By Tom Wald
July 5th 2009 @ 7:14am
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Collapsing umpire leads to early end to match
Australia have drawn their final hit-out before the first Test, an early and dramatic end to the four-day match against the England Lions forced by the collapse of umpire Jeff Evans on the field at New Road.
With just under an hour of play to go and the match headed for a draw, Evans stumbled and fell.
He appeared to be recovering with attention from a paramedic as both captains agreed to call an end with 14 overs remaining.
The Lions, needing to score an unlikely 445 in two sessions, were 4-162 at the time.
That meant Australia had drawn both of their lead-up matches to the Test at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens but Ponting’s men will be more than happy with their latest hit-out.
Mike Hussey and Marcus North both showed good form by scoring centuries and man-of-the-match Brett Lee roared back to life by collecting seven wickets.
Quick Mitchell Johnson (2-48 off nine overs) showed he was finding his feet by removing openers Stephen Moore (16) and Joe Denly (36) on Saturday.
Part-time off-spinner Marcus North (0-17) was intriguingly introduced before the touring squad’s sole specialist spinner Nathan Hauritz (1-22 off 12.2 overs) in the middle session.
But Hauritz struck first by having skipper Ian Bell (20) caught at bat pad by Simon Katich, extracted some bounce out of the wearing pitch and bowled many more overs than North.
Under darkening clouds, Lee tried to reinvigorate the contest after tea by uprooting Solanki’s leg stump with a full ball that swung between his bat and pad.
However Australia were unable to dislodge Eoin Morgan and Steve Davies despite Hauritz having a very confident appeal turned down against Davies on 16.
Marcus North earlier demonstrated he was in superb touch before Cardiff by piling on the pain for the flagging Lions attack.
North was unbeaten on 191 when Australia closed their second innings at 4(dec)-438 at lunch with Brad Haddin on 25 not out.
North and Mike Hussey (62) made the most of the batting practice by cruising along as the tourists scored 162 runs in the opening session.
Hussey retired hurt because of an ankle complaint but team management did not expect him to be in any doubt for the Test starting Wednesday.
He returned to take his place in the field soon after the start of the Lions second innings and seemed to shake his foot to his teammates to show he was fine.
North, who was on 106 overnight, started the day in a measured fashion and had a life on 120 with Steve Harmison dropping a return catch.
The West Australian branched out later on and was particularly harsh on the spinners, crunching part-timer Denly into the stands just before the break.
Legspinner Adil Rashid didn’t aid his chances of playing in the Sophia Gardens Test, finishing with match figures of 1-181 off 36 overs.
Evans was understood to be fine.
“I hope he is OK, he didn’t look too good when a few of our boys got to him, he just had a bit of a dizzy spell I think,” Ponting said.
“On behalf of us I hope he is OK, I thought it was a really good game all round.
“We got a lot out of this game almost everybody except me I think.
“So it was good preparation for us going into Cardiff I understand this wicket will be pretty similar to in Cardiff.”
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