Australia finished the first day of the final test on 241/6 as an impressive fourth wicket stand between Travis Head and Cameron Green saved Australia from faltering under England’s pressure.
Joe Root won the toss and elected to field but was without James Anderson, Jos Buttler, Hasseb Hameed and Jonny Bairstow through injury and decided to remove Jack Leach from his attack.
England opted to replace those missing with Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson and debutant Sam Billings.
The changes appeared to work for Root’s side in the first hour, with David Warner falling in only the six over as he edged off the bowling of Robinson with the catch being well taken by Crawley at second slip to leave the Australians 3/1.
Only four runs later Usman Khawaja was also heading back to the changing room, unable to build after his back to back hundreds in Sydney as he edged to Root at first slip from the bowling of Stuart Broad.
Wickets didn’t stop falling there as Steve Smith joined Warner with a two-ball-duck, Robinson the aggressor once again as a good short ball caught the shoulder of Smith’s bat and flew to Crawley at slip.
Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any better for England, Marnus Labuschagne edged the ball towards the slip cordon, but Crawley’s attempted catch took the ball away from Root’s path and gave the number one ranked batsman another lifeline.
As he looked to be cashing in on his extra chance heading into the dinner break, Labuschagne momentarily lost his judgement falling over himself as Broad managed to strike his leg stump and give England the advantage into the break.
But the roles were completely reversed in the next session as Head and Green accelerated at the crease and took the game away from Root’s side once more.
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Head flew through the gears on the way to his second hundred of the series, his 101 only coming from 113 deliveries including 12 fours before he took one too many risks as he chipped a Chris Woakes’ delivery straight to Robinson at mid-off.
At the other end Green managed to return to some form as he reached 74 before pulling a short ball from Mark Wood straight into the hands of the busy Crawley at deep midwicket.
With Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc at the crease only two more overs could be bowled before the rain from earlier in the day returned leaving Pat Cummins’ side 241/6 from 59.3 overs at the end of day one.
With England fighting only for pride, the second day will start earlier at 3:30 am local time due to the early finish today and the visitors will hope for a repeat of this mornings’ performance.
