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Australia make it
4-0 with complete ease! |
December 28, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
 England
have collapsed to an innings and 99 runs defeat
on the third day of the fourth Ashes Test at a
packed Melbourne Cricket Ground. They are now
closing to a 0-5 whitewash with the Australians
doing everything to punish England for winning
the Ashes in 2005. It took Australia just 51
overs to wrap up the test match and get the 4-0
score with one final match to be played from 2nd
January at Sydney.
Andrew Symonds who started the day on 154 could
add up just two more runs before falling to
Steve Harmison. The Aussies stretched their
first innings total to 419 with Shane Warne
enjoying his stay in the middle scoring an
impressive unbeaten 40 in what was his last test
match at the MCG. Sajid Mahmood ended with 4 for
100 in his 21.3 overs for England. Andrew
Strauss and Alastair Cook batted out the period
before the lunch break after they were behind by
a big margin of 260.
 After
lunch, wickets started to fall in a hurry
leaving England to 90 for 5! Brett Lee and
Stuart Clark had picked up two wickets each
while McGrath had taken the wicket of Ian Bell
in those five wickets to fall. Four of those
wickets fell in the post lunch session. Kevin
Pietersen for once was dismissed cheaply without
a fight, he was done in by a great delivery from
Stuart Clark. The English innings folded to 161,
an improvement of two runs from their first
innings efforts. Andrew Strauss was the top
scorer with 31 while Cook, Flintoff and Read
managed just twenties. Brett Lee finished with 4
for 47 while Stuart Clark had 3 for 30 with his
swing, seam, reverse swing and cutters. Shane
Warne helped his career tally to 706 by taking
two wickets, he got good amount of sharp turn
that kept on bamboozling the hapless batsmen. He
was also the Man of the Match for taking 7
wickets in the match. Both the sides now meet
for the last time at the SCG, which is a big
test match for Australia. It is the last time
that their bowling greats, Shane Warne and Glenn
McGrath would be bowling in a Test Match!
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