England ended Michael Hussey’s fine innings as they pressed for a win at Edgbaston that would put them 2-0 up in the Ashes series with two to play.
Australia, at lunch in yesterday’s final day of the third Test, were 172 for four in their second innings — effectively 59 for four — with England still to bat again.
Michael Clarke was 12 not out and Marcus North unbeaten on four.
PHOTO: AFP
Left-hander Hussey fell to Stuart Broad’s 12th ball of the innings — and first from around the wicket — when he was caught behind by wicket-keeper Matthew Prior for 64 after two-and-a-half hours of game resistance.
His exit left Australia 161 for four.
Earlier, James Anderson had Shane Watson caught behind for 53 — the makeshift opener’s second 50 of the match. Ashes holders Australia resumed on 88 for two, still 25 runs behind.
PHOTO: AFP
England had given themselves a shot at victory on Sunday with Graham Onions dismissing Simon Katich and Graeme Swann’s classic off-break bowling Australia captain and star batsman Ricky Ponting for five.
Watson, recalled in place of dropped opener Phillip Hughes, was unbeaten on 34 after top-scoring in Australia’s first innings with 62, while Hussey was 18 not out.
Andrew Flintoff, the bowling hero of England’s 115-run second Test win at Lord’s and who had already starred with the bat in this match, beat Hussey on the outside edge before the batsman responded by driving the next delivery through the covers. Hussey’s single off Flintoff brought the scores level and his cut four off Swann took Australia into the lead.
Watson, in his debut Test as an opener, was hit flush on the left elbow after turning his head away from a Flintoff bouncer.
But he kept going and drove a Swann full-toss for his ninth four as he completed a 50 off 113 balls.
Flintoff, after a stint of seven overs for 17 runs, was replaced by fellow Lancashire quick Anderson, who took five wickets in Australia’s first innings.
And with his sixth ball on Friday, Anderson had Watson edging to wicket-keeper Matthew Prior to end a three-hour innings and a stand of 85 with Hussey.
Australia were now 137 for three in a match where Saturday’s play was washed out as were Thursday’s first two sessions.
New batsman Clarke could have been out first ball when, trying to withdraw the bat against Anderson, he got an inadvertent boundary when the ball might just as easily have deflected into his stumps.
But it was Broad, whose bowling has been much criticized this series, who ended a Hussey innings where 52 of his runs came in boundaries.
England were struggling at 168 for five in reply to Australia’s first innings 263 before Flintoff revived their innings with 74 off just 79 balls.
Together with Prior and Broad he shared valuable and rapid partnerships of 89 and 52 respectively, with Broad going on to make 55 as England built a first-innings lead of 113.
■SRI LANKA V PAKISTAN
AFP, DAMBULLA, SRI LANKA
Mahela Jayawardene hit his first one-day century in two years as Sri Lanka thumped Pakistan by six wickets yesterday to grab a winning 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
The former captain made 123 and shared an opening stand of 202 with Upul Tharanga (76) as the hosts cruised past Pakistan’s challenging 288-8 in the 47th over of the high-scoring match.
Sri Lanka, who had won the preceding Test series 2-0, made light work of an improved batting display by Pakistan in which teenager Umar Akmal led the way with 66 off 65 balls.
The 19-year-old, whose elder brother Kamran Akmal is the team’s wicket-keeper, propelled Pakistan to the highest total ever at the Rangiri International Stadium.
But Jayawardene, opening the batting in place of the indisposed Sanath Jayasuriya, and Tharanga gave Sri Lanka the perfect start in good batting conditions.
Jayawardene hit 14 boundaries and a six in his 11th one-day century and his first since making 107 for Asia against Africa in the Afro-Asia Cup in Chennai in June, 2007.
Left-handed Tharanga helped himself to nine fours, before both batsmen fell in successive overs.
Sri Lanka lost a third wicket in the space of 10 runs as Thilan Samaraweera gave Saeed Ajmal a return catch, but Thilina Kandamby (32) and captain Kumar Sangakkara (37 not out) steered Sri Lanka home.
Pakistan lost despite putting up their best total in the series after Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field.
Kamran Akmal made 45 during a 71-run stand for the second wicket with skipper Younus Khan (44) after opener Nasir Jamshed had fallen in the second over.
■WINDIES V BANGLADESH
AFP, BASSETERRE, ST KITTS
Bangladesh suffered the only defeat on their trip to the Caribbean when the West Indies won their Twenty20 international by five wickets on Sunday.
Bangladesh were unsuccessful in defending a modest victory target of 119, after reckless batting — epitomized by four needless run outs — undermined their batting at Warner Park.
The result was secured, when Travis Dowlin, whose run-a-ball 37 was the top score, pulled a long-hop from left-arm spinner Mehrab Hossain Jr for the last of his five fours.
Sunday’s game followed two Tests and three one-day internationals between the two sides that ended in a historic sweep for Bangladesh of both series against a West Indies side depleted by a player boycott.
“We didn’t bat well, especially the top-order batsmen, including myself, and we didn’t play smart cricket, that was our downfall,” Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan said. “I don’t know why we played like this, but we didn’t execute our game plan well. If you have four run-outs in an innings, it will be very difficult for you to score runs in a T20.”
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
PAINFUL VICTORY: Ruud said that felt pain in his rib during the warmup and was put on painkillers so that he could finish the match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo With the help of painkillers, Casper Ruud overcame a rib ailment to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and reach the Madrid Open final on Friday. Ruud is to face Jack Draper, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semi-final to make his third final of the year. Ruud received treatment on his rib three games into the match and went on to win 6-4, 7-5 on the Caja Magica center court. The 15th-ranked Norwegian saved 15 of the 18 break points he faced against the 21st-ranked Argentine. Ruud said he felt something in his rib during the warmup, just before
RSS