England Pull Off A Miracle, Australia’s dreams are crushed
England has avoided an Ashes series whitewash at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) clinging on for dear life on Sunday to clinch a memorable draw in the fourth Test with just one wicket remaining.
The tourists survived 17 overs with only three wickets in hand, and the final 11 with just two, while James Anderson dead-batted a final over from Steve Smith to secure the draw in a breathtaking finish.
Pat Cummins appeared to put Australia on the path to victory with two wickets in the space of three balls in the 85th over. Scott Boland then dismissed England’s last recognised batter, Jonny Bairstow, seven overs later to leave bowlers Stuart Broad, Jack Leach and Anderson to fight for the draw.
Remarkably, the trio survived an all-out attack from Australia’s bowlers in the fading light to stumps, securing a gritty draw with its 10th wicket.
“England hold on,” Mark Howard said on Fox Cricket. “Australia can’t believe it — an incredible Test match that finishes after five days in the most dramatic of draws.
The result marks the third time in two summers that Australia has failed to bowl a team out on a day five wicket to secure a Test victory.
The draw will also open up Cummins to scrutiny for his decision to not declare until 5pm on day four.
When Australia already had a massive lead worth more than 380 runs, and rain was on the radar for day five.
In the end, seven overs were lost on Sunday due to rain, which could have proven to be the difference for Australia.
As Cummins took two wickets in the final session, Mark Waugh said on Fox Cricket: “I think he’ll be thinking about that declaration yesterday.
“He’ll be thinking, ‘Hmm, I think I went a bit long, I better win this game for us now otherwise I’ll be looking back thinking why did I keep batting?’”
But Cummins defended the timing of the declaration following the match, saying England could have pulled off a record-breaking chase had Australia set them a smaller target of 350.
“Firstly I think the weather played a bit of a part. Basically you can’t predict it at all.
“I wanted around 3.5 runs an over. I thought the wicket wasn’t playing too many tricks and that if they batted well 350 is achievable (on day five to win).
“So I wanted 110 overs which I thought is enough time we had the luxury after Usman and Green to have enough runs to attack for the entire 110 overs.”
Cummins added that the declaration was timed so that England had ‘a cherry to chase’ with an attainable total for victory.
“I don’t think we needed to hand it to them on a platter but for sure we were willing to risk them winning,” he said.
“Around 3.5 runs an over was similar to how the game was ticking along at that rate, about three runs an over.
“So I thought 110 overs or so at the rate still gave them a cherry to chase if they got a couple batters in.”
England had for so long put up a good fight, however, and was good value for the draw.
Opener Zak Crawley dug in for his 77 off 100 balls before he was out lbw to Cameron Green, Ben Stokes made a gritty 60 while Bairstow’s fine Test continued with a resilient 41 from 105 balls.
Earlier, Boland dismissed Haseeb Hameed (9) for Australia’s first wicket, and England captain Joe Root (24) for the third time in as many innings.
Nathan Lyon bowled Dawid Malan with a quicker ball and later removed danger man Stokes, who was the key figure of England’s resistance, to finish with 2-28.
Cummins trapped both Jos Buttler and Mark Wood in front with the second new ball for wickets six and seven.
Boland returned to the attack to have Bairstow caught at pad-bad with just over 10 overs remaining.
Boland finished with figures of 3-30 as his stunning entry into the Test arena became that bit sweeter.
Lyon was tossed the ball in the remaining six overs of the day as Australia put all but one fielder around the bat of Leach and Broad.
With umpires ruling that only spinners could finish the day due to bad light.
Smith was tossed the ball and remarkably drew the outside edge of Leach, leaving England with only one wicket in hand across the Test’s final two overs.
But despite probing around the bat, Lyon was unable to land the decisive blow on Broad from one end, and Smith couldn’t on anderson from the other as England secured the confidence-boosting result.
“It‘s a small step forward,” Root told reporters after the match.
“I think the fight and desire and character shown today and across the five days has (restored pride) in a small way.
“From the position we found ourselves in at certain points to sit here having drawn this - at the start today it was always going to take a good performance and I‘m really happy with the way the guys dug in and did that.”
The Ashes series score remains at 3-0 to Australia after four Tests.
The series resumes in Hobart on Friday January 14.