Ashes 2017-18, 3rd Test, Day 4 Review: England staring down to an innings defeat at WACA

Even though the English fast bowlers had a far better time with the ball on day 4, there was so much damage done already by the Aussie batsmen that it didn’t pave the way for an England comeback as the visitors found themselves staring down to an innings defeat when rain caused an early end to the day’s play.

The English bowlers ran in with real intent and purpose in the morning session and managed to hit the cracks that were present at both ends of the pitch on a consistent basis to not only generate uneven bounce, but sideways movement too.

Both the unbeaten batsmen, Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh, were undone by the ball hitting the cracks and nipping back considerably as they were caught in the crease and were trapped plumb in front without adding too much to their overnight scores.

The Australian keeper Tim Paine, however, played a fine cameo and made sure Australia’s lead stretched past the 250-run mark. He had a good half-century stand with the no. 9 Pat Cummins whose batting lower down the order has been a revelation for Australia of late.

With rain forecast for the latter half of the day and for the majority of tomorrow, the Australian bowlers needed quick wickets early on to make their job easier and Josh Hazlewood delivered straightaway as he nicked Mark Stoneman off in the second over of the innings with his natural angle going away from the southpaw who didn’t fully commit himself to the shot.

The big New South Welshman removed Alastair Cook soon too by holding onto a wonderful return catch flying off the leading edge of the former England skipper. The ball hit one of the cracks and stopped onto the batsman for a split second eluding him into the false stroke as he closed the face of the bat earlier than he should have.

Joe Root couldn’t have a long presence at the crease either as he fell prey to the Nathan Lyon’s subtlety. The veteran off-spinner got the very first delivery of his spell drifting away nicely from the right-hander making him go for a drive and beating him in the air resulting in an outside edge held safely by the first slip after it deflected off the keeper’s glove.

James Vince and Dawid Malan showed some resilience thereafter as the former played a few breath-taking shots on the back foot through the off side. However soon after reaching his second fifty of the series, Vince got an unplayable delivery from Mitchell Starc which uprooted his stumps and pushed England further into the hole.

It was an absolute peach from Australia’s premier fast bowler which came in with the left-arm angle from round the wicket and nipped away after hitting one of the cracks in the line of the middle stump to leave the batsman in a state of complete shock as he heard that death knell behind him.

When the rain stopped the play in the third session, two of England’s centurions of the first innings, Malan and Jonny Bairstow, were at the crease not out on the scores of 28 and 14 respectively.

Brief Scores:

Ist Innings-

England: 403 all out in 115.1 overs (Dawid Malan 140, Jonny Bairstow 119, Mitchell Starc 91/4)

Australia: 662/9 dec. (Steve Smith 239, Mitchell Marsh 181, James Anderson 116/4)

IInd Innings-

England: 132/4 (James Vince 55, Dawid Malan 28 not out, Josh Hazlewood 23/2)