Australia need just 56 more runs to win the first Ashes test at Brisbane after dominating day four.
Being bowled out for 195, England failed to take any fourth innings wickets in the final session as the hosts look to be cruising to a massive win.
Resuming on 33-2 the tourists had chances to make a big score with Joe Root (51) scoring a half century and Moeen Ali (40) and Jonny Bairstow (42) both making strong starts and failing to kick on.
Moeen and Bairstow put on 42 for their sixth wicket, counter-attacking and pressuring Nathan Lyon for the first prolonged spell of the match, after seeing what he did to Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan.
As was four years ago England's tail was blown away, only managing to put on a further 10 runs for the last four wickets and only one for their last three.
Wickets were shared between the main Aussie strike bowlers, Mitchell Starc (3-51) and Nathan Lyon (3-67). Josh Hazlewood (3-46) got the massive wicket of England captain Joe Root, which set off the struggle to reach a defendable total.
Any thoughts of how much difference another 30/40 runs would have made were quelled as Cameron Bancroft (51*) registered his first Test century on debut and David Warner (60*) dominated to take their side to the verge of what should be a comfortable test win.
Despite having important first innings scores, England's Ashes debutants all failed in the second innings, only Mark Stoneman reaching double figures. Jake Ball was then largely ineffective and expensive as he was in the first innings, raising a few more questions over his selection.
Australia will preserve their unbeaten record at the 'Gabba' that stretches back to 1988 on Monday, and more importantly go 1-0 up in their quest to retain the Ashes again.
Comments
Post a Comment