Harry Brook hit a dashing 85 but England lost wickets in clusters as Australia made their move on the opening day of the final Ashes Test.
Sent in to bat in bowler-friendly conditions at the Kia Oval, Pat Cummins finally winning his first toss of the series, England battled to 250 for seven at tea.
Brook stood out, reeling off 11 fours and two audacious sixes, but could not hang in as the tourists made regular breakthroughs to disrupt the English momentum.
England lost three for 11 midway through the morning session to scupper a bright start, and four for 28 as the ball came to life in the afternoon.
Earlier Brook’s fearless strokeplay lit up a stand of 111 with Moeen Ali, the latter chipping in with 34 despite collecting a painful thigh injury.
Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey would have been relieved to see the back of the Yorkshireman, having put him down when he had just five.
Chris Woakes and Mark Wood added 38 quick runs in a punchy counter-attack before tea, but it was a disappointing day for England’s experienced middle-order campaigners as Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow mustered just 12 between them.
Openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett made a bright start despite heading out under cloudy skies, posting a lively stand of 62 in just 12 overs.
Both had a life in the slips, David Warner putting down a regulation chance off Duckett and Steve Smith getting one hand to a much trickier one off Crawley, but applied pressure of their own.
Duckett was particularly assertive, making a run-a-ball 41 which peaked when he skipped down the track at Josh Hazlewood and clubbed him back down the ground for four.
He was slightly unlucky to be strangled down leg by Mitch Marsh, gloving one off his hip to get Australia up and running.
Crawley became the first batter to pass 400 runs for the series but was gone for 22, squared up by the excellent Cummins and squirting a catch off the shoulder of the bat.
England’s mini-collapse also consumed Root, dragging Hazlewood into his stumps having added only five to leave a precarious score of 73 for three.
Moeen made a steady start but Brook’s arrival kept things lively. His low edge off Cummins should have been gathered by Carey but popped loose, and a couple of flashy shots zipped away for four off the outside edge.
Ignoring his initial travails he barrelled forward on the front foot, crunching drives and then thrashing Marsh for a dismissive square six that will have dented the all-rounder’s pride.
He reached lunch with a flurry, including a second maximum when he anticipated a Mitchell Starc bouncer, stepped inside the line and hooked him high over fine-leg.
Moeen’s mission statement changed when he pulled up injured, going from 11 off his first 37 balls to 23 off his last nine. He was cleaned up by spinner Todd Murphy, swiping fresh air, to end a dangerous partnership.
Brook reached his fourth half-century of the series with a pair of elegant fours off successive Cummins deliveries, but his scoring slowed as Australia’s bowlers tightened up.
But he lacked support. Stokes lost his off stump to a beauty from Starc that swung through the air and straightened off the pitch, and Hazlewood got an over-exuberant Bairstow to play on from a poor position.
Brook could, and perhaps should, have settled in for his ton but instead looked to take the attacking option. When Starc invited him to tuck into a wider delivery shaped towards the slips, he threw his hands at it and sent a thick edge to Smith.
Wood and Woakes took the situation on, flashing hard and taking quick runs, improving England’s position handily at the end of another rollercoaster session.
IPL: Kohli shines as RCB maintain winning run against Kings
Virat Kohli's superb knock of 92 helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a fourth straight win in the Indian Premier League on Thursday as they kept their playoff hopes alive with a 60-run triumph over Punjab Kings.
Kohli smashed seven fours and six sixes in his 47 balls faced as the Challengers set the Kings a daunting target of 241, with Rajat Patidar also bringing up his half-century and Cameron Green (46 off 27) falling just short of doing so.
The Kings pulled off the biggest run chase in IPL history less than two weeks ago, but their hopes of another comeback were dealt a huge blow when Faf du Plessis took a wonderful over-the-shoulder catch to send Jonny Bairstow packing with Punjab at 71-1.
Kohli's contribution wasn't only limited to the bat, as he produced a stunning run out of Shashank Singh, haring onto the scene to send wickets flying with an underarm throw as Shashank failed to make it back by mere inches.
It was then up to Mohammed Siraj to polish off the Punjab tail, finishing with figures of 3-43 as the Kings fell to back-to-back defeats, keeping them ninth in the standings.
Data Debrief: Kohli leads the way
Having previously claimed the honour in 2016, Kohli leads the way in the race for the 2024 Orange Cap, another impressive innings taking him to 634 runs for the campaign.
Averaging 70.44 with a strike rate of 153.51, Kohli put further distance between himself and Chennai Super Kings' Ruturaj Gaikwad, whose 541 runs put him second in the standings.
