Australia's double strike changes first Test complexion

A 20-minute burst between heavy summer showers dramatically recast the first Test narrative as England's top-order wobbled in the face of some spirited Australia bowling on a rain-ruined day three.

Despite the best efforts of Edgbaston ground staff, play was called off at 6:00pm with almost 50 overs lost following a torrential downpour two hours earlier, with England 2-28 and 35 runs ahead after Usman Khawaja's epic 141 had all-but erased the first-innings differential.

England resume on day four with unbeaten pair Ollie Pope and Joe Root both yet to score.

Having banked a notional seven-run first-innings lead by bouncing out Australia's tailenders in the first session, England again slipped into sports-drive mode as openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett rattled on 26 without loss from almost seven overs before the first rain burst hit.

But when play resumed after an hour-and-15-minute hiatus, an entirely different complexion came over the Ashes opener and it was not only because of the apocalyptic storm clouds that loomed towards Edgbaston from the south.

In the space of 28 deliveries sent down before those brooding black clouds dumped their payload, Australia pace pair Pat Cummins and Scott Boland sent back both openers and had first-innings century maker Joe Root in such discomfort he fairly bolted for the sheds at the first hint of rain.

Cummins' bowling statistics might show credit for the first wicket, but it was almost entirely due to the freakish catching ability of Cameron Green who hauled in another stunning low grab that turned a half chance into a critical breakthrough.

In stark contrast to England's behind-the-wicket fielding that saw three chances missed, Green repeated his heroics of the World Test Championship Final a week ago to lunge low to his left and again remove a rival opener.

While it was Shubman Gill at The Oval, prompting an ill-advised social media response from the India batter that cost him his WTC Final match fee, today's snare came off Duckett who was similarly surprised and waited around for third-umpire confirmation the catch was fair.

Unlike the controversy of a week earlier, television clearly showed the ball sticking into Green's left claw and his fingers cradled underneath it before his hand brushed the ground.

 

With the artificial light providing the day's only illumination as weather closed in, and with ground staff set in sprint crouches awaiting the signal to go, Boland struck three deliveries later when Crawley edged to Alex Carey.

The flint-dry Edgbaston pitch had begun to exhibit variable bounce albeit with continued sluggish pace, and Crawley attempted to counter that by taking a step out of his crease as Boland delivered.

But it proved counter-productive, as he was left marginally off balance while prodding at a ball that nipped away, and he stood in apparent disbelief while the Australian players celebrated a second scalp without a run being added.

Root, who was unbeaten on 118 when skipper Ben Stokes' surprise declaration came late on the first day, embodied the 'Bazball' ethos as he surged onto the ground in circumstances where most Test batters would slowly saunter in the hope the opposition's momentum might be quelled by rain.

He also adopted Crawley's mode of leaving his crease to try and break up Boland's length and get himself outside off stump, but was instead pinned twice on the pads by balls that jagged in off the surface, prompting a couple of counsels of war from which Australia opted not to review.

From the final delivery of Boland's pinpoint over, the former England captain stole a leg bye which meant he was in Cummins' sights as the rain rumbled ever closer.

There was a distinct whiff of the late-day battle between the pair at Old Trafford four years ago when Cummins knocked back Root's off stump first ball in similarly foreboding conditions, but he survived the 2023 equivalent with a hurried defensive stroke.

Next ball, he pushed forward with a half-hearted drive and Australia's slips fielders erupted in unison, convincing Cummins it was worth a review after umpire Ahsan Raza denied the appeal.

Knowing it might be their final shout of a day destined to be foreshortened, Australia rolled the dice but replays confirmed no contact between bat and ball to the delight of the Edgbaston crowd who were preparing to seek shelter on higher ground.

Root then negotiated one more ball to which he offered no shot before the clouds unleashed, and even though the giant video screen began replaying England's 2019 Headingley triumph to try and brighten proceedings, the scoreboard confirmed through the gloom that mini-session had brought 2-2 from 22 balls.

Earlier the visitors were able push past 350 – the first time Australia have reached that mark in the 28 Tests that David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith have played together since the 2019 Ashes without at least one of them contributing 50 – which was ostensibly thanks to Khawaja's sublime knock.

Having endured almost eight hours at the crease, and faced more balls (321) than any Australia opener since Matthew Elliott's 199 off 351 at Headingley in 1997, it was going to take something remarkable to prise out the left-hander.

Khawaja had spoken on Saturday evening about his enjoyment for the way England play in the ultra-attacking Stokes era, and the challenge it presents to constantly adapt to the funky fields and ever-shifting bowling plans.

But his delight might be tempered after the tactics Stokes unveiled in the morning session that immediately preceded his dismissal.

Having set a field of four catchers in a cordon stretching from short mid-on to forward square leg, thereby signalling Ollie Robinson would try to have Khawaja clip a catch off his pads, Stokes then went further and deployed the catching ring either side of the pitch for the next ball.

