DM1ST

mirror.co.uk/sport FRIDAY 06.09.2019 DAILY MIRROR^63

FOURTH TEST

OLD TRAFFORD

& MOANS

Last week’s hero Leach turns villain as his

no-ball gives Aussie master a reprieve on way

to 211 as England run out of ideas, energy & hope

Emirates Old Trafford

AUSTRALIA FIRST INNINGS

M Harris lbw b Broad ...................... 13

D Warner c Bairstow b Broad .......... 0

M Labuschagne b Overton .............67

S Smith c Denly b Root .................. 211

T Head lbw b Broad......................... 19

M Wade c Root b Leach .................. 16

T Paine c Bairstow b Overton ........ 58

P Cummins c Stokes b Leach .......... 4

M Starc not out .............................. 54

N Lyon not out ............................... 26

Extras b8 lb14 w3 nb4 ............... 29

Total 8 wkts dec (126 overs) .. 497

Fall: 1-1; 2-28; 3-144; 4-183; 5-224;

6-369; 7-387; 8-438

Did Not Bat: J R Hazlewood.

Bowling: Broad 25-2-97-3; Archer

27-3-97-0; Stokes 10.5-0-66-0; Leach

26.1-3-83-2; Overton 28-3-85-2;

Denly 3-1-8-0; Root 6-0-39-1

ENGLAND FIRST INNINGS

R Burns not out .............................. 15

J Denly c Wade b Cummins ............. 4

C Overton not out ............................ 3

Extras nb1 ..................................... 1

Total 1 wkt (10 overs) ................ 23

Fall: 1-10

To Bat: J Root, B Stokes, J

Bairstow, J Buttler, J Archer,

S Broad, M Leach.

Bowling: Starc 2-2-0-0;

Hazlewood 4-1-3-0; Cummins

3-0-10-1; Lyon 1-0-10-0

DAY TWO SCOREBOARD

DROPPED IT

Stuart Broad is

furious after

Jason Roy spills a

catch in the slips

from Tim Payne

BY DEAN WILSON

Cricket Correspondent

@CricketMirror

TODAY

Sun and clouds,

a few showers

TOMORROW

Times of sun

and cloud

SUNDAY

Partial

sunshine

WEATHER

clear-the-air meetings at the end of day

one and start of day two as Australia

took a firm grip on the fourth Test.

But, with another Steve Smith double

hundred inspiring the Aussies to 497-8

and dropped catches in the field, the

harsh words from Bayliss (below) and

Root may have come too late.

“England have had a lot of huddles in

the last 24 hours,” said

former skipper

Michael Vaughan

(below).

“I believe there

were a few stern

words in the

dressing room.

“The finger was

pointed that the

attitude of a few

wasn’t right. The

management have

seen something,

particularity

yesterday, that is

not right.

“They are

trying to put that

right with a few

honest words.”

England are feeling the

effects of a busy summer, whether it is

Ben Stokes who left the field with a sore

shoulder or Jofra Archer (top, dropping

Smith) whose pace was down all match.

And, with Smith in the form of his life,

he was able to pick England off with ease

as they tried to unsettle him with more

short stuff that simply did not work.

He said: “I’ve faced a lot of short-

pitched bowling in my life and haven’t

had too many issues with it. If they are

bowling up there, they can’t hit me in

the pad or nick me off

and it softened the

ball up as well.

“It played into our

hands. It enabled the

ball to get soft pretty

quickly and allowed

us to score runs.

“You always need

some luck when you

score big runs. I’m

proud to score another double hundred

for Australia – the best players always

find a way to adapt.”

FLOPS ARE

BATTERED

FROM BACK PAGE

” said

ing the

ENGLAND only had themselves

to blame as Steve Smith carried

Australia up, up and away

towards the promised land of

Ashes immortality.

As a player Smith is already there

as an Ashes great. His third double-

hundred against England merely

reconfirmed his status.

But his team-mates will get to

join him sucking up the rarified air

reserved for bonafide legends and

away Ashes winners if they are able

to ram home the advantage he has

provided with a batting masterclass

at Old Trafford.

By the time Tim Paine called the

innings to a halt Australia had

racked up 497-8 and were toying

with an England side running on

empty and out of ideas.

And yet it should only have been

half as painful as it was had

England’s ineptitude not prevented

them from sending him back when

he had made 118 rather than the

211 he ended up with.

Headingley hero Jack Leach’s cult

status should have grown ever

greater and this time for

the thing he is in the

team to do, bowl and

take wickets. He

sent down a

looping, spinning

beauty to Smith,

tempted him into a

drive and took the

has ever managed beating Geoffrey

Boycott into second on five.

For all the personal records that

he is breaking though, it is his

impact on his team’s potential

success that is the biggest tick for

him especially considering what he

has come through.

Forget ’Sandpapergate’ and the

fair accusations of cheating levelled

at him since his return from his

year-long ban. This innings was

about a man who had been hit

forcefully in the neck and suffered a

serious concussion, and had to face

down his tormentor and find a way

to succeed.

Smith took everything Jofra

Archer had to throw at him as well

as the other England bowlers and

answered every question emphati-

cally and with an idiosyn-

cratic flourish to boot.

This knock was

about bravery, skill,

and character – the

qualities you would

expect to find at the

heart of an Ashes

battle.

Smith has shown

England exactly what

is required of their

batsmen over the next

day at least. And

despite losing Joe

Denly to an instinctive

short leg catch by Mat-

thew Wade to end the

day 23-1, the ball is

now in their court.

has been watching on. Only

Bangladesh have been worse.

Even if England had been pristine

in their performance in the field,

they would still be up against it

thanks to Smith.

He has only batted in four out of

the seven innings Australia have

had in this series and not only is he

the highest run-scorer on either side

he is the highest in the world this

year despite giving everyone else a

seven-month headstart.

His tally of 589 puts him on 2615

runs against England, putting him

sixth on the Aussie list of Ashes run-

scorers past Ricky Ponting and

Mark Taylor. And incredibly, in

scoring his sixth hundred in

England he has scored more tons on

these shores than any Englishman

edge that landed safely in Ben

Stokes’ hands at slip.

And yet incredibly from his gentle

four pace ‘run up’ the left-arm

spinner managed to overstep and

have the wicket erased from the re-

cords thanks to a no-ball.

It was an unforgivable moment

that added to the impression

England were far from their best in

thought and deed and were just

sloppy. They also put down another

two catches to reprieve Paine when

he had made nine and 49 of his

eventual 58.

Head coach Trevor Bayliss has

been a stickler for fielding and

catching since taking over in 2015

and yet for all his efforts in this

department they have been woeful,

putting down 176 chances while he