Hazlewood smokes Poms in fiery spell
AUSTRALIA regained the Ashes in emphatic style after Josh Hazlewood farewelled the WACA Ground with a stint of outstanding fast bowling, for which the ground will forever be linked.
Hazlewood’s five-wicket haul allowed Australia to go 3-0 up in the Ashes series against England after an embarrassing wet pitch fiasco threatened to wipe out play on the final day.
Australia is now eyeing a second consecutive 5-0 whitewash of England on home soil, with doubt over the futures of several of the tourists — Kevin Pietersen said either Stuart Broad or Jimmy Anderson should be axed for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
Double-ton hero, skipper Steve Smith declared the victory “amazing — a moment that we’ve been looking forward to for a long time”.
“So much has gone into this preparation and Ashes series and the way we’ve gone about it has been spectacular,” Smith said.
“Four hundred in the first innings is a good total and to be able to come out and get a massive score and only have to bat once in this fixture (is incredible).
“The boys are going to celebrate really hard tonight I can assure you of that.”
On the second morning of the match England was in control at 4-368.
The final damage was a mammoth loss by an innings and 41 runs with a session to spare.
England coach Trevor Bayliss claimed the pitch had become “dangerous” overnight after moisture mysteriously seeped under the covers and left some soft and wet patches.
Test great Adam Gilchrist said the pitch had changed from the night before, and although umpire Chris Gaffaney agreed the surface had been “altered”, officials gave the green light for the match to proceed, prompting headshaking from England skipper Joe Root, who later gave full credit to the victors.
“It’s very difficult to take – fair play to Australia, they outplayed us in all three games and we’ve got to be better,” he said.
While a farcical finish for the WACA as an Ashes Test venue was avoided, the resumption of play after 28 overs lost did nothing to stop the controversy.
Hazlewood immediately exploited the very patch that ground staff had been so feverishly trying to dry and harden up with leaf blowers, and the ball appeared to stay low as it cleaned up Bairstow’s offstump.
An over later Hazlewood hit the giant crack that lay adjacent to the soft patches and the ball deviated 6.14 degrees from the point of impact and ended up a Steve Harmisonlike distance to the left of the first slip.
If England was asking questions about whether the pitch was dangerous or altered, then the two balls from Hazlewood wouldn’t have helped satisfy their complaints.
Nathan Lyon trapped bunny Moeen Ali plumb lbw when there was no turn to click things into gear. When Hazlewood managed to sneak an edge down the leg-side from a brave Dawid Malan (54) the fight was virtually over.