Day 4: Khawaja scores ton again

Usman Khawaja scored another brilliant hundred in this Test match to keep Australia in control.

The English openers survived the remaining overs before stumps but it will be a tough day for the batters tomorrow.

England will need 358 runs on day 5 while Australia requires 10 wickets on the final day to win the Test match and to go 4-0 in the series. 

Australia      1st innings      416-8 Dec

Khawaja 137                Broad 5-101                                                                                                                                 Smith 67                       Root 1-36                                                                                                                                  

England       1st innings      294 all-out  

Bairstow 113                  Boland 4-36                                                                                                                                             Stokes 66                        Cummins 2-68                                                                                                                                      

Australia     2nd innings      265-6 Dec

Khawaja 101*                Leach 4-84                                                                                                                              Green 74                         Wood 2-65

England      2nd innings      30-0

Crawley 22                                                                                                                                                               Hameed 8*

Usman Khawaja remained unbeaten 101 runs and the Australian team declared their 2nd innings on a score of 265-6, giving a target of 388 to England in the 4th innings.

Cameron Green also scored a superb knock of 74 runs. Jack Leach was the leading wicket-taker as he took 4 wickets for his side. 

Earlier, the English team got dismissed on 294 in their 1st innings after starting the day with a score of 258-7.

Jonny Bairstow got caught behind after scoring 113 runs for his side.

Scott Boland played a handy role in the bowling department for Australia.

He picked up 4 important wickets and conceded only 36 runs in the 14.1 overs that he bowled.

Boland’s spell also included 6 maiden overs. 

Australia also had a bad start with the bat in the 2nd innings as they lost their 1st wicket on only 12 runs.

In only the 6th over of the innings, David Warner nicked a 91mph delivery of Mark Wood straight into the hands of Ollie Pope.

After Warner’s dismissal, Harris and Labuschagne made a small partnership of 40 runs but Leach didn’t allow this stand to prosper as he dismissed Marcus Harris (27 runs) when the score reached 52.

Labuschagne and Smith failed to convert their good starts into big knocks as they got out on 29 and 23 runs respectively. 

Another magnificent Ton from Khawaja

Usman Khawaja is making a dream come back into the Australian side as he scored his 2nd hundred in this match.

He becomes only the third batter in history to score a hundred in both innings of a Test match at the SCG.

Khawaja was playing his first Test match since 2019 and was picked in the playing 11 in place of Travis Head who was dropped after getting a Covid positive report.

Thankfully, he grabbed this opportunity with both hands by scoring back to back hundreds and now it will be hard to drop him from the playing 11.

Australia was struggling on 86-4 but Usman Khawaja helped his side to get a lead of 387 runs.

He had a solid partnership of 179 runs with Cameron Green for the 5th wicket.

Green also scored a brilliant knock of 74 runs, including 7 fours and a six.