Pooran's unbeaten 48 in vain as Head, Sharma lead Sunrisers to dazzling 10-wicket win over Super Giants
Sunrisers Hyderabad hammered Lucknow Super Giants by 10 wickets with more than 10 overs to spare in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head struck an unbeaten 167 from the opening partnership to move SRH third in the points table, with LSG unable to come up with any answers to defend their own haul of 165-4.
Head plundered 89 from 30 balls, including eight fours and eight sixes, while Sharma's 75 from 28 had eight fours and six maximums, in an explosive batting display that saw the duo hit 100 inside the powerplay.
Earlier, Lucknow struggled to get going in their innings, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-12) conceding only singles and shutting down LSG's top order, who scored just 66 in the first 11.2 overs.
Former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran continued his fine build up to the ICC Men's T20 World Cup with an unbeaten 26-ball 48, as he crafted a 99-run fifth-wicket stand with Ayush Badoni, who was also unbeaten on 55.
Pooran struck six fours and a solitary six, while Badoni's 30-ball knock had nine fours, as the two gave Lucknow a chance, but in the end, it was nowhere near enough.
Data Debrief: Sunrisers pounce again in the powerplay
Sunrisers scored 107 runs in the powerplay. In all of T20 cricket, there have only been seven instances of a team scoring 100 runs or more in the powerplay – SRH have the two top scores, with both coming this year.
Pooran and Badoni's 99-run partnership was LSG's highest for the fifth wicket in IPL, surpassing the previous record of 87 between Deepak Hooda and Badoni. However, it proved fruitless.
CPL's Russell urges greater collab between franchise leagues to avoid frequent schedule overlap
Caribbean Premier League (CPL)'s CEO believes scheduling arrangements through collaboration by the various T20 leagues should be routine to avoid the frequent tournament clashes, which forces players to fly from one tournament to another in a short window.
Russell’s suggestion came during an interview with ESPNcricinfo, as he called for regular meetings among franchise leagues owners and administrators to solve cricket's global scheduling crisis. This, as CPL and the Hundred have overlapped in the past, but will avoid a clash this season, following dialogue with England Cricket Board (ECB) earlier this year.
“[The ECB] have a defined window that they have to play in, and it happened that we could move everything out to ensure that we didn't clash [with the Hundred]. It makes absolutely zero sense if you've got [Sunil] Narine and [Andre] Russell having to fly back the day before the final of the Hundred. That's in no one's interests, and certainly not the Hundred's,” Russell declared.
"I hope that [collaboration] continues. It's not rocket science; it's what should happen with all leagues. It's just nonsense that we've got all this overlap when it just needs to be worked through. Scheduling is a challenge, I know, but it can't be that you have two leagues going at each other at the same time. To my mind, it doesn't make any sense,” he added.
While there is a precedent for leagues negotiating to manage potential clashes as shown by the PSL and ILT20, there were a number of leagues that ran simultaneously earlier in the year. Australia's Big Bash and New Zealand's Super Smash finished in mid-January; South Africa's SA20 and the UAE's ILT20 started in January and ran into February; the Bangladesh Premier League started in January and finished in March; and the Pakistan Super League ran from mid-February to mid-March.
With the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled for a return next year February, it is expected to further complicate the schedule where franchise leagues are concerned. It is for that reason why the general consensus among players worldwide is for global scheduling windows for franchise leagues and international cricket, to limit overlapping between the two.
While representatives of national governing bodies meet regularly at ICC level - most of whom control their own leagues - there is no specific forum for the owners and administrators of franchise leagues to discuss scheduling.
"It's the logical way to go - because we're all maturing, and we're all getting to a point where we are sustainable. They are generally regarded now as being part of the domestic calendar, wherever they are played,” Russell said.
“I think it is a case of, 'OK, let's have that group of people and say how do you figure out the schedule to the benefit of everyone. I think it's workable. Others might think it's not, but I just think the conversations at least need to take place, just to make sure [there's no clash],” he opined.
Russell used the recent release of Major League Cricket (MLC)'s 2024 fixture list –two months before the tournament starts – as evidence of a shortage of "joined-up thinking" among administrators. MLC is scheduled to begin on July 5 and, as such, is on a six-day overlapping course with the Hundred.
"They've only just come out with their schedule. Why does it take leagues so long to put a schedule together? We have all year to figure it out,” he noted.
That said, Russell also encouraged administrators to find a solution to the perverse incentives that emerged for players earlier this year.
"It can't be right. I saw the other day that where leagues were overlapping, a player who got knocked out before the semi-finals or finals could actually make more money by going to another league. That shouldn't be a thing,” he stated.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
