Half-century for Crawley

Kent’s Zak Crawley topscored in England’s second innings as they clung on to draw the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney on Sunday.

Left to bat out the final day, which England started on 30-0, Crawley made a fluent 77 in the morning session. The 23-year-old opener’s innings included 13 fours and was his fifth Test halfcentury.

But by the time Crawley was trapped lbw by a Cameron Green yorker, fellow opener Haseeb Hameed and Dawid Malan had been dismissed, with Joe Root’s side 122-3 at lunch. Such was Crawley’s fluency, he dominated England’s scoring.

The tourists were 13 balls from safety when Jack Leach edged Steve Smith behind, leaving it to Stuart Broad and James Anderson to guide England home.

With the light fading and every Australian fielder around the bat, Broad and Anderson blocked out Smith and Nathan Lyon to secure a hard-fought draw, closing on 270-9 to end Australian hopes of a series whitewash. Injury-hit England will be without wicketkeeper Jos Buttler for the final Ashes Test in Hobart after he suffered a finger injury in the fourth Test. Kent skipper Sam Billings has been added to the squad and is expected to come in for his Test debut on Friday.

■ Kent have signed a South African all-rounder on an allformat deal for the next two years.

George Linde, 30, has a fair amount of pedigree having represented his country in every format.

He took four wickets and scored 54 runs across two innings on his Test debut against India in

2019, despite South Africa falling to a heavy defeat at Ranchi, before recording his current Test-best figures of 5-64 against Pakistan in Rawalpindi last February. Linde said: “This is an exciting opportunity for me to play county cricket for the first time in my career.

“I’m really looking forward to wearing the Kent shirt with pride and (looking) to make my own mark on this club’s history.”

Named South Africa’s Domestic Four-Day Cricketer of the Year at the Cricket South Africa Awards in July, the left-hand batter and leftarm spin bowler has also played a total of 100 T20 matches during his career. In those matches, he has scored 904 runs at a strike rate of 138.43 and taken 105 wickets at 22.93.