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Australia are within touching distance of a famous win at Lord’s and a 2-0 lead in the Ashes series after Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins routed England’s top order on the fourth evening.
But a controversial disallowed catch from Mitchell Starc to remove half-centurion Ben Duckett in the dying minutes of the day has left the hosts still with a fighting chance of a remarkable victory, the opener adding 69 runs with captain Ben Stokes to see England to stumps at 4/114, with 257 still needed.
Starc claimed a low catch at fine leg to seemingly remove Duckett for 50, but third umpire Marais Erasmus ruled that the left-armer had grounded the ball before being in full control of his body, recalling the batter to the crease.
“I’m sorry that is the biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen. He has got that ball under control,” former Australian quick Glenn McGrath said on BBC commentary. “That ball is under control. I’ve seen everything this game has to offer. If that is not out, then every other catch that’s ever been taken should not be out. That is a disgrace.”
Ricky Ponting was also bemused.
“Mitchell Starc had much better control of that ball and for longer than when Steve Smith did when he caught Joe Root,” Ponting said on Sky Sports.
The game’s official law-makers, the Marylebone Cricket Club, have moved to clarify the call by pointing out the rule states a catch is only completed when a fielder “has complete control over the ball and his or her movement”.
Having been set a target of 371 for victory after the hosts successfully initiated their own bouncer battle after themselves copping a fierce bombardment on Days 2 and 3, England’s previous remarkable success with final-day run chases under Brendon McCullum gave them hope of an inspired comeback victory.
But with Starc first striking with two wickets and Cummins adding another two shortly after, each claiming a scalp that will rank highly on their respective career highlights packages, it was all England could do to stagger to stumps, needing an unprecedented rearguard to so much as hang on for a draw, never mind square the series.
Starc’s stunner was more spectacular, finding vicious swing to comprehensively beat Ollie Pope and flatten his middle stump; Cummins’ ball, finding the perfect spot and nipping away to clip the top of Harry Brook’s off stump, was less gory but alongside his famous castling of Joe Root in the 2019 Ashes as the finest of his spectacular career.
With the Lord’s pitch showing the first signs of variable bounce, either option will be tough on the final day for Duckett (50) and Stokes (29), along with next man in Jonny Bairstow, even with Australia hampered by the loss of Nathan Lyon.
While all but out of the series, the off-spinner’s last act of his 100th consecutive Test will live long in Ashes folklore; hobbling out to bat as last man in and receiving a standing ovation for his courage, the gutsy veteran would withstand a continued bouncer barrage from the English pace attack, defying both hostile bowling and a crippling calf injury to add 15 runs with Starc for the final wicket in 31 dramatic balls.
Lyon’s last stand may yet not prove decisive, given the enormity of the task ahead of England; but his pain-wracked innings will live long in the memory, from desperately hobbling to make his ground after a mid-pitch mix-up with Starc, to swinging Stuart Broad away for an iconic boundary for the second time this series.
Nathan Lyon is checked on by Joe Root. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
Another remarkable day of Test cricket began as sedately as any this series; resuming on 2/130, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith had designs on pushing the lead to 300 and beyond.
With Smith working the first ball of the day past leg slip for four, and continuing on soon after with a trio of scorching boundaries off James Anderson – the first two classic cover drives, the third a delicate late cut – it took little time for Stokes to decide, as Cummins had during England’s first innings, that it was time to unleash Plan B.
The result was over after over of short stuff, with the now-customary packed leg side field to make taking it on risky; a chance both Smith and Khawaja were only too happy to resist at first.
But after looking content to duck the shortest offerings and work anything directed at the body for singles, Khawaja finally cracked; having been discomfited by Broad in particular, a sharp riser proved too short for the left-hander to contain, tamely spooning a simple catch to fine leg to depart for 77.
Along the way, Khawaja saw his series tally surpass the efforts of David Warner, Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft combined at the top of the order in all five Tests of the 2019 series; a stat he’d no doubt have traded for a coveted spot on the Lord’s honour board reserved for Test centuries at the famous ground.
While Travis Head would get a life first ball when Anderson shelled a sharp chance in the gully, the short-ball assault would continue to bear fruit, Smith bounced out for 34 mistiming a hook to Zak Crawley at deep backward square.
When Head, already targeted this series by leg-theory tactics, spooned Broad to a diving Root at short leg for 7, England’s plan had worked perfectly.
What followed was the closest thing this dramatic series has come to a stalemate; both Alex Carey and Cameron Green showed no desire to fall as Smith and Khawaja had, all but eschewing the hook and pull completely as the run rate slowed to a crawl.
With England’s seamers unrelenting in their approach on either side of lunch, just 42 runs would be added from the next 19 overs, with a pair of cover-driven boundaries off Broad from Green to close the morning session about the sum of the highlights.
Patient as ever, England continued to toil, and after 66 balls of abstinence, the 67th would prove too tempting for the all-rounder: his attempt to keep a hook off Ollie Robinson down only succeeded in ballooning a catch straight to Duckett on the deep mid-wicket boundary.
Carey wouldn’t last much longer, Robinson removing the wicketkeeper with a fierce bumper that, choosing not to take it on, he could only glove meekly to Root again at short leg.
Cummins, though, showed more intent against the bouncer barrage, backing away to uppercut Stokes over backward point as the lead edged towards 350.
