London: There is no such thing as a dead rubber in Test cricket. Australia, 3-0 up, having dominated the game, had their dreams of a whitewash shattered as England finally salvaged something from the wreck of this Ashes tour with Jack Leach, Stuart Broad and James Anderson surviving 64 balls under floodlights to secure a thrilling draw at the SCG.
Leach and Broad faced 52 of them, most of which were against Pat Cummins, Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc before bad light forced Australia to turn to Steve Smith and he almost became a hero with the ball. He prized out Leach, his first Test scalp since 2016, caught at slip after England’s spinner had battled manfully for 34 balls without error.
It left Broad and Anderson to survive six balls each from Nathan Lyon and Smith respectively and England’s veterans held on. It was only the second time in Ashes history a team had saved a game nine-down in the fourth innings, the first being the famous 2005 draw at Manchester. High-quality half-centuries from Zak Crawley and Ben Stokes and a brave 105-ball 41 from Jonny Bairstow had earlier put England in a position to save the Test.
However, Australia will rue a raft of errors that have seen a chance at an Ashes whitewash literally slip through their fingers. They dropped three catches and missed a run out on the final day. Scott Boland bowled magnificently to take 3 for 30 while Cummins almost turned the game with two wickets in three balls.
But questions will be asked of the delayed declaration yesterday, as Australia failed for the second year in a row to bowl a side out on the final day the SCG wiith Lyon and Starc taking just two wickets between them.
Thanks largely to the excellent work of Crawley and Stokes, England were just three down at lunch, four down at tea and 5 for 218 with just 16 overs remaining and Bairstow and Jos Buttler at the crease facing the second new ball before the game took a thrilling twist. Cummins delivered two huge blows in three balls with two extraordinary inswingers to put Australia on the brink of victory.
Buttler, batting bravely with a broken finger that will force him out of the final Test, copped a vicious inswinger from Cummins. He over-balanced and hit his boot with his bat.
The bat swivelled as a result at the precise moment the ball sneaked through and thundered into the back pad. Umpire Paul Reiffel gave it not out but Cummins reviewed and it was smashing middle and leg. Two balls later, Cummins delivered a searing inswinging yorker that hit Mark Wood flush on the front foot.
Reiffel gave it out immediately and Wood knew his fate as he hobbled to his feet after crumpling over when he was struck. He reviewed but it was fruitless. Bairstow then nicked Starc to second slip but the normally reliable Smith grassed the chance low to his right.
Smith redeemed himself not long after, insisting Cummins place a silly mid-off for Boland in addition to the short leg. Boland’s belligerent length produced some nip off the seam, caught Bairstow’s inside edge and ricocheted onto pad before ballooning up to Labuschagne leaving Australia just two scalps to take in more than 10 overs.
But Leach and Broad were magnificent. As Australia failed to extract any real venom from the pitch, they defended their off stump with their lives. Broad was literally put on his backside by a cracking Cummins bouncer. But he kept his wits about him and his gloves out of the way.
Lyon too couldn’t break through having earlier bowled two beauties to dismiss Dawid Malan and Stokes.