England draw Ashes tour opener due to ‘rusty start’

0 James Anderson: Four for 27. James Anderson finished England’s drawn Ashes tour opener against a Western Australia XI with a spring in his step and four hard-earned wickets.

He conceded nonetheless, after he and the remainder of the attack were put under pressure by unheralded batsmen Josh Philippe (88) and Clint Hinchliffe (75), that England made a rusty start on the second and final day at the WACA.

Thanks largely to Anderson’s four for 27 – all his wickets coming in impressive second and third spells – England restricted their second-string opponents to 338 all out in reply to 349 for six declared.

They can therefore head east to Adelaide early this morning satisfied that preparations for the first Test in Brisbane at the end of this month are slightly more advanced.

“I think you could probably see from the first session we were rusty… that was pretty obvious,” said Anderson.

“We didn’t get it right at all. [But] we’ve got two first-class games coming up that we want to be fit for, and get those cobwebs out.”

Anderson and his Test pace partner Stuart Broad both struggled to find lateral movement against 20-year-old opener Philippe, who chanced his arm and timed the ball beautifully for 16 fours off 92 balls.

“I didn’t have much rhythm first up,” added Anderson.

“It didn’t feel great, and there wasn’t much swing either with the new ball.

“But then I thought I got better as the day went on, and most of the bowlers would probably say the same… I thought we gradually got there in the end.” Mark Selby completed a successful title defence at the International Championship in China as he fended off Mark Allen in the final.

The world No 1 won 10-7 against Allen in Daqing for his 13th career ranking title, and collected a cheque for £150,000.

Englishman Selby pulled away from 3-2 to lead 8-3, and resisted a late fightback from Northern Ireland’s Allen, who had the only two centuries in the match, to take the trophy.