However, while he’d survive a top-edge safely pouched thanks to a Stokes no-ball, the captain was never lasting long; sure enough, he’d manage just 11 before a Broad bouncer zeroed in at him and could only be popped to Duckett for a simple catch at gully.
Of Australia’s wickets for the day, only Hazlewood could be said to have fallen in traditional fashion, Stokes going fuller and drawing an inside edge that lobbed off the pad for the easiest of chances to Root in close again; his dismissal, though, would bring Lyon to the crease.
The off-spinner’s painstakingly slow walk onto the field, cheered by friend and foe alike, was already worthy of a spot in the Ashes pantheon; briefly, though, with he and Starc not even trying for singles and the England field spread deep, it was reasonable to question what the point of it all was.
When Lyon was left in agony after Starc swung for the fences, only to be spectacularly reeled in by substitute fielder Rehan Ahmed on the deep mid-wicket boundary and forcing the pair to scamper for a single, having been conversing in mid-pitch anticipating a six, former England captain Andrew Strauss expressed his concerns on Sky Sports.
“I’m finding this hard to watch,” Strauss said.
“This isn’t a good advertisement for Test cricket… it’s all very good to show bravery to get out there,, but if you can’t score a run it’s utterly pointless.
“It seems foolhardy to me – there’s a guy’s career potentially on the line here.”
Hobbled, battered by bouncers but unbroken, Lyon would help add 15 runs for the final wicket, first watching on as Starc worked Josh Tongue for first a four to fine leg and then a hefty six over square leg, then taking matters into his own hands.
The delight was palpable, among the Australian touring party as much as the entire ground, when the wounded Lyon got hold of a Broad short ball, pulling it magnificently into the one on-side gap he could aim at. A boundary, if not as crucial to the cause as his famous mid-on flick at the crucial stage in Birmingham, then equally meritorious given he could barely stand.
With Broad inexplicably refusing to target the stumps despite Lyon exposing all three, eventually the short-ball barrage worked, Lyon miscuing another hook straight up for a simple Stokes catch. By then, though, he’d done more than enough to merit a second standing ovation from the pavilions as he hobbled off.
Australia’s total of 279, having lost their last eight wickets for 92 runs amid the bouncer battle, looked a touch light given England’s imperious chasing record in the last 12 months; when Green’s tremendous wingspan could only fingertip a thick outside edge from Duckett to end Starc’s first over, it felt crucial.
However, Starc’s very next ball would bring the breakthrough, his luck turning when Zak Crawley strangled a wayward offering down leg side for Carey to gleefully claim a diving chance.
1/9 soon became 2/13 when Starc struck again in his third over; finding substantial swing for the first time all Test, better batters than a hampered Ollie Pope, having solidered through the Test despite repeatedly injuring his shoulder in the field.
Mitchell Starc celebrates after bowling Ollie Pope. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
Swinging in from outside off, Pope would be beaten all ends up, the ball adding some extra humiliation to his downfall by deflecting off his pad and into middle stump, knocking it clean out of the ground.
Root, though, loomed as the big wicket; after a typically busy start, the England talisman would reach 18 untroubled before Cummins found venom.
With vicious bounce off the deck, a surprised Root could only fend, a thick edge safely pouched by David Warner at first slip.
While Brook seemed keen to take the fight back to the Australian captain, driving authoritatively past Cummins’ clutching right hand, his stay would last just three balls.
Brook’s dismissal in the first innings, backing away and wildly swatting Cummins to deep cover, brought with it all manner of criticism, but there was little wrong with his forward defence on this occasion. With Cummins finding seam movement past his groping bat and perfectly into the top of off, the ball the Englishman received was all but unimprovable.
With England 4/45 and in all sorts, Stokes, as he had on the second evening, would choose a steady hand over the hosts’ usual Bazball-inspired sledgehammer approach.
Duckett, who had survived being given out LBW to Starc on five when the batter’s review found the ball to be swinging wide of his off stump, was equally circumspect, the adding 15 in six overs before the arrival of Head’s off-spin signalled an upping of the ante.
With Stokes relieving the pressure by depositing the part-timer over his head for six, Duckett too would join in the fun, mowing across the line through long on for four to release the shackles further.
Green’s introduction brought with it a pair of fours from Duckett through cover point, the first bringing up the 50 partnership.
Stokes raising the hundred with a single off Starc brought with it raucuous cheers and renewed voice for the Barmy Army, as did Duckett raising his second half-century of the match, and third in three Test innings this summer at Lord’s alongside his 182 against Ireland.
With Stokes lucky to survive a brutal short ball somehow fended in between a trio of converging close-in fielders and clearly hampered by a knee injury grown worse after sending down 12 overs in Australia’s second innings, he’d nevertheless remain a threat, hooking Starc imperiously for four as the partnership grew to concerning levels.
But it seemed to have been all in vain when the bouncer again paid dividends for Australia; Duckett, backing away, saw the ball hit the very toe end of his bat and bizarrely lob to fine leg… where Starc, running around, appeared to take a fine low catch.
However, with Australia celebrating, third umpire Erasmus would find that Starc had slid the ball along the ground after completing a catch, ruling that as he hadn’t been in full control of his body at the time, the catch wouldn’t stand.
It would prove the final moment of drama of another eventful day, England heading into the final day with 257 runs to get, and Australia six wickets.
with AAP
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