London: The fifth Test remains in the balance with Australia taking a narrow first innings lead of 12 with the help of a cameo tail-end partnership. In response to England, Australia were dismissed for 295 in which Steve Smith played an excellent innings of 71 and Usman Khawaja’s patient 41 runs spanned four hours.
Resuming their first innings on 61 for one and with the obvious task of building a considerable lead to England’s total of 283, both overnight batsmen Khawaja with 26 and Marnus Labuschagne on 2, played with caution.
None of the four pace bowlers that England used were able to get a breakthrough for nearly an hour-and-a-half during which they bowled 18 overs. Labuschagne scored 7 from 59 balls during that period while Khawaja had moved to 37, having scored 11 from 75 balls, when Joe Root, at first slip, held a marvellous left-handed diving catch to dismiss Labuschagne off Mark Wood.
At Lunch Australia were 115 for two, Khawaja 47 and Smith on 13. But the start of the second session saw the picture change rapidly. Stuart Broad, in an excellent burst of fast bowling removed Khawaja in the first over. The batsman was still three short of what would have been his 24th Test half century when he was trapped lbw.
He played the wrong line to a ball that moved away very slightly from the left hander. But it had been a marathon effort from Khawaja during which he faced 157 balls. Broad then, in his next over claimed the Australia wicket.
Travis Head was held behind from a ball that moved away taking the outside edge. Broad had taken two in six balls conceding 4 runs to reduce Australia to 127 for four from 91 for one at one stage.
Mitch Marsh has been in fine batting form since the third Test when he hit a fine century. He started with confidence lifting Broad for six over long off and then a lovely straight drive off Chris Woakes took him to 15 but a run later he played-on to James Anderson to give the 41-year-old pace bowler his only wicket of the innings.
Joe Root with his occasional off-spin was brought into the attack and after he was hit for a huge six over deep mid-wicket by Alex Carey, he dismissed the Australia wicketkeeper a with a slower, slightly wider ball that Carey seemed to hit casually to short cover where Ben Stokes held his hundredth catch in Tests.
Smith meanwhile had been steadily picking up runs and on 40 he lost another partner when Mitchell Starc, on 7, pulled Wood for a catch at square leg. But Smith went on to form a good stand with Pat Cummins during which they brought up the two hundred of the innings and Smith reached his 38th Test half century from 98 balls with a superb on-drive for four off Broad. He followed that with the same shot to the boundary from the next ball.
They took the total to 239 from 90 overs when Smith’s innings ended. Surprisingly, he played a poor shot attempting to pull a fairly straight ball towards midwicket and got a top edge which went over the wicketkeeper. Bairstow judged well in running back, making good ground to complete the catch.
An entertaining stand followed for the ninth wicket between Cummins and Todd Murphy during which Murphy hit Wood for three sixes and a four in two consecutive overs.
That valuable tail-end partnership, which may well have some bearing on the outcome, ended just one short of a half-century when Cummins hit Root to long-on and was held at the boundary rope by Stokes who had the presence of mind not to go over the boundary but to throw the ball back in and complete the catch in side after stepping back in.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
