Australia vs England 4th Test Day 3: Cook’s double hundred puts England in charge

Posted on by
Alastair Cook double hundred Australia England Ashes cricket

Alastair Cook is delighted after bringing up his fifth double hundred

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

England opener Alastair Cook not only frustrated Australia with his unbeaten knock of 244, but also pushed his side’s lead up to 164 on the third day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

Starting off the day on 192/2, England managed to add 26 runs to their overnight score before captain Joe Root was dismissed by Pat Cummins for 61, which came off 133 balls and included seven boundaries.

Dawid Malan only made 14 before he was given out lbw off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood. Had Malan opted to review the decision, he would have stayed at the crease as replays showed that there was an inside edge.

Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali both made encouraging starts, but were unable to convert them into bigger scores as they were sent packing for 22 and 20 respectively.

Cook and Chris Woakes stemmed the regular flow of wickets with a 59-run partnership before Woakes was caught behind off the bowling of Cummins.

Debutant Tom Curran fell shortly after, but Cook and Stuart Broad took the attack to Australia with a 100-run stand, during which Cook brought up his double century and Broad his fifty.

However, not long after bringing up his half-century, Broad was dismissed in controversial fashion as he was caught by Usman Khawaja in the deep. However, even though it appeared that Khawaja may have dropped the ball on impact, the third umpire decided to give it out.

Broad’s superb innings of 56 came off 63 balls and included eight boundaries and a six.

Cook and James Anderson managed to survive for the rest of the day and forged an unbeaten 18-run partnership in the process.

Cook finished on 244 off 409 balls, which included 27 boundaries, while Anderson has yet to get off the mark.

Cummins, Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon picked up three wickets apiece.

England ended day three on 491/9 and will continue batting on Friday at 10:30 local time or 23:30 GMT (the day before).

Leave a ReplyCancel reply