Happy to watch this 3rd Ashes Test between Australia and England on the Tele that lasted just about five thrilling days at Adelaide Oval.
There were plenty of competition but sometimes scrappy by the two teams where bat beats ball with scoring runs for the whole XI – not scoring runs quickly in limited-overs ones – is indeed the highest currency of Cricket.
If Ball isn’t the factor, fielding helps sometimes just in case to be ready for a catch to be taken that can boost oozes of confidence or worse if dropped.
The result? Australia collected that win once again but just enough to retain The Ashes Urn by 82 runs with a 3-0 series lead from the best of five.
Make sure you check out Sports Benches for your weekly GH weekly recap edition every weekend along with Big Time and Summer Series Sport.
Day 1-2 plus a bit of opening hours of Day 3
Well that’s the opening day Australia wanted right from the word go with credit to their toss advantage despite some inconsistent batting.
Australia did enough to keep on going though into day 2 of this 1st innings card before they were all out for 371.
Yes, no Steve Smith for this one but Usman Khawaja’s back ready to go this time at 4 and he replied well for 82.
Our 1st innnings saviour comes from hometown keeper-batter Alex Carey who got away with a century of his own even though that snicko tech underestimated these reviews.
Can’t forget Mitch Starc also as Australia’s genuine all-rounder where he continued to impress not just ball on hand following another 50.
Now speaking of Australia’s performance with the ball, seems like this Adelaide Oval track got the best out of Nathan Lyon’s off spin once again, having been left out from the previous Test in Brisbane.
This was the match he was playing for having just leapfrogged Glenn McGrath with the most all-time Australian Test wickets.
In the seam department, they weren’t too bad when you look at Scott Boland clearing these low order decks in the same way Jofra Archer did earlier for England.
But sometimes, these dropped catches gave England the benefit of the doubt albeit a bit longer for 286 where 50s were also made to their own by Jofra Archer & Ben Stokes.
Day 3-4, both teams are on it
Same old, same old with our top half and middle order batting card which unfortunately couldn’t quite cut it against a good England bowling line-up.
Brydon Carse – who can be a handy back up batter in addition – doesn’t back down every time he finds his best, while Josh Tongue was a good change in this Teat with a 4fer recorded to his name.
Fortunately, we witnessed yet another SA hero this time Travis Head via his Trav-Ball aggressive batting play following his stellar 170 run spree as opener for some time alongside Alex Carey’s continuous 50.
Australia all out for 349 with a 435 run target for England as looks like we got our own Dave Warner type player over the next few years since Travis will be age 32 soon.
Day 4-5, Final Innings Chase
Now onto this stellar final innings circle, England didn’t waste time from behind led by Zak Crawley (who scored 85) with this Test still up for grabs either way or worst-case scenario, a draw.
Then there were some okay contributions if you look down the English batting queue like Will Jacks (half spinner/half batter) & keeper-batter Jamie Smith. Although Jamie’s choice of shot was unfortunately not a good look there straight out for 60.
At the end of the day, Aussies again just did enough to save it for last after England were all out for 352.
Yes, bowlers did make up the hard yards as always; it’s a bummer injury niggles and burnout helped England eat up more runs.
England’s so good at sticking together with the advantage of exploiting old balls that sounds like Bazball sometimes but only traditional Test mode.
But most of all, catches win matches belongs to the “Baggy Green” — what a feeling it was for Marnus Labuschagne to collect them all coming from his slips position.
Post-Game Summary
Australia would love 5-0 and the last time they’ve achieved that was 2013-14.
However, they need to continue finding that balance right at the expense of injuries & poor form with their Top 5-6 batters.
Plus, they will need an frontline spinning replacement urgently for Nathan Lyon who just blew his hamstring this morning.
Also, Pat Cummins just not quite back to this best as there’s always Michael Neser or Beau Webster to turn to in Pat’s place.
England, on the other hand, love the fight they punched above their weight underwater along with the much-needed fast bowling changes to support Archer & Carse.
They just need to apply that to batting when some of their Top 6-7 batters were hit and misses unfortunately mainly Ben Duckett & Ollie Pope. Maybe a frontline spinner also would help too as nothing against Jacks but wouldn’t be a bad idea to balance that variety with batting still a key element for Bazball to capitalise on these scraps.
Lots of food for thought ahead of Boxing Day at the MCG.
