England lose openers as Australia edge ahead on rain-hit day
England 393 for 8 declared and 26 for two lead Australia 386 (Khawaja 141, Carey 66, Robinson 3-55, Broad 3-68) by 35 runs
Australia took two wickets for 2 runs in a compelling 22-ball micro-session between rain breaks to edge forward within the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, as England misplaced each openers inside 4 balls of each other.
England resumed their second innings on 26 for 0 after a 75-minute delay, with thick, darkish clouds hanging over the floodlights. Only 20 minutes of play have been doable earlier than one other thunder bathe introduced the day to a untimely shut, however that was sufficient time for Pat Cummins and Scott Boland to take away Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley respectively.
Duckett regarded longingly on the groundstaff moments earlier than his dismissal, who have been getting the hover-cover prepared on the midwicket boundary because the rain drew nearer. As his focus returned to Cummins on the high of his mark, he pushed away from his physique at a ball within the channel exterior his off stump, and Cameron Green swooped low to his left so as to add one other good gully catch to his in depth assortment.
Crawley had been labored over by Boland within the earlier over, twice struck on the pad by good size balls that nipped in off the seam. He was compelled to play on the first ball of the following one, drawn forwards to defend one other in-ducker, and his skinny edge flew via to Alex Carey. For the primary time within the Test match, Australia’s bowlers have been the protagonists.
It was a stark distinction to the ultimate levels of play earlier than lunch, when the identical gamers had subsided meekly to present England a seven-run first-innings lead. Australia’s innings completed with a collapse of 4 wickets for 14 runs, as Ben Stokes set more and more funky fields as if to see whether or not the decrease order would handle to select them out.
They duly obliged: Nathan Lyon pulled Ollie Robinson straight to deep backward sq. leg, Boland fended Stuart Broad’s bouncer to crazy level and Cummins mowed Robinson down the throat of Stokes himself at deep midwicket. It felt like a waste of the work that Usman Khawaja and Alex Carey had executed, including 118 throughout two days to trim the deficit.
Carey supplied England an opportunity within the first over of the day, inside-edging James Anderson’s inswinger via to Jonny Bairstow as he formed to drive via cowl. But Bairstow’s troublesome return to Test wicketkeeping duties continued: he dived low to his proper, solely to place the catch down.
He edged Anderson for 4 in his subsequent over, then peeled off two in a row with a lower and a flick, however fell straight after. Anderson’s wobble-seam ball nipped in from a great size, beating Carey on the within edge and pinging into the highest of the stumps.
Moeen Ali’s thirty sixth birthday celebrations began with the news that he had been fined 25% of his match fee for spraying a “drying agent” on his bowling hand and it shortly grew to become obvious {that a} workload of 29 overs in his first day of red-ball cricket in 21 months had taken its toll on his spinning finger.
He was thumped down the bottom for six by Khawaja in his first over of the day and let two full tosses slip to Cummins, who clobbered the second of them over midwicket. Cummins slammed a second six down the bottom three balls later, however Australia have been dried up by England’s short-ball ploy as Moeen left the sector and the seamers returned.
Stokes set a subcontinent-style discipline for Khawaja, first deploying 4 quick midwickets after which the shut catchers in entrance of the wicket on both aspect of the bottom. Khawaja skipped down, attempting to squeeze the ball via level, however solely managed to york himself; Robinson gave him a send-off, however Khawaja wandered off to a standing ovation.
Crawley and Duckett made a busy begin after lunch, ticking over the strike with Duckett deftly paddling Lyon for a single boundary earlier than the showers began. The rain cleared up simply sufficient for a fast burst underneath darkish skies; England shortly wished it hadn’t.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98