England’s Ashes bid falls short
IT was always a tough ask, and England certainly gave it their all on a drama-filled final day at Emirates Old Trafford, but the urn will return to Australia.
A 185-run defeat, confirmed in the final hour of the final day in front of a full house, means Joe Root’s men head to the last Test at The Oval 2-1 down, meaning at worst Australia will draw the series and so retain the Ashes.
England lost just four wickets in the opening two sessions. Jason Roy and Joe Denly saw off the first hour comfortably, before Pat Cummins produced a beauty to knock over Roy’s off stump. And the Aussies were soon celebrating again when Headingley hero Ben Stokes walked having got the faintest of inside edges onto a Cummins delivery, not even waiting for the umpire’s finger to be raised.
Denly fell soon after lunch for a battling 53 as Nathan Lyon found some turn and bounce.
But Lancashire’s Buttler – on his 29th birthday – dug in, surviving a fearsome spell from Cummins. And while Jonny Bairstow was with him, the belief increased. But when the Yorkshireman was trapped lbw by Mitchell Starc for 25, England had a session and a half to survive with just Buttler and the tail left.
But boy did the tail wag. Even after a change of ball, which the Aussie began to reverse swing, Overton and Buttler stood firm to tea. It left England 36 overs to survive. And with the crowd roaring every block, leave and edge, the Aussies were looking rattled.
But then came the clincher. Buttler (34) left a Josh Hazelwood delivery only to hear the death rattle of the ball hitting his stumps as the 21-over stand came to an end.
When Lyon trapped Jofra Archer lbw, the game looked up. But Leach knows how to frustrate the Aussies – and he did it again.
He and Overton shared 14 overs and took the game into the last hour, which is when Aussie skipper Tim Paine called for the part-time leg spin of Manus Labuschagne. It seemed like a panic call, instead it was genius as Leach gloved him to the waiting Matthew Wade at short leg to end Leach’s 51-ball vigil.