Wednesday 30 / October / 2024
Birmingham: Usman Khawaja and Alex Carrey led the charge with the bat as Australia managed to bounce back in the final session of Day-2 of the first Test match of the Ashes 2023 series on Saturday.
At the end of the day, Australia managed to put up 311/5 in 94 overs with Carey and Khawaja unbeaten with scores of 126(279)* and 52(80)* respectively. Cameron Green fell quite early as the third session kicked off. It was Moeen Ali who once again gave England the much-needed breakthrough. He lured Green to play a cover drive but outsmarted him with the wicked amount of spin on the ball. The ball went through the gap between his pad and bat and clipped off the bails from the stomps.
From that moment, Carey held one end as the well-set batter Khawaja continued with his style of play. Khawaja struck his first century on English turf, while Carey augmented his worth in the Australian team with some fine strokes.
In the 80th over, Root created an opening but Jonny Bairstow failed to pounce upon it. Root found the edge with the off-break. Carey got the nick through to Bairstow who failed to hang on to the ball.
Carey survived once again in the 92nd over. Before he brought up his half-century, he caught a faint edge that went between the keeper and the first slip. The ball went straight to the boundary and Carey raised his bat as he completed his half-century.
During their partnership, both batters suffered patches when it became difficult for them to score runs as the day came to its end.
But at the end of the day, they managed to build a strong unbeaten partnership of 91.
Earlier in the second session, Khawaja and Head shifted through gears to take Australia's run rate past 3 which was earlier falling between 2 to 2.5.
They found boundaries with alacrity by picking up gaps in every available opportunity. The combination of left-handed batters picked Moeen Ali as their target and scored a boundary in his four consecutive overs.
However, the veteran English all-rounder made his Test comeback memorable as he broke the 81-run partnership between Head and Khawaja. Head came down the pitch and tried to go big but ended up hitting it into the hands of opener Zack Crawley. Head fell for a score of 50 (63).In the second-last ball of the same over, Green had a close shave. He came down the track and tried to wildly swing at a ball, but missed as it spun away through the gap between his bat and the pad. Bairstow, however, failed to gather the ball, which deflected off his gloves.
Green's arrival brought down Australia's scoring rate but Khawaja ensured it didn't fall drastically.Both batters managed to survive til the final ball of the second session, with 188/4 on the board. Australia still trailed England by 205 runs.
Australia started off the second day at 14/0, with David Warner (8*) and Usman Khawaja (4*) unbeaten.Khawaja looked in fine nick as he smashed Broad and Anderson for boundaries.
At the end of 10 overs, Australia was 29/0, with Khawaja (17*) and Warner (9*) unbeaten.
Broad struck early on the second day, in the 11th over, Warner chased a ball outside off going for an and went for a drive. But there was very little footwork involved and the ball touched the inside edge of his bat and crashed into the stumps, leaving Warner in disbelief. Australia lost their first wicket for 29 runs.
Warner was out for 9 off 27 balls, laced with 2 fours, extending his poor record against Broad.
He was dismissed by the tall Englishman for the 15th time in his career, during the first session on Saturday.
On the very next ball, Broad dismissed Marnus Labuschagne for a golden duck after the batter edged the ball straight into the hands of wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow. Australia was 29/2 in 10.2 overs.
Broad did not get his hat trick, but Australians were put under immense pressure by English bowlers.
Australia reached the 50-run mark in 20.4 overs.
In the 27th over, skipper Ben Stokes got the big wicket of Steve Smith, as he was trapped leg-before-wicket for 16 off 59 balls. Australia was 67/3 in 27 overs.
Travis Head arrived at the crease next, teaming up with Khawaja who was striking the ball really well.
At the end of 30 overs, Australia was at 78/3, with Head (8*) and Khawaja (40*) unbeaten. The duo took Australia through the remainder of the session without any further loss of wickets.
England declared their first innings at 393/8 after electing to bat first. A century from Root (118* in 152 balls, with seven fours and four sixes), fifties from Jonny Bairstow (78 in 78 balls, with 12 fours) and Zak Crawley (61 in 73 balls, with seven fours) powered England to a huge score.
Nathan Lyon (4/149) was the pick of the bowlers for the Aussies. Josh Hazlewood picked up two wickets while Scott Boland and Cameron Green got a wicket each.
Brief Scores: Australia 311/5 (Usman Khawaja 126(279)*, Alex Carey 52(80) and Moeen Ali 2/124) vs England.
