Nathan Lyon precipitated an England collapse with four wickets to set up a crushing nine–wicket victory for Australia to go one up in the Ashes series on the fourth day at the Gabba.
Lyon snared 4-91 to trigger an anaemic England batting performance, with the tourists losing eight for 77 in the morning session to be all out for 297 and leave the Australians just 20 runs to wrap up a dominant victory.
David Warner did not come out to bat as he nursed sore ribs, and it was left up to Alex Carey and Marcus Harris to see out the runs for victory. Carey was out caught behind off Ollie Robinson with four runs left and Harris hit the winning runs.
Lyon led the Australians off the field at luch, vindicated in the face of his critics and job done. He made the early breakthrough – broke a dangerous century-plus partnership – and claimed his 400th Test wicket, all in a personal milestone session.
England captain Joe Root again missed out on his first Test century in Australia, dismissed this time for 89 after starting the day on 86 and his batting partner Dawid Malan also missed out on 82.
After Lyon removed Malan in the fourth over of the morning for his 400th Test wicket it was all one-way traffic for Australia with a steady procession of Englishmen heading back to the pavilion.
It was also a red-letter day for wicketkeeper Alex Carey taking five catches in the innings and eight for the match for the most dismissals on a Test debut.
(Photo by Albert Perez – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images
Young all-rounder Cameron Green also had a morning to remember, snaring the prized wicket of Root and capturing the last wicket of Chris Woakes for 2-23 along with a smart catch of Ben Stokes in the gully.
Lyon had been waiting almost a year but finally claimed his 400th Test wicket when he struck to break the threatening Root-Malan 162-run partnership in the fourth over of day four.
“It was an amazing morning,” said Lyon. “Our new skipper is all about being calm and ruthless when we get our opportunity.
“I’ve been thinking about the 400 a lot and I wanted tom play my role. The next wicket is always hardest to get no matter vwhat number it is.”
Malan on 82 advanced down the wicket only to pop a catch to Marnus Labuschagne at silly mid-off to give the Australians the crucial breakthrough.
His teammates wildly celebrated Lyon’s milestone with the off-spinner becoming only the 17th bowler in Test history to take 400 wickets.
But the big wicket came three overs later when Root failed to convert his overnight 86 into his first Test century in Australia.
It came from an unlikely source with giant young all-rounder Green coaxing a faint edge off an outswinger for Carey to take the catch and send the England skipper on his way for 89 – for now his highest Test score in Australia after his previous best 87.
Root threw his head back in despair after looking in fine touch on day three and now has 1,544 runs at 64.33 for 2021.
It was only 22-year-old Green’s second Test wicket and his biggest scalp after snaring Ollie Pope in the first innings.
After the promise of an England comeback at stumps on day three with Root and Malan at the crease, England’s resurgence hopes were quickly doused on the fourth morning.
It got worse with Pope cutting away from his body and caught in the slips by Steve Smith for four to give Lyons his second wicket and 401st in his Test career.
Much depended on Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler to put the tourists in front and get enough runs to give themselves something to bowl at in Australia’s second innings.
But Stokes fell for 14 when Pat Cummins brought himself back into the attack and startled him with a brute of a rearing delivery with the fourth ball of the over.
Stokes was squared up but the extra bounce and speared a leading edge to Green in the gully.
Buttler was out three overs later nicking Josh Hazlewood to Carey with a ball he could have left.
Ollie Robinson gave away his wicket cheaply reverse-sweeping Lyon to a waiting Travis Head at backward point for eight.
He was followed by fellow paceman Mark Wood, cleaned bowled by Lyon for six.
It was left to Green to finish off the English wreckage giving Carey his eighth catch to dismiss Woakes for 16 and leaving the Australians with the formality of chasing just 20 runs to complete an emphatic victory and head to Adelaide for the second day-night Test, starting next Thursday.
Paul
Roar Guru
all examples where we want players to want to play, not be turned away from playing because of a silly rule or silly interpretation.
Once Upon a Time on the Roar
Roar Guru
Yeah totally. Another really good example is the law about retiring hurt, which now includes ‘or any other wholly acceptable reason’ being allowed to subsequently resume his innings. Given that uni exams on Saturdays are now long since common place, I’ll allow a young adult to retire to go do an exam and then resume his innings the next Saturday if his team is still batting. However, some may disagree, needing to get home in time for the Rugby world cup semi-final would not be deemed an acceptable reason.
