Ashes 2019: England 374 all out against Australia in first Test
England were 328-8 at lunch on the third day.
BIRMINGHAM 2019 (AFP) - England were dismissed for 374 in reply to Australia’s first-innings 284, a lead of 90 runs, on the third day of the first Test at Edgbaston on Saturday.
Rory Burns batted for nearly eight hours to top-score with 133, his maiden Test hundred, in an innings where England captain Joe Root (57) and vice-captain Ben Stokes (50) both hit half-centuries.
England lost three wickets for four runs before lunch to slump to 300-8 -- just 16 runs ahead.
But a ninth-wicket stand of 65 between Chris Woakes, who made 37 not out on his Warwickshire home ground, and Stuart Broad (29) boosted their total.
Last man James Anderson came out to bat despite suffering a calf injury earlier in the match that meant England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker only bowled four overs in Australia’s first innings.
Woakes then declined clear singles in what appeared to be both a bid to keep the strike and reduce the amount of running between the wickets required by Anderson, who was eventually last man out for three when caught slog-sweeping off Nathan Lyon.
Fast bowler Pat Cummins led Australia’s attack with 3-84 in 33 overs on an increasingly placid pitch, with off-spinner Lyon taking 3-112 in 43.5 overs.
Australia hold the Ashes but they have not won a Test series away to England for 18 years.
Nathan Lyon took two wickets in an over as Australia finally saw the back of Rory Burns during an England collapse in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Saturday.
England were 328-8 at lunch on the third day, a first-innings lead of 44 runs, with Chris Woakes 13 not out and Stuart Broad 11 not out.
They had been hoping to build a substantial first-innings advantage but from 296-5 they lost three wickets for four runs in slumping to 300-8.
Stokes got England going on a sunny Saturday morning with an on-driven four off James Pattinson after the fast bowler came round the wicket.
A quick single then saw Stokes to a 95-ball fifty featuring eight fours.
But Stokes was out for exactly 50 to the next ball he faced when he cut loosely at Cummins and was caught behind by Australia captain and wicketkeeper Tim Paine.
Stokes, in his first match since being restored to the England vice-captaincy following an acquittal on a charge of affray last year, shared a stand of 88 with Burns that had taken England to 282-5.
New batsman Jonny Bairstow gave England the lead when he clipped Pattinson for four through midwicket.
Burns only managed three runs in Saturday’s first hour, before driving Peter Siddle for a four through cover-point.
But Lyon, who had repeatedly beaten Burns’s bat on Friday, finally ended the Surrey captain’s marathon innings when a delivery that turned and bounce took the outside edge and was well caught by Paine.
Burns faced 312 balls, with 17 fours.
By contrast, new batsman Moeen Ali lasted just five balls before he inexplicably shouldered arms to Lyon and was clean bowled for a duck -- the eighth time the spinner had dismissed him in 10 Ashes innings.
Then 300-7 became 300-8 when Bairstow’s reckless shot outside off stump against paceman Siddle was well caught at first slip by David Warner.
England now led by just 16 runs, with their two batsmen in the middle -- Woakes and Broad - then each on nought.
But Woakes, on his Warwickshire home ground, hoisted Lyon for a legside six to the delight of the crowd.
