alistair Cook attempted a pull off a short & fast delivery from Johnson, the extra pace got the top edge and the ball went safely into the hands of the fielder at long-leg. Cook’s wicket, in just the second over of the morning seemed to give a psychological edge to the Australians, while the Poms geared up for a long hard day in the middle. But what happened after that was beyond anyone’s imagination, as in the twelfth over, with just 20 runs on the board, Michael Carberry tried pulling a Peter Siddle delivery and instead helped it along to Nathan Lyon, who took a low catch at long-leg. That delivery wasn’t as quick enough as Johnson’s was (that got rid of Cook), and seemed to be anything but a wicket-taking one. England entered into lunch on Day 4 with the scoreboard reading 26/2. In the post-lunch session, the onus was on Kevin Pietersen and Joe Root to stabilize the innings, which they did fairly well, putting on 111 runs for the third wicket. Pietersen who was the more dominant out of the two, scored 53, before getting bowled-inside edged by a Siddle in-swinger. In the process of scoring those runs, Pietersen treated the Adelaide crowd to some brilliant batting – hitting leggie, Steven Smith for three sixes, the best of them being the one hit straight down the ground, bringing up Pietersen’s half century. Just an over before tea, Smith got lucky as Ian Bell gifted his wicket away to the Australian bowler for the third time in his career. The ball was a low full toss, which was there to be hit, but all Bell did was to chip it up to mid-on, where Johnson took a comfortable catch. At tea, England were 143/4, facing an uphill task of saving the Test match. Of all the English batsmen, Joe Root seemed to be the most comfortable, his patient and well-paced innings lasted for over four hours and saw decisive footwork, against both the fast and the slow bowlers. His innings ended with on 87 and with that, the signs of an English capitulation grew stronger. However, Ben Stokes, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad provided some kind of resistance after Root’s exit and scored 76 runs between them with the sole wicket of Stokes as England survived to fight out another day of what’s turning out to be a disastrous Ashes campaign.
With no rain eventually taking place, the match is firmly now under Australia's control as Michael Clarke's boys would look forward to seal the victory before lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment