A great display of class fast bowling by the hosts in the final session of the day. Scott Boland has changed just the perception of the match completely by his bowling. One over 2 wickets and England has just lost their way into a match or even in the series.
Having lost the previous two matches in the series, England came into the match with a do and die situation. But it seems they have arrived without any plan. It doesn’t seem they have analysed from the previous mistakes.
It was the first time in the series when Australia was bowled out before 300 runs mark in their first innings. In the previous two test matches, Australia had scored over 400 runs in the first innings. But visitors’ paceman James Anderson brought a certain twist in the match as he picked 4 wickets for 33 runs in his 23 overs spell. In that spell, 10 maiden overs are also included. When Australia-leading batsman Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith got out early without scoring a single run. Hosts were at 110/3 at one stage when James Anderson ripped off the stumps of Steve Smith to derail the momentum of strong line up.
From 110/3 to 218/9, Australia lost their way for a big lead in the contest. But late contributions from Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins took the scoreboard over 260 and got the lead of 82 runs in the first innings.
It was even a contest till the second innings of England hadn’t started when they bowled hosts for the first time before 300 runs. But as the second innings commenced, it was evident that England has to fight hard for runs. Australian pacers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Scott Boland test the batters with pace, swing, and seam in the first few overs.
Starc as always openned the floodgates for the team when picked two in two. It was the hat-trick of Starc but Joe Root survived and kept the end secure. Another twist comes when Scott Boland bowled 1 over and picked up 2 wickets to restrict the visitors at 22 runs for 4 wickets.
With 3 more days to go, England has trailed by 51 runs and with 6 wickets in hands. Joe Root and Ben Stokes remained unbeaten on crease. A good innings from these two batsmen are really important for the visitors if they want to be in this match.
