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Stuart Broad gives enterprising England the upper hand in Edgbaston Test
Australia, chasing 281 for victory, were 107/3 at stumps on Day 4 in the first Ashes Test.
For England, this Ashes edition is going to be all about making statements. First ball of the series - bang; Zak Crawley cover drives it for four. 393/8 with 20 minutes of play left on Day 1 – Ben Stokes declares. Australian batters encounter unusual fields on Day 2 and 3. And then to bring the house down, what’s the first thing Joe Root does on the morning of Day 4? He attempts a reverse scoop against Pat Cummins.
The Australian captain was running in with three slips and a gully, conventional for a premier fast bowler during the early hours of play in England. As promised, England responded by playing as if wanting to live up to a pre-series pact, unconventionally.
Root couldn’t connect. But it was a statement above any other, how he was going to bat, resuming from 28/2, his team only 35 in front and tasked to set up a winning fourth innings total for his bowlers to defend.
Root played two more reverse ramps in the next six balls he faced. This time he hit a six and a four. A six over the wicket-keeper’s head off Scott Boland with slightly less control. And the four over slips was more clean. In between, he helped himself to a more routine boundary by clipping Boland past mid-wicket.
Buoyed by the success, Root continued his offensive game and hit a boundary, sometimes two, every over. Cummins began to look rattled. The field began to spread out and England had added 50 runs to the overnight total in half an hour.
Bazball, although English team doesn’t call it, had taken full effect. But how long would it last? Could it win the day for the home team? Well, it had won them 11 of the last 13 Tests, and that’s how they were going to go.
CUMMINS TURNS THE TIDE
Against the run of play, Cummins produced a stunner -- an in-swinging yorker -- to knock back Ollie Pope’s (14) off-stump. That saw the arrival of Harry Brook, for whom curbing his attacking instincts would pose a bigger challenge.
The 24-year-old began hitting through the line against pace. He took on off-spinner Nathan Lyon too. England won the first hour. Was it time to capitalise? For Root to step back and look to bat big? Root and England decided not to deviate from their free-spirited ways.
The former skipper danced down the track against Lyon. But Lyon proved too smart as he dragged the length back and got it to spin through Root’s swinging blade for Alex Carey to complete the stumping. After Root’s entertaining 46, Brook too fell on an identical score. England were 157 ahead, having lost half their side.
To summarise a day of underwhelming batting performances, Stokes fell on 43. It was a little more battling innings for he was coming to the series without much batting time. As each one in England’s middle-order were dismissed in their 40s, the noisy Hollies stand was beginning to lose its voice.
England’s tail wagged, adding 44 runs for the last two wickets, setting up a 281-run target. Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad and James Anderson, able to bat largely untroubled, also got a feel of how there were no demons on the Day 4 surface.
BROAD'S LATE STRIKES
Australia’s openers batted unhurriedly in the final session. For the first hour and a quarter, there wasn’t any appreciable swing on offer for England’s pacers. There was some spin, but Moeen Ali’s torn fingers were finding it hard to let the ball rip.
But the tireless Robinson, using the around the wicket angle, got one to hold its line and got David Warner (36) caught behind. Broad, for the second time in the Test, had Marnus Labuschagne (13) caught behind and then removed Steve Smith (6) cheaply to peg Australia back.
Nightwatchman Boland survived Broad’s inquest in front of a hostile Edgbaston crowd. But with the visitors still 174 runs away, it will take them a lot on Tuesday if they are to stop England from striking the first blow in this historic rivalry.
Rain though is forecast through the final day of the Test, which may leave both sides frustrated.
