England’s Jonathan Trott overcame a painful blow to the knee to strike a brave century as he and Matt Prior savaged Australia’s attack late yesterday to put the tourists in a strong position to retain the Ashes.
Trott’s unbeaten 141 propelled England to 444-5 at stumps on the second day of the fourth Test, a lead of 346, and it was completed after he was floored by a Ben Hilfenhaus delivery that deflected off his bat and struck him on the left knee when on 76.
The Cape Town-born batsman slumped to the ground in pain and lay prone for a number of minutes as he received medical attention.
PHOTO: EPA
He got to his feet gingerly, however, and eventually brought up his ton with a deft flick through midwicket that raced to the boundary under bright sunshine at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Trott held his helmet and bat aloft in celebration, savoring the applause from the crowd of more than 67,000, before embracing his batting partner Prior.
“One I will definitely savor, but they’re all pretty special, but Boxing Day [Dec. 26] and all the hype around it and the support from the English fans, it would be right up there [with my best,]” Trott told reporters of his fifth Test century.
“[The blow was] probably one of the most painful things I’ve ever felt in my life,” Trott said.
He and Prior’s unbeaten 163-run stand took the wind out of Australia’s sails after the hosts’ pacemen had threatened to stall England’s charge with three wickets in an incident-packed afternoon session.
ALL CORNERS
Prior joined in the celebrations by smacking a pull-shot off part-time legspinner Steve Smith to bring up his half-century, before joining with Trott to belt Australia’s bowlers to all corners of the ground in the final overs.
Wicketkeeper Prior was on 75 at stumps as the pair raised England’s hopes of further tightening the noose around Australia’s neck on day three with five wickets in hand.
Trott’s century may also bring back painful memories for many of skipper Ricky Ponting’s men, who watched the 29-year-old stroke a brilliant second innings 119 on his Test debut at The Oval last year to help England seal the Ashes in the fifth Test.
This five-Test series is tied at 1-1, but victory for holders England in Melbourne will seal the Ashes with a Test to spare and make Andrew Strauss’ team the first to take the urn home in 24 years.
England will fancy themselves to build an insurmountable lead on day three and have more than two days to bowl out Australia, whose top order batsmen have failed throughout the series.
“We all know that the Australian team, like we saw at the last Test match, that they have some good players,” Trott said.
“So we have to be at the top of our game that we make sure we really keep the pressure on them the whole time with our batting tomorrow, obviously, and also the ball,” he said.
“There’s plenty more for us left to be done in this Test match.”
Australia’s bowlers were handed the thankless task of protecting a paltry first innings total of 98 and were already under pressure after allowing Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook to romp to stumps on the first day with an unbeaten opening partnership of 157.
HOPES
Paceman Peter Siddle raised Australia’s hopes of limiting the damage, however, removing the openers in quick succession yesterday morning and later trapping Kevin Pietersen LBW for his third wicket after lunch.
In between, Australia’s desperation for wickets spilled over into frustration as the under-fire Ponting was involved in an ugly on-field tirade against umpire Aleem Dar over a video referral.
Paceman Ryan Harris had teased Pietersen’s bat with a delivery that went through to wicketkeeper Haddin, whose wild appeal for caught behind was neither shared by his teammates nor endorsed by the umpire.
Haddin demanded a referral, but the video review showed no evidence of a nick and the decision was upheld.
Ponting and Siddle remonstrated with Dar for more than a minute between overs, prompting jeers from the crowd.
The incident is likely to draw attention from the ICC’s match review panel and Siddle and a team spokesman declined to comment on it.
“It’s just cricket,” Siddle said without elaborating, when asked whether the incident fueled with the frustration of long sessions in the field for little return.
The heated moment seemed to spark the paceman, who had Pietersen dismissed shortly after and the breakthrough fired up his fellow seamers.
Mitchell Johnson soon had the out-of-form Paul Collingwood’s wicket when the middle order batsman slogged a harmless short ball to fine leg where Siddle rushed forward to take a sharp catch.
Johnson then captured Ian Bell for 1, when he miscued a pull shot that Siddle again snaffled.
UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Johnson was denied a third wicket shortly before the tea break in unusual circumstances when his dismissal of Prior was over-ruled by the third umpire, who spotted a no-ball that umpire Aleem Dar had missed.
Prior, who had trudged halfway off the ground, was called back to the crease before the video review showed Johnson’s foot too far forward.
The defiant Siddle refused to concede that Australia faced a hopeless task to save the Test.
“We’ve just got to knuckle in and obviously keep working at it,” he said. “The boys are feeling good, it was obviously another tough day, but they’re still upbeat.”
“It’s going to be tough to win from here, that’s pretty obvious. We’ve still got to get five more wickets to get back out there with the bat,” Siddle said.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS