Zak Crawley’s quickfire maiden century was the cornerstone of a dramatic England run-spree on the second day of the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford on Thursday. England reached 239-2 at tea, having scored 178 runs in just 25 overs during the second session.
At the time of going to press, England were 359-4 in 63 overs.
Crawley alone had added more than a hundred runs, going from 26 not out to be an unbeaten 132. Joe Root was 44 not out, with England just 78 runs behind Australia’s first-innings 317 in a match the hosts, 2-1 down with two to play, have to win to maintain their bid for an Ashes series victory.
Crawley-Ali show
The unbroken stand of 109 was the second major partnership of the innings after Crawley and Moeen Ali (54) had put on 121 for the second wicket following the early loss of Ben Duckett.
Both Crawley and Moeen repeatedly played and missed outside off stump as they rode their luck against world Test champions Australia’s pace attack.
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Moeen had been in red-ball retirement until the start of this series but was recalled following Jack Leach’s season-ending back injury. He was only batting at No. 3 after Ollie Pope was ruled out from the remainder of the Ashes with a dislocated shoulder suffered in the second Test at Lord’s.
Two successive deliveries on Thursday summed up Moeen’s recent batting form as he became just the fourth England player after Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and current team-mate Stuart Broad to complete the Test ‘double’ of 3,000 runs and 200 wickets.
Moeen completes 3,000 runs
Moeen luckily edged Australia captain Pat Cummins past gully for four to go to 3,000 runs before driving the fast bowler’s next ball for an elegant boundary. Both Crawley and Moeen accelerated after the interval.
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