CRICKET – JOE Root contributed a magnificent 160 to England’s first-innings tally of 384 but Travis Head drove Australia to 166 for two in response on the second day of the fifth and final Ashes Test yesterday.
England’s hopes of winning the urn are long gone after defeats in the first three Tests of the series but they continued to show the spirit, lacking in previous beaten touring sides, that was evident in their victory in Melbourne last week.
Until Australia took the second new ball, Root looked in full control in the Sydney sunshine on a pitch that looked as benign as the surface for the chaotic Melbourne Test was fiery.
In a string of partnerships which might have transformed England’s fortunes when the series was still alive, Root crafted an innings of real quality from 242 deliveries with 15 fours and no sixes.
Rarely approaching anything close to flamboyance, he punched two runs back past the bowler to reach his 41st Test century and second in Australia after his hundred in the second match in Brisbane.
“Looking at the surface and how it could potentially play out here, maximizing that first-innings score was always going to be important,” Root told reporters.
“To contribute heavily to that is obviously what it’s about as a batter, that’s your job. There’s so much to play for throughout the next three days and we find ourselves very much in the game.”
Michael Neser (4-60), the pick of Australia’s bowlers, ended Root’s knock with an athletic catch off his own bowling and two deliveries later bowled Josh Tongue to terminate England’s innings and bring up an early tea.
It was England’s highest tally of the series but they needed their bowlers to back it up in a marathon final session if they were to have a chance of going home 3-2 losers.
The bowlers created some early chances with Jake Weatherald dropped twice in the space of three balls – forgivably perhaps for Root in the slips, not so much in the case of Ben Duckett at square leg.
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