Australia crush England by nine-wickets take 1-0 lead in the 5 test ashes series at Gabba stadium in Brisbane – by Sunil Thenabadu (sports editor – eLanka)
Nathan Lyon finally claimed his 400th Test wicket as another catastrophic collapse from the visitors handed the hosts a comfortable win
- Chief Scores
Australia 425 and 1 for 20 (Harris 9*, Robinson 1-13) beat England 147 and 297 (Root 89, Malan 82, Lyon 4-91) by nine wickets
Play was curtailed for a few minutes owing to a power failure at Gabba and England went down with it as Nathan Lyon finally claimed his 400th Test wicket who had been stuck on 399 wickets for nearly an year to be precise 326 days.Lyon was the third Australian behind Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath was the 17th in all time bowlers to this feat. Australia claimed a one-nil series lead after another catastrophic fall which even the most ardent Australian fan would not have expected. thereby the visitors offered the hosts a secure nine-wicket win.
Lyon took four wickets on the fourth morning, including that of Dawid Malan’s a bat pad catch for his 400th to start the deterioration preceding to the new ball being taken, while Cameron Green claimed the cherished scalp of skipper Joe Root the most prolific scorer this year for 89 as England lost 8 for 74 to be bowled out for 297 and set Australia just 20 runs to win which they won for the loss of Carey who opened instead of slightly injured Warner who did not field in England’s second innings having bruised ribs after been struck during his innings of 94 which has raised whether he would take the field in the second test at Adelaide a day and night test in four days’ time,
Lyon finally got him a similar manner for wicket 400 with Malan deceived in flight as he skipped down to the wrong length. He groped in defence only to get a thick inside edge onto pad with Labuschagne claiming the chance at a well-placed silly mid-off. The relief for Lyon and the Australians was palpable as he celebrated becoming the 17th Test bowler to claim 400 wickets, and just the third Australian behind Shane Warne aCameron Green roars in celebration after dismissing Joe Root CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images
But the biggest wicket of the morning came from the unlikeliest source. Green bowled a superb spell with a 70-over old ball to fill a hole for his captain Pat Cummins while Australia’s thoroughbred quicks were held back for the new ball. Green banged away at a good length at 140kph/87mph for several overs and finally found a hint of outswing, luring Root into a false prod outside off stump and catching his outside edge. Root fell 11 short of his 7th century of 2021 and is still yet to register three figures in Australia.
Lyon then picked up Ollie Pope, whose struggles against spin continue. He tried to cut a ball that bounced and spun back from outside off and succeeded in only gloving it to slip.
The game went dark for a period of five overs after Australia took the new ball as a power outage at the Gabba saw the entire television feed go down. Josh Hazlewood returned to the bowling crease after questions were raised about his fitness having only been used for eight overs out of 70 on the third day, but only those at the ground could see it.
Television pictures were restored just in time for Cummins to pick up Stokes for the second time in the match. Stokes was cleared up again by Cummins, this time from over the wicket, as he closed the bat face to a ball that leapt from a length. Green held the leading edge at gully with ease.
Jos Buttler was unable to generate the same counter-assault he posed in the first innings, nudging timidly wide of his off stump at Hazlewood to give Carey his seventh catch of the match. Lyon and Green cleaned up the tail handing Lyon a well-justified four-wicket haul after labouring without incentive on day three, while Carey claimed a record-shattering eighth catch to end the innings in a faultless exhibit behind the stumps. It is the most catches on Test debut by a wicketkeeper, also equalled the -most dismissals ,Travis Head was the unanimously adjudicated as the “player of the match’
