Australia poised to take 1-0 Ashes cricket series lead in Brisbane

Australia are on the cusp of a 1-0 lead in the Ashes, having cruised to 114-0 at stumps on day four of the series opener after being set a target of 170 in Brisbane.

David Warner and Cameron Bancroft’s productive and positive start to the run chase, coming a day after Steve Smith turned the match on its head with a gamechanging knock of 141 not out, means all the hard work is done for the hosts.

Warner is 60 not out, while Bancroft is on 51. It has been almost four years since Australia enjoyed an opening stand of over 100 runs in the fourth innings of a test. England fought hard at various junctures of a topsy-turvy first test but they were ground into submission at the Gabba on Sunday. It started with Nathan Lyon claiming three key wickets, including Tim Paine’s contentious stumping of Moeen Ali, then gathered momentum when Mitchell Starc clinically cleaned up the tail.

New Zealand umpire Chris Gaffaney was in the hot seat in the stand as third umpire when he ruled Moeen out by the slimmest of margins.

A shocking collapse of 4-10, the low point of which was JonnyBairstow steering a short ball from Starc to third man in what should have been the final over of the post-lunch session, ended England’s second innings of 195.

Australia were asked to achieve the highest successful run-chase in a Gabba test since 1982.

Quick wickets would have made things interesting and Australia’s openers knew it, starting cautiously before they sensed English heads dropping and started to score with ease.

Bancroft enhanced his stoic reputation, staring down Jimmy Anderson after the frustrated paceman struck the batsman’s thigh with a shy at the stumps. Moeen, restricted by a cut finger, was nowhere near as effective as fellow offspinner Lyon.

Lyon niggled the visitors publicly last week in the forthright fashion you would expect more from a leader of a pace attack. Throughout the first test he bowled like Australia’s spearhead; nobody from either side troubled batsmen quite so consistently.

Lyon dismissed left-handers Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan in near-identical fashion on Sunday morning, with Smith gleefully accepting two of his four catches of the innings. Moeen, Bairstow and Joe Root scored a combined 133 runs but couldn’t go on with it.