Day 1: Rain curtails play, England bag 3 wickets

Day 1 was badly affected by rain as it delayed the toss and start of play by 30 minutes.

The rain was on and off the whole day.

They got a good dry window after the tea break but still, only 46.5 overs were possible today.

The Australian openers Warner and Harris survived a few close chances against the new swinging and bouncing ball.

The pair shared a decent half-century partnership but Stuart Broad came back to get the wicket of Warner once again in his Test career.

Then, Marnus Labuschagne and Marcus Harris put on a solid stand.

The star fast bowler James Anderson came back and sent Harris’s edge to the slip fielder.

Mark Wood then had Marnus caught behind in quick succession.

The pitch has some grass and good bounce but the English bowlers failed to hit the right areas, but they looked pretty decent after the tea break. 

Australia      1st innings      126-3

M. Harris   38                   Anderson 1-24                                                                                                                             D. Warner 30                   Wood       1-31                                                                                                   Labuschagne 28               Broad       1-34

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first after the late start due to rain.

The pitch was under covers for a decent amount of time due to rain and that’s why it had a lot of swing and bounce in it.

Warner and Harris played patiently in the start and negotiated the new ball brilliantly which was swinging and bouncing pretty well. 

A good start from the Australian openers   

The openers provided a good start to the Australian team as Warner and Harris added 51 runs for the first wicket.

The rain allowed only 12.3 overs to be bowled before the lunch break, in which Harris and Warner added 30 runs without losing their wickets.

Anderson and Broad bowled some brilliant deliveries but unfortunately, the luck wasn’t on their side in the start. 

After the lunch break, David Warner started and play aggressively as he smashed 6 superb boundaries in that period.

The openers provided an aggressive start and added 40 runs for the first wicket.

This was the second consecutive half-century partnership between Warner and Harris. 

Things were going pretty well for Australia but out of nowhere Warner played a loose drive on Stuart Broad’s delivery that cost him his wicket.

Broad bowled a very similar kind of length on which Warner struggled a lot in the previous Ashes.

This was the 13th time, Broad got the wicket of Warner in Test cricket.

After the loss of the first wicket, the number-ranked Test batter Marnus Labuschagne joined Marcus Harris to put up another decent partnership. 

Labuschagne and Harris added 60 runs for the second wicket.

Both of them played excellent cricket against the English bowlers.

But after the tea break, the England bowlers bowled at good line and lengths against the batters.

James broke the partnership in the 40th over by dismissing Harris who scored 38 runs.

In the very next over, Labuschagne got caught behind on a back-of-length delivery bowled by Mark Wood. 

After losing two wickets in quick succession, Smith and Khawaja were left in an awkward situation in which they had to negotiate the last hour before stumps.

Luckily, the rain reduced that hour into just 6 overs.

Australia ended the day on a score of 126-3 with Smith and Khawaja still on the crease.