Friday 6 September 2019 19:45, UK
Australia break Joe Root's box before landing three more painful blows to shift the balance of play against England at Old Trafford...
Josh Hazlewood reignited Australia's hopes of an Ashes-sealing victory at Old Trafford after Joe Root and Rory Burns had anchored England's comeback on day three of the fourth Test.
Root (71) - on the ground where he struck a career-best 254 against Pakistan three years ago and averages 99.16 - and Burns (81) shared a third-wicket stand of 141, only for Hazlewood (4-48) to dismiss them both and Jason Roy (22) as England closed a rain-shortened day on 200-5, 297 runs behind Australia and needing a further 98 to avoid the follow on.
England's sloppy fielding came under the microscope on day two but it was an Australian error that caught the eye in the evening session. Root had 58 runs to his name when he looked to work a full delivery from Pat Cummins through the leg-side, only to snick a leading edge behind. The seamer had his man - or so he thought - until the ball bisected the statuesque wicketkeeper Tim Paine and first slip David Warner.
"We've seen Warner take a couple to his left in the series but that has to be the wicketkeeper's catch," said Mike Atherton. "It wasn't as though the 'keeper was wrong-footed either. If anything Paine took half-a-step to his right so he was gong the right way but then he opted not to go at all."
How important are maidens? England's bowlers mustered just 12 as Australia rolled along at near-enough four-runs-an-over in their first innings - the home side unable to maintain consistent pressure in a way that Australia's attack did on day three.
The tourists' three quick bowlers hit the pitch hard consistently and refused to let Joe Root and Rory Burns score freely in their resilient century stand - the pressure eventually telling as Hazlewood followed up another impressive Pat Cummins display by bagging 3-16 in one spell.
The stats show that while Australia joined up the dots once in every five overs, England bowled a maiden once every 10. With England needing 98 more to avoid the follow-on, that build-up of pressure might just prove telling.
Nasser Hussain: "Burns and Root have played brilliantly. Out of all the openers in this series Burns has stood out, with a hundred at Lord's and now this innings here. For England, there can't be any soft dismissals - it's a good surface for the seamers, with excellent bounce coming through. Don't give Australia anything because then they come at you in a pack."
Isa Guha: "Joe Root has talked about using Ben Stokes' knock as the blueprint for how they should bat, giving themselves some time in the middle to see what it is doing - and that's exactly what they do have, plenty of time left in this Test."
England fast bowling coach Chris Silverwood: "We've got to be careful with Jofra - he's playing his third Test match. We've got to cut him a little bit of flak - he's still finding his way into international cricket. But he's put the workload in and we've seen what he's capable of but he's not going to do it every day."
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