The opening Ashes Test moved forward quickly on the third day in Cardiff with the loss of 15 wickets and the scoring of 332 runs at a fair clip. Australia will begin the fourth day needing 412 to win the Test.
You can follow the live scores and blog of the fourth day of this opening Ashes Test from 8:00pm AEDT.
Resuming at 5/264, Australia would have hoped to get as close as possible to England’s 430 but they fell away quickly once the new ball was taken.
Before that though, there was a small matter of Shane Watson getting out in his 30s, again lbw, to Stuart Broad. The clamour for his place in the side will rise again.
That’s if Australia fail to get close to chasing this humongous total down.
Why humongous? Because statistically, only four teams have ever chased down more than 400 in the final innings to win a Test and while batting in the fourth innings has become slightly easier in recent times, it will require more than a solid effort from the top Aussie order.
What will definitely be needed is for the likes of David Warner, Steven Smith and Michael Clarke to kick off from their starts. Unlike in the first innings.
There were four scores in the 30s for Australia in the first innings and that’s not going to win teams Tests on tracks which are by no means minefields. One of those four 30s should have gone on to get a century and that’s where they will need to improve come the second innings.
There’s enough on offer for the bowlers, so it’s not like England have a lot to worry about. The ball kept hooping around throughout the day, and the new ball will specially pose a threat for the opposition.
That’s because of the class of the bowlers taking – in these conditions both James Anderson and Stuart Broad can make the ball talk. And as was on display in the early part of the third day, even when the ball wasn’t doing much, they restrained the stroke-play, prevented the Aussie batsmen from getting away to a quick one and in turn when the new ball came, shot the lower-order out without too many on the board.
A word on Warner here. For some strange reason he looked like he wanted to play a very different game from what has been on display so far in his career. Why change when it’s a formula that’s worked?
One can hope he will go back to that in the chase; after all, an aggressive start could go a long way in settling the nerves down and setting up a good foundation for the middle-order.
An exciting fourth day’s play beckons which has England starting out as favourites to go 1-0 up. Can Australia make a match out of it and salvage something going into the second Test?
Follow the live scores & blog of the fourth day of this England versus Australia 1st Ashes Test match from 8:00pm AEDT on Saturday and post your comments in the section below.
Grand Armee
Guest
That's the reason why I support England. But I was also a huge David Gower fan.
tinfoil hat
Guest
You are right. All countries should prepare pitches that favour the visitors, except Australia of course.
Daws
Guest
Agree with you completely mate
JGK
Roar Guru
Nailed it. Unfortunately.
Darrin
Guest
As an Australian who's grown well tired of this arrogant and bullying side that purports to represent us, I can't tell you just how pleased I am to see England win. Rest assured, if the snarly, nasty, bullying side of the Aussies was only seen sparingly in the first test, be prepared for much worse next game. Well done England, enjoy the win and I hope you teach those arrogant bother boys from my home country more than a thing or two. Don't forget this one unsung fact: many, many Australians feel the same as I do about this team, it's just an unfortunate truth the media here choose to ignore.
Rich Jones
Guest
The might of aussie cricket on its knees for the last 10 years there was only one school-of-thought on batting and it is scientifically impossible check out this website"the science of cricket batting.com"
WALLABY THRASHER
Guest
No mate.
Tony gore
Guest
Surprise!surprise england won but????
Birdy
Guest
............and the whinging begins!!
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Thanks Scott, have a good Ashes.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Thanks for the call Suneer, Great job mate! I'm sure the back up brigade (myself included :P) will be in order. Enjoy the 'A' series.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Yes lots and lots of sarcasm. They just cut straight to another show.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
I am getting the Sky feed. Sarcastically brilliant? What happened?
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
That then is the end of that. England will go into Lord's 1-0 and Australia will have a lot of thinking to be done. Wonder how much did the Ryan Harris contribute to this loss but there might have been few repercussions for sure. The question is if they can push that back and come back to level things up. It's a long series but Australia wouldn't have expected this kind of a result to begin with. There are losses and there are losses but what will sting is that apart from the first session on the first day, Australia were always playing catch-ball. Unfortunately I might not be around to live blog much of the next three Tests if I make a trip to Chennai to follow the Australia A team take on India A in a short series; might be able to make it here for a couple of days during those games. But the live blog for all those Ashes Tests will continue at TheRoar.com.au, so don't miss out on it. Will be back for the final Test. Also one of the positives to take away from a four-day finish is that we will all be able to watch a modern-day classic in Roger Federer v Novak Djokovic. That's tomorrow around 11 pm AEDT. Live blog for that match will be available here too! Thanks for joining in, ciao now.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Where are you watching this? Channel Nine are brilliant.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Joe Root is the man-of-the-match. century & half-century in the match. Think this was my most important Test century. Hope we can now back it up at Lord's. Everyone was quite vulnerable at the start of the innings and thankfully it was my day on the first day. Aggression is a combination of form and intent. More importantly, have had batsmen at the other end who were willing to get into partnerships. The turnaround started in the New Zealand Tests and that obviously carried through in the ODIs.
JimmyB
Guest
Note to the groundsman at Lord's - prepubescent pitch please.
Grand Armee
Guest
And where is all the sledging? Australia don't look the same without it.
JimmyB
Guest
I've got no doubt that they will, but they sure know that they're in a contest now and they won't have it all their own way.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Alastair Cook: Brilliant performance. Thanks to the crowd for the support that they have shown us for the four days. The ODI series and the Test series against New Zealand was exciting cricket and that's continued. This couldn't have gone better, Joe Root century after getting to 3/43 was amazing going. Cannot control the past, need to look forward, have to learn from it and move forward. It's great to have an experienced 4-5 guys and some youngsters, inexperienced in terms of Ashes cricket. Could have had them 3-4 down early in the innings today thanks to Broad and Anderson. Did quite a lot of practice catching too.