It’s been a competitive Day 3 of the 4th Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground where England fought back as of late thanks to Ben Stokes who scored 66 while they got a finally century for the first time so far this tour from Jonny Bairstow on 103*, but England are still behind by 158 runs on 258-7 after they lost a couple of wickets earlier in the day to Australia.
It’s a shame that England’s top-order pair of Joe Root & Dawid Malan didn’t stay that long but the opening slot looks way worse as it still needs to be resolved urgently after Haseeb Hameed got exposed by Mitchell Starc yet again for another low-figure score on 6 while Zak Crawley haven’t found a decent score since his recall last week, there are some upsides though in the middle-order with Bairstow and Stokes batting dynamically in the middle with much-needed runs on the board. We also want to credit Mark Wood down in the tail end at 8 who did a great job backing Bairstow up, he also executed some nice shots downtown like a smashing T20 player & although we would love to see Wood get his quickfire 50 but just unlucky not to continue on 39.
And great to see Australia still holding on top spot with Scott Boland always up and running having taken two wickets after a unreal Test debut last week in Melbourne, Skipper Pat Cummins also picked up the same amount of wickets as Boland when Australia had to make up lost time on the field while Bairstow & Stokes were there which is disappointing but they’re in a good position now to finish the job ASAP tomorrow.
As just said right now, Australia needs to finish up England’s 1st innings batting spell quickly before they bat again since there’s no longer a follow-on option and increase the lead to another 200-250, then declare going into the 5th & final Day on Sunday & win 4-0.
And England needs Bairstow badly to stay as well as some backup from the other end if they can, otherwise it’ll take a miracle to make up a huge Australian batting collapse with the ball or it’s one step closer towards a 5-0 whitewash the wrong way by Hobart next weekend.
#Ashes #Cricket #Australia #England #BenStokes #JonnyBairstow #MarkWood #ScottBoland #PatCummins #AUSvENG
