Ashes Cricket 2023: Australia deny England on day four, make mockery of social media trolls

Australia prayed for rain – and then denied England the old-fashioned way, through grit and graft, in a perfect way to shut down an avalanche of social media criticism.

Despite what some of the more unhinged types on social media may have tweeted in the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Australian cricket team is not full of idiots.

How do we know this is the case?

Because Josh Hazlewood gave an entirely sincere, frank and non-idiotic response when asked after play on day three whether Australia would like to see some rain in Manchester over the weekend, as had been forecast.

The hyper-media-trained dull robot answer to this question would have been to talk about how they always want to play, never want to be saved by the rain and were up for the challenge.

But this would have been a lie. Of course, the Aussies wanted rain.

Rain hit the fourth Test on Saturday – helping push the contest to a fifth day. Picture: AFP

Faced with the dire match situation they were in, they would have been mad not to have wanted it, for the same reasons that most of you reading this wanted it.

When an Ashes Test is slipping away and there is a chance for it to be salvaged, any help is appreciated. “Long to rain over us” was the mindset of anyone keen to keep the urn – proverbially – in Australian hands.

It is why the ability of Mitch Marsh and Marnus Labuschagne to deny England for two hours on Saturday afternoon deserves immense credit.

It would have been only human for Marsh and Labuschagne to fall into the trap of allowing the rain to do the heavy lifting. And in many respects, it did, because it is highly doubtful this match would have stretched into a fifth day if no play had been lost.

Marnus Labuschagne played one of the best knocks of his career to deny England on day four. Picture: Getty

When there are murmurings that the entire day will be cancelled, the mind naturally starts preparing for that eventuality. To then be called into action with a win all but impossible was a poisoned chalice.

Before this Test, Labuschagne had gone 16 Test innings for just one half-century.

For him to summon his best when he was Australia’s last top order batter, knowing a crushing innings defeat was on the cards should he fall, made this perhaps Labuschagne’s most mature and important knock yet, and there are some good ones to choose from.

While the deck was not overly treacherous there was enough variable bounce to cause concern. In any case the match conditions made this perilous terrain.

England captain Ben Stokes and his revived bowling attack struggled to have the desired impact. Picture: Getty

Those who had pointed to Labuschagne’s home v away record disparity can zip their lips now. He can beat up on the West Indies at home, as he should, but he can also grind his way through a strong and desperate England attack. That Labuschagne remains unbowed against Mark Wood – whose brutal pace has turbocharged the home side’s bowling – deserves special mention. It was fitting reward too for the uber-diligent Labuschagne, who was the lone Australian batter in the Manchester nets for a period on Sunday.

Then there is Marsh, who was plopped into the middle of a caustic Ashes series on a diet of practically no red-ball cricket and produced a muscular run-a-ball century at Leeds. That was an outstanding and memorable innings, and yet on Saturday, he might have played just as well, albeit differently.

Allrounders Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh steered Australia safely to stumps. Picture: Getty

By stumps on day four Marsh had absorbed 107 balls for 31. To bat at Headingley with the impunity of a man unburdened and whose chance may never have come again was one thing. To dig in, after an early rush of blood against Chris Woakes, as he tried to help save a match was another, but just as impressive.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be necessarily a massively long day, but we have to be on for that two-hour stint that we did get,” Labuschagne said.

Australia’s job was not yet done, and as Labuschagne himself suggested, his century will be judged through the prism of this match’s eventual result. But the Aussies at least themselves a fighting chance.

They did a lot wrong across the first three days of the Test, but one of the key reasons this side became World Test Champions last month – a fact worth considering for those calling for Pat Cummins to resign – is an ability to maturely work its way back from tough spots mid-match and mid-series, traits shown at Lahore, Indore and Edgbaston over the past 18 months.