Shaun Tait boosted his chances of playing in next week's Ashes opener with a key England wicket in a hostile spell of fast bowling for South Australia late on the first day of the three-day tour match at Adelaide Oval yesterday.
Tait claimed the wicket of England opener Andrew Strauss, leg before wicket for a two-ball duck, in the first of three erratic overs of fast bowling.
The South Australian slinger is vying for the third fast bowler's spot in the first Test team with Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson.
Tait began his spell with a delivery which nearly decapitated first slip and ran away for wides, but he had Strauss lbw two deliveries later to a scorcher.
England responded to the shock of the Strauss dismissal by sending in fast bowler Matthew Hoggard as nightwatchman.
At the close of an fluctuating first day's play, England were 24 for one in reply to the home team's declaration of 247 for seven.
Alastair Cook, likely to be promoted to open the England innings in next Thursday's opening Brisbane Test following Marcus Trescothick's decision to go home, was on six and Hoggard 10 not out, having survived a testing period, crowded by fieldsmen.
Earlier, Lehmann crafted a fine rearguard innings only to throw away a century with a run out.
Lehmann and Cameron Borgas steadied South Australia from 25 for four in the first hour with a partnership of 157, but both played a major part in their dismissals.
Lehmann was out for 99 when he took on James Anderson's throw from the deep and didn't make his ground while trying to complete a second run.
The former Test batsman played beautifully by driving the quicks and sweeping and nudging the spinners.
Borgas played the anchor role to support his skipper, but was out for 73, when he attempted to slog left-arm spinner Monty Panesar over mid-wicket.
Instead he only skied the ball to Cook, who took a comfortable catch near the boundary.
Hoggard made early inroads for England with a spell of 3-16 and finished the innings with 3-40.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
RSS