MELBOURNE: Australia bowled out England for a paltry 185 in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test before adding 61/1 at the stumps of day 1.
In the third match of the ongoing Ashes series, Australian captain – Pat Cummins won the toss and invited England to bat first. Batting first, the touring side again failed with the bat; losing their opener, Haseeb Hameed for a duck.
With Hameed’s duck in the first innings, England completed 50 ducks in the ongoing year of Test cricket.
Soon after, the side kept losing wickets at a consistent pace, and none of their batters could score much except their skipper, Joe Root, who scored a hard fought fifty. He scored 50 off 82 balls; hitting four boundaries. Jonny Bairstow, too, showed resistance; scoring 35 runs, but, he too could not hold on for long against the Australian bowling attack.
For Asutralia, Cummins and Nathan Lyon each bagged three wickets, while Mitchell Starc claimed two wickets. Scott Boland and Cameron Green each struck out a batter.
In response, Australian openers looked solid, the pair added unbeaten 50-runs partnership; putting their side into the commanding position against the touring side. David Warner was keeping the scoreboard ticking, while Marcus Harris took his time to settle.
The both openers seemed to have finished the day without a loss, but, Warner fell short in the second last over of the match edging the ball into the hands of Zak Crawley on James Anderson’s out-swinging delivery. Warner scored 38 off 42 balls; smashing five boundaries.
Harris (20*) and the nightwachman for the Kangaroos – Nathan Lyon (0*) will resume the proceedings for Australia on day two.
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