It was the sort of field most often seen in primary school cricket, for kiddies unable to hit the ball any distance with a rudimentary bat swing, and whether it affected Khawaja's approach only the game's best-credentialed contemporary opener will know.

But instead of targeting the pads, Robinson  went the double bluff and speared in a yorker that Khawaja tried to squeeze into the yawning gap behind point as he stepped away to leg side, only to have his stumps scattered.

It signalled a seismic shift in the match with Australia seemingly headed for a first-innings lead, only to lose their final four wickets for 14 in three-and-a-half overs and surrender a slender advantage to their rivals.

Before then, events on day three had begun pretty much as they ended the previous evening, with England's bowlers creating an opportunity only to see it squandered.

Today's culprit was also the same as day two's, with 'keeper Jonny Bairstow – who muffed a stumping and missed a catch at crucial times on Saturday – adding a third blemish to his sheet from the day's second delivery.

This time it was James Anderson, wicketless through the first 94 overs of Australia's innings, who felt the pain having found the edge of Carey's flashing bat with a ball that zipped into the left-hander only for the chance to slap into Bairstow's right glove and drop immediately out.

Carey had been reprieved on 26 and survived a half-chance late on Saturday, and might have felt fortune was smiling upon him through the wispy cloud and equally high humidity that gave Birmingham more of a Brisbane feel.

Certainly the manner in which he and Khawaja went after spinner Moeen Ali, who had been enlisted to partner Anderson at the resumption, suggested the batting pair felt it was their time.

Moeen had begun his 36th birthday lighter in pocket after being fined 25 per cent of his match fee for applying a banned drying agent to his bowling hand late on day two, and nursing a painful cut on his spinning finger caused by a sizeable workload in his first red-ball match for almost two years.

Khawaja drilled the first ball of his second over beyond the straight boundary for six, landing it on the bitumen concourse in front of the sight screen knocking the ball so badly out of shape it immediately required changing, the third one to be deemed unsatisfactory in less than 100 overs.

Carey then took the attack to Anderson, collecting consecutive boundaries behind point and a lofted chip-drive through mid-wicket before the game's most successful seamer added wicket number 686 to his career tally.

Bowling from around the wicket, the 40-year-old speared a ball into the in-form left-hander and expertly exploited the gap between bat and pad to clip the top of middle stump.

The 118-run stand between Carey and Khawaja was just the second century partnership Australia has enjoyed for the sixth-wicket in Ashes contests stretching back to 2013-14, with the other coming between ex-skipper Tim Paine and Steve Smith at Old Trafford four years ago.

Despite the breakthrough, Stokes persisted with Moeen whose inability to grip the ball with surety saw him send down a couple of waist-high full tosses, the second of which Cummins duly deposited into the terrace at deep midwicket.

But after 45 minutes, Moeen retreated to the dressing rooms to receive treatment on his damaged digit and Stokes resorted to his pace bowlers, before reverting to a plan that brought a hasty end to Australia's innings and a first-innings lead to his team.

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There were occasions when Stokes appeared in danger of outsmarting himself, such as taking the catcher away from short leg and re-positioning him to conventional square alongside a deeper leg gully only for Cummins to parry a catch that landed exactly where the fielder had previously been.

However, the decision to delve into the playbook of his native New Zealand and adopt a short-ball strategy at Australia's tail – with Stuart Broad cast in the role of Neil Wagner on stilts – proved spectacularly successful.

While it wasn't the bouncer that brought about Khawaja's demise, it did for the final three Australia batters to complete a lower-order collapse that has become worryingly regular for Cummins' team.

Nathan Lyon was first to succumb, signalling from the second ball he faced he was going to swing at anything that landed in the bowler's half of the pitch and ultimately hitting the fifth pull shot he attempted down the throat of deep square leg.

An over later, Scott Boland fell for a five-ball duck when he stood tall against a throat ball delivered by Broad and patted a gentle catch to silly mid-off.

And finally Cummins, who had worn a stinging blow to the left side of his chest in unsuccessfully trying to evade a Broad bouncer that also missed the protective padding under the skipper's shirt, decided counter-attack was a better option than defence.

Having clubbed Broad for a six that scattered ground staff gathering at deep midwicket for the imminent change of innings, he attempted a repeat of the stroke to the first ball of Robinson's next over and holed out to his rival captain running in from the square leg fence.

Australia added 1-48 from the nine overs of seam and spin they faced at day's start, which became 4-26 from 13.1 overs of pure pace after Stokes revamped his plans in the second half of the day's opening session.

Which begs the question why it took as long as it did to revert to his bowling strength as Australia whittled away England's first-innings advantage against Moeen's modest spin.

First Test: Friday June 16-Tuesday June 20, Edgbaston

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood