Ashes 2017-18: Australia chase history after Steve Smith century in Brisbane

On the 3rd day, Australia went into Lunch with 213/7 on the board after scoring only 48 runs in the first session and stood another 89 runs behind England’s first-innings total. The visitors were successful in restricting the Australian skipper Steve Smith with their weird tactics but what followed after Lunch took the game away from them. Smith, who completed his 21st century, the slowest of his hundreds, handed a 26-run first-innings lead to his team.

Pat Cummins, who made 42, shared 66 for the 8th wicket with his captain. The skipper’s partnerships of 23 and 30 runs with Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon helped the Aussies take an advantage and take a couple of wickets before England overcame the deficit. Hazlewood, who didn’t have a great first inning with the ball, dismissed Alastair Cook and James Vince to leave England 33/3 at stumps on the 3rd day, effectively 7/2.

As a result very much possible in the game, England will have to rewrite to defeat the Aussies. In the 59 Tests played at the Gabba before this game, only once a team won after conceding a first inning lead. Ironically, it was Australia in 1990, as they defeated England by conceding a 42-run first-innings. In 1960, West Indies came close to defeat the Aussies after conceding 52-run lead but the game ended in a tie.

Brisbane history backs Australia:

If Australia ends up winning the Test, it will be really tough to come back for England to retain the urn. In the last 40 years, Australia won a Test match on 26 occasions in Brisbane and ended up winning that series on 25 occasions. The only one they failed to win was a drawn 2-match Test series in 2010 against New Zealand. Check out: Ashes 2017-18: Brisbane’s impact on Australia’s home Test series results

An intriguing fact related to Ashes and Brisbane is that Smith’s hundred is only the 4th by a captain at Brisbane in the Ashes in the last 39 years. All the four have been scored in the last four series played in Australia. Australian skippers Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke scored hundreds at the Gabba in 2006/07 and 2013/14 while England captain Andrew Strauss did so in the 2nd innings in 2010/11.

Ponting and Clarke’s ton were in a winning cause and Australia won the Ashes 5-0 whitewashing the English side while Strauss scored a hundred in a match-saving effort and later led his team to a convincing 3-1 series victory. If the home side goes with the same momentum on the 4th day, it won’t be tough for them to repeat the history and bag the series with a one-sided result.