Australia in trouble in fourth Ashes test
A dominant display by England's bowlers has the home side reeling at 164-9 in their first innings
James Anderson took three wickets as part of a dominant England bowling display on Friday which left Australia in trouble on 164-9 at stumps on the second day of the fourth Ashes cricket test.
After Mitchell Johnson completed a five-wicket haul to help dismiss England for 255 early in the day and seemingly give the hosts the upper hand, Australia’s top and middle order gave up their wickets cheaply, with Anderson (3-50) dismissing David Warner, Michael Clarke and George Bailey in a disciplined bowling display that offered few scoring chances.
“We’d have liked a few more runs this morning,” Anderson said. “We talked about getting up to 300 being a challenging score.
“But then having spoken to our batters last night we knew we could make it difficult for them to score because it’s quite a slow pitch. If we set the right fields and bowled in the right areas we could get some rewards – and we did that.”
Chris Rogers scored a dogged 61 to anchor much of the innings and Brad Haddin provided some aggressive late stroke play, but Australia made just 68 runs at the expense of four wickets in the third session.
“England are on top,” Rogers said. “We have had our worst day of the series. England played very well. They bowled outstandingly and we’re up against it.”
