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record breaker Mitchell Starc He continued his one-man mission to dash England’s Ashes hopes by scoring 196 for four on the first evening of the day/night second Test in Brisbane.
Starc, who had taken 10 wickets in Australia’s Perth win, continued his hold on the tourists by dismissing Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope for ducks with the new pink ball and then returned to dismiss the useless Harry Brook.
With this, he took 415 Test wickets and became the most brilliant left arm fast bowler of all time, surpassing the great Pakistani bowler Wasim Akram.
England Made a good comeback with a score of five wickets for two wickets in the third over, jack crawley Showed great strength of character to score 76 after a disappointing performance in the first Test and stood firm at route 68.
Root still in search of first century Australian Soil is important for English Hopefully that will happen as the game moves towards the night-time phase under floodlit skies.
The guessing game over Pat Cummins’s fitness meant there was a lot of interest in Australia’s team sheet and the selectors duly delivered a big surprise.
While Cummins’ absence was no real blow, with the injured skipper never officially included in the squad, the decision to drop 562-wicket spinner Nathan Lyon in place of experienced fast bowler Michael Neser was a surprise. The 38-year-old was last left out of a home Test in January 2012 – a streak that lasted for 69 consecutive matches.
Australia’s gamble was immediately tested as Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat first, a call that pushed Starc to center stage. This is where he does his best work and for the third consecutive innings he won the gold medal in the very first over.
Both times in Perth, Crawley was his victim but this time it was Duckett, who pushed a fullish ball which went away and clipped the edge. The sinking feeling of déjà vu only continued when Starc suffered another major blow, with Pope clipping his stumps with a vicious shot.
This meant hurry for Root and when he snatched a beautiful ball from Starc, the scoreboard was close to reading seven for three. But this time there was a reprieve, Steve Smith lunged to his left but failed to grab a very difficult chance. Instead the ball went to the ropes for four runs and England’s rebuild began.
Crawley had made an admirable start after failing twice last time out, opening his account in the series with a brilliant cover drive off his fourth ball, albeit late.
He scored quickly but was still willing to run out, with a few hard-hit aerial drives being the only real moments of risk. Starc was unable to snatch a single in his follow-through on 15 and Scott Boland missed another rocket on 39, but Crawley never threatened to get inside his shell as he brought up his half-century before the break.
Starting the second session at 98 for two, England almost negotiated successive bouncers from Neser and Brendan Doggett before Crawley succumbed. Neser spun to pull and he got a thin under-edge to end a restorative stand of 117.
Brook’s arrival ushered in a period of chaos, with a surprising cocktail of vigorous ball-striking and self-destructive stroke play. On 15 he was almost stumped while attempting a reverse ramp off Neser, but managed to get his boot back on the line.
Starc re-entered the equation after a long rest and dismissed Brook with his second ball. Opting to smash his most dangerous opponent through the off-side, he spiraled the ball through the thick edge towards second slip.
With dangerous twilight approaching, Root and Stokes showed plenty of determination to reach the second break without any further damage.