Stokes, Bairstow stall Australia in wicketless session

England still trail Australia by 281 runs © AFP
Ben Stokes (52) and Jonny Bairstow (45) played out a wicketless session to carry England to 135 for 4 at Tea on Day 3 of the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney. The pair made 99 runs in the session and helped England stage a recovery after going into the lunch break at 36 for 4.

England had to endure a tough phase where they played out 70 consecutive dot balls across two sessions as Australia continued to mount the pressure. In the 53 dot balls before the lunch break, they lost three wickets to find themselves wobbling once again. However, the second session turned out to be pretty mundane.

The only drama that happened was on the first ball of the 30th over when a delivery from Cameron Green from round the wicket clipped the off stump but the bails stayed put. Bizarrely, Stokes was given out and forced to take the review. The replays showed that the left-hander had missed the ball by quite some distance and the decision was reversed.

cricket.com.aucricket.com.au
@CricketcomauFollowUNBELIEVABLE #Ashes
07 Jan 2022
5138 905
As the duo walked back unbeaten, they were given a mouthful by a few fans and both stopped to give back their share as well. The fans were evicted post the exchange.

Earlier in the day, after the rain delay, the signs of England struggle were on display pretty early on. On the first ball of the third over, Haseeb Hameed was dropped by Alex Carey against Mitchell Starc. The pacer, however, didn't take long to knock out the opener - for 6 - as Hameed missed a straight one while playing the drive.

The next to go was Zak Crawley, undone by an exceptional delivery from Boland. Crawley wanted to drive down the ground and the ball nipped in to beat the outside edge and crashed into the off stump. At 36 for 2, the top order had left the onus once again to the England captain. On the day though, Root failed.

Root had been flirting with deliveries outside the off stump and ended up losing his wicket in that fashion. Boland pitched one around the seventh stump and got it to move further away, but Root went chasing after the delivery. The thick edge landed with Steve Smith at second slip. With this, the England captain started his 2022 with a duck after an exceptional run in 2021. Dawid Malan fell to the leg side trap set by Pat Cummins as he deflected a leg side ball straight to leg slip.

Brief scores: Australia 416/8 decl. (Usman Khawaja 137; Stuart Broad 5-101) lead England 135/4 (Ben Stokes 52*; Scott Boland 2-25) by 281 runs.