Operation 500. It doesn't sound very exciting, and it will take a couple of
day to achieve such a total, but England
have to get close to Australia's 492 or pass it if they are to be credible
3-0 winners.
Foundations being essential for anything large, England were grateful for
their highest opening partnership of this series. Alastair Cook and Joe Root
put on 68, very carefully, to lay the basis for the strokeplayers to follow.
Australia
bowled excellently, as usual, to keep England down to 65 runs in the first
session. Their quick bowlers pitched a full length at Cook and Root to draw
them forward, then pitched short at Jonathan Trott to exploit the weakness
that had not been exposed before.
Cook took 31.3 overs to score his 25 - that was how skilfully Australia bowled
at him - and he had put away Mitchell Starc for a four and a two in the
first over of England's innings on Thursday evening.
Root became more fluent as his innings went on. Apart from his 180 at Lord's,
his highest innings of this series had been 30 on the opening day at Trent
Bridge, thanks to the Australians working out the full length that was
required for him.
But Root, after a couple of plays-and-misses, settled down to problem-solve in
his amazingly mature way. He waited patiently for the bad ball and put it
away when it eventually arrived, so there were eight fours in his 50 off 145
balls.
Ryan Harris, who dismissed Cook, was again the pick of Australia's pace bowlers, with Peter Siddle not far behind. It was the third time in this Ashes series that Harris had dismissed Cook.
Trott had been bounced out a couple of times earlier in this series, as never before, and Harris again had him fending away, but Trott then decided to duck underneath the bouncers.
By lunch England had unglamorously fought their way to 97 for one off 44 overs, after resuming at 32 without loss.
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Ryan Harris, who dismissed Cook, was again the pick of Australia's pace bowlers, with Peter Siddle not far behind. It was the third time in this Ashes series that Harris had dismissed Cook.
Trott had been bounced out a couple of times earlier in this series, as never before, and Harris again had him fending away, but Trott then decided to duck underneath the bouncers.
By lunch England had unglamorously fought their way to 97 for one off 44 overs, after resuming at 32 without loss.
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