Khawaja’s ton keeps Australia on top of the fourth Test despite Broad’s fifer
Australian left-hander Usman Khawaja celebrated his comeback in style with a master class knock of 137after he was welcomed to Test cricket with a gap of two years and played a key role as Australia declared the innings on 416/8.
Australian left-hander Usman Khawaja celebrated his comeback in style with a master class knock of 137after he was welcomed to Test cricket with a gap of two years and played a key role as Australia declared the innings on 416/8 before the end of day 2 of the fourth Test on Thursday.
The right-arm seamer Stuart Broad ended on the figures of 5-101 in England’s cause and openers Zak Crawley and Haseeb Hameed, both survived the sheer bowling attack from Australia before stumps to give their side a little morale booster after another brilliant day of Australian dominance.
England will resume the play of day 3 with 13 runs on the board are desperately looking for a good performance in Sydney to save some embarrassment after facing heavy blows in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Melbourne to go 3-0 down in the five-match series.
The main character who had the spotlight on him for the whole day was the comeback leftie Usman Khawaja who was destructive with the ball and spared none with his class. Khawaja was brought in as a replacement for Travis Head who came out positive for Covid-19.
Doing a complete favor to the decision that gave him a comeback at the ground where his test career began in the 2011 Ashes test; the 35-year-old was stylish and unstoppable in equal parts and he never looked out of color while putting England at worries.
The 35-year-old survived a chance at 28 when he edged the ball off Jack Leach behind the stumps to Jos Buttler which evaded through him and ultimately Joe Root at the slips missed it too.
The lefthander played the most remarkable and memorable innings to bring up his ninth test century with three runs through square leg to get the appreciation of the 24,855 crowds sitting at the SCG.
Four years back, Khawaja hit 171 runs in the last Ashes Test at the SCG, Khawaja was quite passionate to surpass the previous score before he lost his calm to Stuard Broad, who claimed England’s first five-wicket haul of the series.
Khawaja, who played 260 ball innings throughout his innings included 13 boundaries, had joined the party with Steve Smith in a 115-run fourth-wicket partnership that negated every tip and trick from England’s bowling front and failed them to make any inroads earlier.
Broad picked him up after the lunch break and edged Smith behind the stumps when he was batting on 67 and then immediately removed the all-rounder Cameron Green for five.
Just an hour before tea, Alex Carey failed an attempt to play an aggressive stroke on 13, holing out in the deep off England captain Root’s spin.
Broad after coming back from the break in the final session picked up the Australian skipper Pat Cummins for 24 with a fizzing delivery that the right-hander gloved behind the stumps but England again found themselves in trouble to get a breakthrough.
England troubles increased when Ben Stokes faced tightness on his left side and left the ground immediately, he never came back to the ground to the ball again.
Brief scores: Australia 416/8 decl. (Marcus Harris 38, Steve Smith 67, Usman Khawaja 137, Mitchell Starc 34*; Stuart Broad 5-101) lead England 13/0 by 403 runs.