SYDNEY (AP) — England weathered multiple setbacks with skipper Ben Stokes limping from the field and opener Zak Crawley dismissed in the first over of the second innings before rallying to reach 80-1 at lunch Wednesday on Day 4 of the fifth and final Ashes test.
Opener Ben Duckett posted un unbeaten 40, his highest score of the series, but got a huge reprieve minutes before the interval when he fended a Michael Neser delivery and gloved it into the slips, where Cameron Green dropped a chance while diving in front of his skipper, Steve Smith.
Duckett, who was on 37 at the time, was beaten by the next ball but survived the session. Jacob Bethel was not out 28. England still needed 103 to make Australia bat again at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
After dismissing Australia for 567, giving the hosts a 183-run lead, England’s second innings started badly when Mitchell Starc struck in the first over to dismiss Crawley lbw on the fifth ball.
As he so often is, Starc was dangerous with his full, swinging deliveries early and Crawley, trying to leave, was trapped lbw without offering a shot to a ball that hit him high on the back pad. England reviewed the decision but the DRS technology upheld the umpire’s original decision and England was 4-1.
Duckett got some edges that didn’t carry to the wicketkeeper or slips early but settled into his best innings of the tour, hitting six boundaries in his 48-ball innings.
He and Bethell combined in a 76-run second-wicket stand that restored some confidence for the tourists.
The occasional ball was rearing up steeply off a length. Bethell was on 27 when he had to be assessed after a 140 kph (87 mph) short ball from Green glanced his batting helmet before skidding away to the boundary for four leg byes.
The follow-up ball was also a bouncer which the England batter ducked away from