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England have finally taken command in a Test after dominating the majority of sessions at the Boxing Day Test at the MCG and, as I wrote earlier in the week, this is now the visitors’ best chance to get one over Australia.
After bowling out Australia cheaply for 327 after being 3/244, England’s most prolific batsman, Alistair Nathan Cook, scored massive 244, the highest score in recorded in Australia.
With a final first-innings score of now 491 all out and a massive lead of 164 runs, England will look to get their best result of the series so far by winning this Test.
With no lateral or sideways movement in the pitch batsmen, if they apply themselves, are having no trouble whatsoever. The pitch is slowing down, but if bowlers bend their backs, they are getting results, as we saw from Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in the first session. Nathan Lyon, too, extracted enough off the surface to take three crucial wickets.
But Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad made the difference, hanging in with Cook to take the score from 6/307 to 8/473 when the game could have drifted either way.
England is now the only team that can win this game.
But the men who really stood out through all the criticism from the tour are two who have made a significant contribution to the match: Cook and Broad.
(Nick Potts/PA Wire)
First Broad snapped four wickets to bundle Australia out for 327 after being 3/244, then with the bat he scored a breezy 56 off 63 deliveries with his unorthodox style to take Australia out of the game.
Cook got a reprieve on 66 when his opposite number, Steve Smith, dropped him to a tough chance, but that was it. For nearly ten hours thereafter he showed no sign of slowing down.
The grit and confidence displayed by Cook was different from that shown in the last six innings. His drive off Nathan Lyon down the ground for four exemplified his confidence.
In fact it’s been the best he’s batted in last four years or so, and after returns of 83 runs in the last six innings and no half-centuries in the last ten innings, there was no better time to score his career fifth double-hundred that than this week. Becoming the highest-scoring visitor in a Test as the MCG is his answer to those calling for his head.
Sheer grit, determination, concentration, hunger – choose whichever adjectives you want. All describe Cook on the third day at the MCG.
We must not forget Broad’s all-round heroism. The veteran really put his hand up when the hosts looked like taking the honours of the day. Were it not for the debatable catch by Usman Khawaja, he didn’t look like getting out, despite all the chin music he faced.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
But, more importantly, he gave Aussies back their own medicine. That’s how you do it in Australia.
This performance came after 66 wicketless overs and a not so memorable year in which he could pick up only 25 wickets at an average of 40 even in helpful conditions. He hasn’t had a five-wicket haul since way back in 2016 against South Africa.
In fact a former English captain went on air saying Broad should be dropped from the fourth Test. Broad made those critics gobble up their own words. He will be looking to cap off the match by picking up his 400th scalp and winning the match for his country.
It would not be wrong to call the Boxing Day Test’s third day Veteran’s Day, with two old hands putting doubts over their places in the team to rest.
After standing the test of time for last decade or so, these guys deserve to call it quits on their own terms, and surely they will call it a day when they feel they are a burden on the team. At the moment that would be a far-fetched call to make.
England has a good record at the MCG, winning four matches from the last ten, which is a far better record than they had at the Gabba or Perth, where they haven’t won for more than two decades.
In last two years all the matches at the MCG have produced results. England have their noses in front and will look to carry that momentum into days four and five. Expect a fiery spell from Stuart Broad after his batting, with David Warner being the key wicket of the second innings.
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