Australia v England, 3rd Test, Day 4 - 5 Talking Points

The Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) stadium is about to bid adieu to International cricket as only one more day is left. Australia is closing in on a mammoth win banking on the big scores from Mitchell Marsh a Steve Smith and an English comeback seems impossible. Rain halted play a couple of times on Day 4 and the English fans would be hoping for more of it on Day 5.

Junior Marsh failed to add anything more to his overnight total. Smith scored ten more runs and both these set batters from day 4 fell prey to Jimmy Anderson. Tim Paine and Patrick Cummins played a couple of wonderful cameos which took the game away from the English. They declared their innings at 662/9, with a massive first-innings lead of 259 runs.

Josh Hazlewood wasted no time to unsettle the top order as he sent Mark Stoneman and Alastair Cook back to the pavilion in a very short span of time. Joe Root didn’t last for a long time as well and in these tough hours, James Vince scored a crucial half-century. Vince fell just a little time before stumps and their heroes from the first innings Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow are in the crease currently. Here are the five talking points of the day.

1. The cracks that did the damage

It is so saddening that we won’t get to see those cracks on the Perth track bamboozling the batters. The biggest limelight hoggers of the day were those cracks, which firstly helped James Anderson culminate the Marsh-Smith stand. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc made the most of those cracks as well, which sets up things nicely for them to wrap the series up and say farewell to WACA on a grand note.

2. Mitchell Starc – You Beauty!

Hands down one of the balls of the series, if not, the year! Mitchell Starc bowled an absurd 90 miles an hour leg-cutter to James Vince, which stoned the youngster big time. Playing with the angle, Vince didn’t expect the ball to cut away from him and the ball knocked the off-stump. Legendary fast bowlers like Alan Donald and Wasim Akram, who bowled such deliveries on numerous occasions, took to Twitter to express their elation watching that peach from Starc.

3. Smith and Jr Marsh register career-best scores

Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh registered a 301-run partnership for the fifth wicket, which tormented the English self-esteem. Both these cricketers failed to add anything significant to their overnight totals, but they managed to finish with career-best scores. Marsh and Smith eventually got dismissed by Anderson, but not before scoring 181 and 239 runs respectively.

4. Cummins and Paine inflict more pain

After both the set batters fell in quick succession, Tim Paine and Patrick Cummins played some fearless cricket and this helped the Aussies post a total in excess of 650 and earn a lead in excess of 250. They both added 93 runs for the 8th wicket in 126 balls and this definitely blew the Three Lions out of the game. Paine remained unbeaten on 49 when they declared the innings whilst Cummins was dismissed for 41 off 63 balls.

5. Another low score for the batting maestro!

Many hail Alastair Cook as one of the greatest batsmen to have ever played the game. But this Ashes has turned out to be a disaster for the southpaw. Nathan Lyon’s statement of ending careers with this series seemed a bit hyperbolic. But that is what is happening in the series, with Cook’s career looking in grave danger. Josh Hazlewood took a brilliant reflex catch off his bowling which marked another failure for the 32-year-old in this all-important series.