Ashes: Todd Murphy, Pat Cummins give Australia slim lead after Steve Smith-Jonny Bairstow drama
Todd Murphy and Pat Cummins combined to give the visitors a slim lead, after run-out controversy helped Australia’s cause.
An audacious Todd Murphy combined with his captain Pat Cummins to give Australia a slight lead on the first innings of what was a slightly disappointing and controversial day for the visitors and their hosts.
The Australians were all out for 295 – a first innings lead of 12 runs at the end of the second day.
The innings finished when Cummins (38) was cleverly caught on the ropes by his opposite number, Ben Stokes, who was forced to throw the ball up as he back-pedalled out of play but was quick enough to get back and complete the catch.
Cummins had dug deep to put on 54 with Steve Smith (71) and 49 with Murphy (34) to rescue his side from what had been a dire position.
England probably had the advantage with Australia batting last, but do not have Moeen Ali and did have to bowl 50 more overs to remove the opposition.
“Overall I think we can be a little disappointed,” Smith said. “I think we’ve probably had the better of the conditions to bat, we won the toss, we bowled them out and overnight it was 1-60 and we were going along nicely.”
England’s bowlers stuck to their task, however, and would not let their opponents find any breathing space.
While Smith was disappointed, it could have been much, much worse.
Early in the third session they were preparing to read the last rites for Australian’s chances in the Test match and Steve Smith’s innings when the batter tapped on the coffin lid.
Smith wasn’t done, indeed he was feeling a whole lot better than he had been just one minute before.
Cue another controversy with Jonny Bairstow, which has England fans up in arms and Australia back from the brink of significant first-innings deficit.
Australia was still 90 runs behind early in the third session when Smith looked to be run out when the keeper broke the stumps after receiving a good throw from England’s substitute fielder, George Ealham (son of Mark).
The last recognised Australian remaining batsman only needed to see the replay once to realise he was in trouble and he turned with a resigned shrug of the shoulders toward the rooms, the team 8-193 and well shy of England’s first innings 283.
The apparent dismissal capped off a dismal day that had seen Australia patient, but becalmed in the first session and on the slide in the second.
Smith, however, halted his exit half way back to the dressing rooms as replays indicated there might still be the faintest pulse.
After an eternity of freeze-frames and rewinds, third umpire Nitin Menon appeared to rule that the bail was not completely dislodged while the diving Smith was a centimetre out of his ground and separation was only completed when he was a centimetre to the good of it.
Split-screen analysis by the Sky sports team revealed after play appeared to indicate, however, that the umpire may have got it wrong, but even Stuart Broad thought it “fair enough”.
A side-on shot shows the stump clearly disconnected from the bails.
That will be enough evidence to further fuel the rage of England supporters who believe they have been so hard-done-by in this series, and to this day boo Alex Carey every time he appears on the field, due to the stumping of Bairstow at Lord’s.
Umpires do not as a rule explain their decision-making, but there is also the possibility Bairstow was adjudged to have made contact with the stumps and dislodged the bail before taking the ball and that the second bail was not dislodged until Smith was safe.
Whatever the reasoning, the reprieve allowed Smith and Pat Cummins to add 46 critical runs and give the innings some respectability.
Australia looked to set themselves up in the morning with a patient approach that saw the England bowlers brought on for repeated spells, but somehow they choked on their own caution.
There was a 38-ball period where neither batter scored. Usman Khawaja or Marnus Labuschagne just could find a way to rotate the strike.
It all came unstuck in the 43rd over when Labuschagne was dismissed for 9 from 82 deliveries.
Khawaja scored 21 in the two-hour session and his side just 54, but he could not go on with it after the break.
It took a brilliant catch from Joe Root to hold on to the outside edge to give Mark Wood Labuschagne’s wicket, but it was Khawaja that Stuart Broad applauded for the dismissal.
Two curious events preceded the Australian No.3’s exit. Khawaja appeared to turn his back when his partner was looking for a run off the first delivery of the over. And Broad got into his head further by swapping the bails at the batter’s end.
Labuschagne is fanatically fastidious and has a habit of touching the bail most overs – he appeared to laugh when Broad played his little trick – but was out the next delivery.
Coincidence? We’ll never know.
Khawaja, who has made history as the only opener to face more than a 1000 balls in an English Ashes, was dismissed after the break for 47 from 157 deliveries. Broad, of course, was the bowler who trapped him in front in the first over of the session.
Things went to pieces from there.
Travis Head (4) lasted just five deliveries before being caught behind off Broad’s bowling. Mitch Marsh came and went for 16 but not before hitting an outstanding six toward the Vauxhall end from the same bowler.
Carey (10) could do nothing to halt England’s momentum and when Starc (7) was rolled by Chris Woakes, Australia had lost 6-94 and were still 100 runs behind England’s first innings score.
The Smith reprieve was eventually out for 71, Bairstow hanging on to a top edge that swirled high and deep behind him from the bowling of Woakes.
Todd Murphy joined Cummins with the new ball 10 overs old but batted with judicious flair, three times flicking Mark Wood over the fine legs head for sixes – the last of them almost landing in the upper deck.
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