England tumbled to 36-4 after woeful top-order collapse on day three in Sydney before Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Mark Wood led a fightback with the bat; Joe Root and Jos Buttler out for ducks as England close on 258-7, trail Australia by 158 runs; England add Sam Billings to squad
Saturday 8 January 2022 08:30, UK
Jonny Bairstow's superb century led an England fightback after another dismal top-order collapse but Australia remain well on top after day three of the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney.
Bairstow (103no from 140 balls) clinched England's first hundred in this Ashes series in the final over of the day by carving Pat Cummins for four as the tourists closed on 258-7 to trail Australia by 158 runs having earlier crumbled to 36-4.
Bairstow - whose ton was his seventh in Test cricket and first since 2018 - and Ben Stokes (66) put on 128 for the fifth wicket having joined forces in that sobering morning session.
Stokes and Jos Buttler (0) fell in quick succession in the final session to leave England 173-6 and in grave danger of failing to reach the follow-on target of 217, with Australia having piled on 416-8 across the first two days.
But Bairstow - who brushed off being hit on the thumb by a scorching Cummins delivery - found another fine ally in the adventurous Mark Wood (39 off 41), who smashed Cummins for three sixes during a seventh-wicket stand of 72 from as many deliveries.
Bairstow's boundary tally is now up to 11 - eight fours and three sixes - and he mixed power and placement and showed tremendous guts in this latest century as he led England's comeback at the SCG.
The intent he provided later in the day was in stark contrast to earlier on with England at one stage going 70 deliveries without scoring a run, during which time Scott Boland bowled Zak Crawley (18) and had Joe Root caught at second slip for a duck before Cameron Green had Dawid Malan (3) pouched at leg slip.
England - who had seen Haseeb Hameed bowled through the gate for six by Mitchell Starc once play began a couple of hours late due to persistent drizzle - were in absolute disarray in Sydney.
However, Bairstow and Stokes - the latter notably affected by the left side issue he had picked up while bowling on day two and chugging down painkillers to stem the pain - counterpunched, sharing just England's third century stand of what has been a woeful Ashes series with the bat.
Stokes enjoyed a remarkable slice of fortune on 16 when Green thudded a delivery into his off stump but the bail was not dislodged - Stokes had been given out lbw to that ball by on-field umpire Paul Reiffel but successfully reviewed that errant decision.
Stokes, who was also dropped on nine by Cummins, and Bairstow guided England through a wicketless second session - Stokes clinching a 70-ball fifty before tea and Bairstow then sealing an 80-ball half-century upon the resumption.
The England duo played positively during their repair job, particularly against off-spinner Nathan Lyon, whose figures for the day read 1-71 from 12 overs, while Stokes also hit Starc for three successive boundaries.
Lyon's sole success came when he pinned Stokes lbw on the back foot, shortly before Buttler tamely chipped Cummins to Usman Khawaja at extra-cover for England's second duck of the day.
Australia are still massive favourites to win this Test but there is rain forecast and the fitness of Boland remains a concern for the hosts after he went for a scan having taken a tumble while bowling the final delivery before tea.
Boland had been the chief architect of England's latest top-order downfall, the seamer following his 6-7 on debut in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne as Australia retained the Ashes with the scalps of Crawley and Root on the third morning in Sydney.
Boland's figures at lunch read 2-0 from four maiden overs as he castled Crawley - who had been caught off a Starc no-ball late on day two - through the gate with a nip-backer and then saw Root snick through to Steve Smith in the cordon after fishing outside off stump
With Hameed falling to Starc before those Boland strikes and Malan ousted by Green after them, England were decidedly blue on the day the SCG turned pink for the Jane McGrath Foundation, which was set up by Glenn McGrath in honour of his late wife Jane, who passed away from breast cancer in 2008.
England's average opening partnership in this series is a pitiful 9.57, while Hameed is averaging a paltry 10.14 - the lowest-ever by an England opener in a series batting at least seven times.
Thankfully for the tourists, Bairstow, Stokes and Wood were in the runs - Wood's enterprising knock coming to an end after a successful Australia review with Snicko showing the batter had clipped Cummins' bouncer onto his helmet before it ballooned to Lyon at point.
That dismissal left Jack Leach (4no) alongside Bairstow as the latter sealed a stunning century in Sydney and celebrated emotionally.
Sam Billings has been added to England's Ashes squad for the final Test in Hobart after a number of injuries during the fourth game in Sydney.
Fellow wicketkeeper Buttler is battling a hand problem, while another option to keep, Bairstow, was struck on the thumb during his century.
With all-rounder Stokes also dealing with his side issue, Billings, who has been playing in the Big Bash for Sydney Thunder, has been drafted in - subject to receiving a negative PCR test.
An ECB statement read: "Billings was due to fly to the UK this evening ahead of England's T20I tour of the Caribbean. He will now join the Test party in Sydney after a period of isolation in the team hotel subject to receiving a negative PCR test result."
Ollie Pope was seen working on his glovework in the nets on Friday but Billings would be a more natural replacement should England be forced into a change behind the stumps.
The 30-year-old - who has played 58 white-ball internationals for England - is yet to make his Test debut but averages 34.29 in first-class cricket with six hundreds and 15 half-centuries.
In news from the Australia camp, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the fifth Test with the side strain that has sidelined him since his team's nine-wicket victory in the series opener at Brisbane.
Australia head coach Justin Langer expects the 30-year-old to return for the white-ball series at home to New Zealand which starts later this month.
- Zak Crawley and Haseeb Hameed added 22 for the first wicket and at 9.2 overs it is the longest of England's seven opening partnerships of the series. So far, their opening partnerships have lasted an average of just 4.1 overs.
- This is the 14th Jane McGrath Test at the SCG, which means that there have been more Jane McGrath Tests there than Glenn played (12).
Jonny Bairstow, speaking to BT Sport: "I am extremely proud. It's been tough, you've got to dig deep, I'm sure you guys and everyone else will have mentioned the scheduling and how much red-ball cricket people are playing leading into massive series like this - and it's not just this series.
"You've got to delve very, very deep into stuff that you've worked on over a number of years. Your technique changes over those years and you've got to pick parts of it and sometimes go back to bits you looked at a couple of years ago - and that's exactly what I did this morning.
"I tried not to be too rigid. You can look at technique a lot and some things work but other times you've got to be natural about the way that you're moving otherwise you become a bit clunky and too rigid
"That's where I felt I'd got to, I was trying to be something that, potentially, I'm not. One of my strengths is putting the pressure back on bowlers and running between the wickets. That also comes with spending time out in the middle."
Sir Alastair Cook, speaking to BT Sport: "That innings of Bairstow's. supported by Ben Stokes, was full of everything that has been lacking in the batting line-up, if we exclude Root - guts, determination and a lot of skill.
"It was probably his best Test knock in terms of skill, application and bravery. He's such a likeable lad and he's had a tough time in Test cricket over the last couple of years.
"I hope it has proved to him that he can play Test cricket again, stoked the fire and started the rebuild of English cricket."
