AUS 70/2 (25.zero ov, DA Warner 28*, SPD Smith four*, SCJ Mammoth zero/12) – Lunch | Match Chronicle | ESPNCricinfo

Australia 327 and a pair of for 103 (Warner forty*, Smith 25*) path England 491 (Cook 244*, Root Sixty one, Mammoth 56, Cummins four-117) by Sixty one runs
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The weather, it seems, is no longer England’s buddy. On the WACA, they wished closing-day rain to defend the series alive; no subject a prolonged lengthen which skill that of leaking covers, there modified into no longer ample wetness to end an Australian victory. And now on the MCG, England’s push for a comfort take has been hampered by heavy and continual rain that washed out half of the fourth day’s play. By stumps, Australia silent trailed by Sixty one runs nonetheless had eight wickets in hand, with their two finest batsmen on the crease.

The day started with Alastair Cook turning into the very honorable scorer ever to encourage his bat in Take a look at cricket, sooner than England additional strengthened their situation by claiming two wickets sooner than lunch. Nonetheless, Steven Smith and David Warner then steadied Australia with a patient partnership which, at the side of the weather, loomed because the foremost to the match. When play modified into deserted, with handiest forty four overs bowled in the day, they’d suggested Australia step by step to 2 for 103.

Warner’s tempo had been uncharacteristically slack, and his forty had come from 140 deliveries, while Smith modified into on 25 from sixty seven balls. The honorable two Australian batsmen to occupy averaged bigger than forty in Take a look at cricket in 2017, Smith and Warner knew that the longer they’ll defend collectively, the upper Australia’s chances of rising from this match with a plan. A neat sweep is off the table, nonetheless upright now they might maybe be bigger than delighted with four-zero.

England had started the morning on 9 for 491 and it took handiest one birth – a instant ball from Pat Cummins that James Anderson fended to instant leg – to entire the innings. That left Cook unbeaten on 244, the very honorable ranking ever made by a batsman carrying his bat by means of a Take a look at innings, beating the 223 scored by New Zealand’s Glenn Turner against West Indies in Kingston in 1972.

Cook modified into also the first England batsman to encourage his bat in a Take a look at in Twenty years, since Mike Atherton did so against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1996-ninety seven. His innings ended in its 634th minute, which made it the fifth-longest innings by time ever done in a Take a look at in Australia – handiest Sid Barnes in 1946, Bob Cowper in 1966, Graham Yallop in 1983 and Ticket Greatbatch in 1989 had stayed on the crease longer in a Take a look at in this country.

It also gave England a 164-bustle first-innings lead, which supposed the Australians confronted a spread of work to battle aid into the contest. They started their 2nd innings solidly with a Fifty one-bustle opening stand between Cameron Bancroft and Warner, nonetheless that ended when Bancroft, who had staunch driven a gleaming boundary large of mid-on, chopped on for 27 off the bowling of Chris Woakes.

The shortcoming of Usman Khawaja for eleven, when he edged in the aid of off an Anderson birth that nipped away, left Australia wobbling at 2 for sixty 5. Smith and Warner steadied the Australians, even though Warner had a slim escape on 36 when he handiest staunch cleared Anderson at instant midwicket off the bowling of Woakes.

By the point the rain arrived, the Smith-Warner partnership modified into value 38 off 22.four overs, infrequently ever earth-shattering figures, nonetheless a sufficiently solid stand to supply Australia hope of securing a plan on the closing day.

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