CRICKET – Jacob Bethell was not supposed to be England’s headline act in the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but he looked like a player who belonged when the tourists made their nervous chase for victory against Australia.
Replacing the dropped Ollie Pope at number three, 22-year-old Bethell had appeared on a hiding to nothing in Melbourne on a difficult pitch in front of a record crowd of 94,000.
His debut Ashes innings on Boxing Day, the biggest occasion in Australia’s cricket calendar, was no fairytale, producing one run from five balls and a caught-behind dismissal off Australia’s fifth-choice seamer Michael Neser.
His second innings, however, gave a glimpse of why England have such high hopes for the left-hander.
Bethell delivered a composed 40 off 46 balls to help prevent an Ashes whitewash and claim England’s first Test win in Australia in 15 years.
Having shown great promise with three fifties during his debut Test tour of New Zealand a year ago, Bethell was not selected for England until the fifth Test of the home series against India and managed only single-figure scores.
He hardly needed to tap into his limited experience at Test level on day two in Melbourne, though, with England facing a white ball-style chase of 175 runs.
Tailender Brydon Carse took the number three spot for the second innings in Melbourne but Bethell, who came out at four, would like it back for the fifth and final Test in Sydney starting on Sunday.
“I like number three. You come in when the ball is new and in some scenarios the ball’s going all over the shop,” he said.
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