Ashes 5th Test Day 3 Stumps: England on top in the fifth test, lead by 377 runs
If day 2 of this fifth test match was an example of classic test cricket batting where the team just defends everything and does not have run-scoring intent, day 3 was the complete opposite. It was a show of the new-age test cricket batting where batters don’t fear and play every ball on merit with the intent of scoring runs.
Also Read: The Ashes 5th Test Match: England lead by 377 runs
The Australian bowlers were all over the stadium yesterday as they bowled 80 overs in the day where the English batters scored 389 runs at an excellent run rate of 4.86 runs per over. The run rate was above 5 runs per over the whole day but dropped in the end due to wickets falling in clusters.
All seven English batters got starts except Harry Brook, but all others scored in double digits and played proper “Bazball” cricket. England’s second inning started yesterday when they were 12 runs behind Australia.
The Australian lead was wiped off in the opening over only by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett. Crawley once again played really well, scoring 73 runs off 76 balls. Duckett also batted well but missed out on a big inning (42 runs off 55 balls).
Captain Ben Stokes promoted himself and scored 42 runs as well. It was then the partnership between Joe Root (91 runs off 106 balls) and Jonny Bairstow (78 runs off 103 balls) that took the match away from Australia. Root missed out on a well-deserved century but played exceptionally well.
Moeen Ali also made 29 runs, as by the end of the day, England’s score was 389/9, leading Australia by 377 runs. Today, we will see the pair of Stuart Broad and James Anderson walk out to bat together for the last time in cricket as they try to score as many runs as possible and take the lead to 400.
Today will be all about Stuart Broad as he has announced his retirement, and the British crowd will be right behind him. For the last time in cricket, we will see the pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad running in tandem and scaring the batters. David Warner up against Stuart Broad for the very last time is going to be a mouth-watering affair.