Paul
Roar Guru
At the end of the day, rules should be there to enhance the game. In the example you gave, which is common around Australia, it would be really harsh to penalise a player for making a quid, then having to dash half way across town to be on time for a game. Or what about youngsters like me decades ago, playing junior cricket till just before noon, then trying to be on time to bat in seniors. Hopefully some commonsense prevails, at least at levels below first-class
Once Upon a Time on the Roar
Roar Guru
It seems I’ve been left behind on this one. Perplexed as I was, I asked around the umpires’ table before play at the ground complex I was at yesterday and was told that a year or so back, the ICC/MCC lawmakers passed an amendment. What that means in cricket terms is that a Law has been overridden but not officially printed in the little blue book that is the Laws of Cricket and won’t be done so until the next rewrite, and rewrites are becoming more and more frequent as the game gets more complex. So yeah, there is no longer any dispensation for injuries when off the field before your team bats. I must say I find this completely unfair and the only remotely rational explanation I can fathom is that maybe players were abusing it, which sadly wouldn’t surprise me. Anyway, associations at lower levels of the game, such as Brisbane Warehouse that I am involved with, are supposed to, in principle, follow such amendments, but are also at liberty to have own local playing conditions. For example, we retain our playing condition that at the start of a day’s play, a player that arrives after the start may bowl straight away, there is only penalty time if a player already present doesn’t immediately take the field or takes the field and then goes off the field. The reasons we do this are twofold: with a 1pm start, it is simply a fact of life that some people have to work Saturday morning and then struggle to get there on time, and 2. At this level, 9 times out of 10, the fielding team involved will be a fielder down until he arrives and this kind of cancels out any advantage they may have in a bowler arriving fresh on a hot day half an hour or an hour after play starts. The other thing to be noted is that apparently there is not even a good grace period of 15 minutes anymore for a player leaving the field. Until the aforementioned amendment was enacted a year or so back, if you were off for 15 minutes or less you could bowl again straight away but off for 20 minutes you do 20 minutes penalty time – now you just do the full amount of however much time you were off for, be it 10 minutes or 40. I’m baffled as to how I missed this as something so important at ICC level that potentially affects us, our secretary always sends out a group email advising us of such changes and I can’t recall him doing that, and I’d hardly not remember something so vitally important.
Sedz
Guest
Well played Aussies!! But to be honest, Stokes got an innocuous delivery down the leg stump line. He made it look like a ripper. But time to time he did it, most batsman wouldn't have shuffled like he did. But even though he played like Rory Burns, Stokes don't get the criticism he deserves. Most players would have glanced it to fine leg boundary if at all.
matth
Roar Guru
Totally untrue. We had ... umm...err...well Labs played pretty well.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Because Lions roar. :unhappy:
boxingkoala
Roar Rookie
Bit rough to expect a great deal more from Lyon on that first day Gabba pitch.
boxingkoala
Roar Rookie
This is the problem for non lawyers. You can only interpret law 25 if you understand law 24. 24.3 tells you he seems to have no unserved penalty time ths could have batted.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
24.3 and 24.3.1 make it clear that Warner didn’t incur Penalty time so the rest of the laws relating to unserved Penalty time and delaying a batter from batting are moot, because there is no unserved Penalty time in the first place.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Yes. Why?
Paul
Roar Guru
Did you read Law 24?
Paul
Roar Guru
Rather than try and find the article, I've copied a link to the Laws if cricket, specifically Law 25. If you look at Law 25.3.1, that seems to cover Warner's situation pretty clearly. https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket/batsman-s-innings;-runners
Paul
Roar Guru
Perhaps you need to read the relevant Laws which are 24 & 25. This covers exactly what I said, so I'd suggest the article was right. https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket
Jeff
Roar Rookie
The article must have been in error reading below: 24.2 Fielder absent or leaving the field of play 24.3 Penalty time not incurred: A nominated player’s absence will not incur Penalty time if, 24.3.1 he/she has suffered an external blow during the match and, as a result, has justifiably left the field or is unable to take the field - 25.3 Restriction on batters commencing an innings 25.3.1 If a member of the batting side has unserved Penalty time, see Law 24.2.7 (Fielder absent or leaving the field of play), that player shall not be permitted to bat or act as a runner until that Penalty time has been served. However, even if the unserved Penalty time has not expired, that player may bat after his/her side has lost 5 wickets. So seems Warner didn't incur Penalty time. - https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket/fielders-absence;-substitutes
DJM
Roar Rookie
Because the article was wrong? The rule was basically brought in to stop bowlers who carried a niggle into a game spending half the game resting. Or allowing batsmen who were crap fielders to sit out fielding duties. It was never intended to apply to people who were obviously injured in the course of a game, such as someone getting whacked in the ribs while batting.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Where's Frank?
Paul
Roar Guru
In a lot of ways I feel sorry for Lyon because he's bowling will likely be compared to Warne's, just as every keeper nowadays will be compared to Gilchrist. The GOAT will never be more than a part of the attack in Australia, simply because conditions don't suit. He'll bowl long spells, pick up the odd wicket, not go for too many runs, but won't go through a side like Warne. He was down on form last summer and was hardly helped by the chances his team mates missed off his bowling so that hasn't helpedhim. Overall, if he is somewhere around the 80 - 85 mark in Australia, he's doing well. Now in Asia, that's another matter entirely.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I accede to some of this. I can be Bolshie in my appraisals sometimes. But there's a lot of previous performances that have carried thru that colour my thinking on him.
Paul
Roar Guru
I gave him a 65 for the first innings His role on a day 1 pitch at the Gabba, was to keep things tight and support the blokes at the other end who were doing the damage, while giving the rest of the attack a spell. He was never going to be a factor in the wickets column unless someone did something pretty stupid. That he and Green got through 12 overs for 27, or nearly a quarter of the overs bowled, shows they did their jobs well, hence my rating