2:57 Catch up with the action from the third day of the fourth Ashes Test between England and Australia at Old Trafford
Root (71) – on the ground where he struck a career-best 254 against Pakistan three years ago and averages 99.16 – and Burns (81) shared a third-wicket stand of 141, only for Hazlewood (4-48) to dismiss them both and Jason Roy (22) as England closed a rain-shortened day on 200-5, 297 runs behind Australia and needing a further 98 to avoid the follow on.
Stats of the Day
0:30 Pat Cummins can't believe it as Root edges between Tim Paine and David Warner
“We’ve seen Warner take a couple to his left in the series but that has to be the wicketkeeper’s catch,” said Mike Atherton. “It wasn’t as though the ‘keeper was wrong-footed either. If anything Paine took half-a-step to his right so he was gong the right way but then he opted not to go at all.”
Talking Point
How important are maidens? England’s bowlers mustered just 12 as Australia rolled along at near-enough four-runs-an-over in their first innings – the home side unable to maintain consistent pressure in a way that Australia’s attack did on day three.
The tourists’ three quick bowlers hit the pitch hard consistently and refused to let Joe Root and Rory Burns score freely in their resilient century stand – the pressure eventually telling as Hazlewood followed up another impressive Pat Cummins display by bagging 3-16 in one spell.
The stats show that while Australia joined up the dots once in every five overs, England bowled a maiden once every 10. With England needing 98 more to avoid the follow-on, that build-up of pressure might just prove telling.
Tweets of the Day
Isa Guha: “Joe Root has talked about using Ben Stokes’ knock as the blueprint for how they should bat, giving themselves some time in the middle to see what it is doing – and that’s exactly what they do have, plenty of time left in this Test.”
England vs Australia
September 7, 2019, 10:00am
Live on
Get Sky Sports Get a Sky Sports pass
England fast bowling coach Chris Silverwood: “We’ve got to be careful with Jofra – he’s playing his third Test match. We’ve got to cut him a little bit of flak – he’s still finding his way into international cricket. But he’s put the workload in and we’ve seen what he’s capable of but he’s not going to do it every day.”
Watch day four of the fourth Ashes Test live on Sky Sports The Ashes and Sky Sports Main Event from 10am on Saturday.
You can also follow over-by-over commentary and in-play clips on our rolling blog on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app.
Sourse: skysports.com
