CRICKET
Day 3: Starc and Lyon put Aussies in strong position
Australia managed to get a big first-innings lead against England to enhance their chances of victory in the 2nd Test match.
Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc picked up 7 wickets together in the first innings today.
Root and Malan scored important fifties to give their side a little hope but Australia didn’t allow England to score big runs.
Australia 1st innings 473-9 Dec
Labuschagne 103 Stokes 3-113 Warner 95 Anderson 2-58 Smith 93 Robinson 1-45
England 1st innings 236 all-out
Malan 80 Starc 4-37 Root 62 Lyon 3-58 Stokes 34 Green 2-24
Australia 2nd innings 45-1
Harris 21* Warner 13
England did a pretty good job to resist the first session of the day.
Both Root and Malan played brilliantly today and they once again scored a crucial partnership in this series.
England was two down on just 17 runs last night and they needed a good start today.
The top scorer of 2021 in Test cricket, Joe Root again came to bat in a difficult situation and all the hopes were once again on him to perform well and to drag them out of that difficult situation and he has again done it.
The 138 run stand was ended by Green who dismissed Joe Root after bowling a brilliant spell.
Root got a thick edge that went straight into Smith’s hands in the first slip.
Root was dismissed on 62 runs and he again missed out his maiden hundred in Australia and now he will have to wait more to score his first Test ton on the Australian soil.
Starc dismissed David Malan straight after the lunch break.
Malan got an edge that also went into the hands of the first slip where Smith again took a brilliant catch at head height.
Malan scored a brilliant knock of 80 runs and it was the second time in this series when Malan got out in the 80s.
Both times he failed to convert his 80s into 100s.
After Root and Malan’s dismissal, England again collapsed as the whole English side was dismissed on just 236 runs giving a huge 282 run lead to Australia.
Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes got some good starts but they failed to convert their small cameos into match-winning knocks.
Stokes scored 34 runs while Woakes was dismissed after 24 runs (including 5 fours).
Starc and Lyon shine with the ball
Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon were brilliant with the ball today as both of them picked up 7 wickets together.
Starc was the main destructor of the English batting lineup as he picked up important wickets at crucial stages in his spell.
Mitchell Starc picked up 4 wickets for just 37 runs in 16. 1 overs including 6 maidens overs.
Nathan Lyon who completed his 400 Test wickets landmark in the last game, also picked up 3 important wickets today.
He got the wickets of Ollie Pope, Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson in his spell.
Cameron Green also picked up two wickets including the important wicket of Joe Root.
The debutant Michael Neser dismissed 1 batter in his maiden Test innings.
After getting a big lead of 282 runs, Australia scored 45 runs with the loss of 1 wicket before stumps on day 3.
The Australian openers brilliantly negotiated the difficult part with the bat in the start but unfortunately, David Warner was run-out due to a miss-communication with Harris just a few overs before stumps.