The Ashes Retained

An Insight Into The Fourth Test At Old Trafford 

F. A. Loxton

FOLLOWING THE THIRD TEST WHICH SAW ENGLAND CLOSE AUSTRALIA’S EARLY LEAD TO MAKE THE SERIES 2-1, AUSTRALIA HAVE RETAINED THE ASHES AFTER THE FOURTH TEST ENDED IN A DRAW. With no play possible on day five, rain shattered England’s hopes of a 2-0 comeback last Sunday, amidst England’s best innings of the series scoring 592 in the first innings.

In a match which saw Australia frontrunners to retain the urn, Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh settled the struggling Australian middle order, both scoring 50s before falling shortly after. But it was Chris Woakes’ bowling that was the highlight of the innings, taking 5/62, with the poles of Warner, Marsh, Green, Carey and Hazlewood. This saw Australia bowled out for 317, a score that was definitely chaseable on the promising Manchester wicket.

Day two of the test match saw Ben Duckett caught behind off Mitchell Starc for just one, but Zak Crawley was strong defensively, whilst looking to attack the bad ball, as he developed a long-standing partnership with Moeen Ali. Starc then took the wicket of Ali, right after reaching 50, which saw Root and Crawley settle into the crease throughout the day. Almost playing a brand of white ball cricket, England’s middle order thrived against the struggling Australian attack, with Joe Root scoring 84, Harry Brook 61, Ben Stokes 51 and Jonny Bairstow 99 not out, taking the England total to 592. Scoring at over one run a ball, however, was the team’s most notable scorer, Zak Crawley, hitting 189 off just 182 balls. This resulted in England holding a 275 run lead, with a little over two days to play.

With Old Trafford’s wicket looking promising for Australia’s stacked top order, England’s bowling attack continued to impress, as the Mark Wood and Chris Woakes partnership restricted openers Usman Khawaja to 18 and David Warner to 28. Although struggling so far in the series, Marnus Labuschagne began an inspirational innings, scoring his maiden Test hundred in England, and just his second century outside of Australia. With partnerships falling however, Australia’s middle order fell once again, with Smith 17 and Head one falling to the pace of Mark Wood.

The remaining days of the test match proved to be frustrating for the English and perhaps crucial for Australia, with rain preventing play. At the cusp of a great win after putting together an outstanding innings, the weather robbed the hosts of five sessions of play, with huge puddles left on the Old Trafford outfield.

Nevertheless, there is still much at stake in the fifth Test, with England inspired to deny Australia the win they came for, and their comeback a credit to the clarity and strength of the team’s leadership. It is easy to nitpick and question whether England should have declared earlier, knowing the rain was coming, but as it turned out doing so would have only given them another 14 overs of play.

Cummins was outdone by Ben Stokes’ tactics, as he lost control of the game, and although his team remained up 2-1 in the series, there is a feeling that his captaincy is under scrutiny at the Oval. Question marks remain surrounding the experienced trio of Hazlewood, Cummins and Starc, conceding runs at 5.2 an over in the test, with the variation of Nathan Lyon hugely missed. Ultimately, although Australia’s 2-0 lead proved too much for the English, a feat which hasn’t been done since 1936-37 series for good reason, England have still proven to be formidable opponents, with their resilience and fight evident in a Test match which was likely to fall in their favour if it wasn’t for rain.