Ashes 2019: Rory Burns and Joe Root share century stand as England impress at Old Trafford
Written by News on 06/09/2019
Rory Burns and Joe Root put on an unbroken stand of 100 as Australia toiled in the second session on day three of the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester.
Root (47no) joined Burns (62no) nine balls into the day’s play – which finally began at 1.30pm after persistent rain – when nightwatchman Craig Overton (5) snicked behind to hand Josh Hazlewood his 50th Ashes wicket.
Hazlewood angled a delivery in, got it to straighten and then clip Overton’s outside edge as the batsman pressed forward, adding just two runs to his overnight score.
Hazlewood looked likely to add to his tally, testing Root and Burns with a series of challenging deliveries, but the skipper and his partner made it through that initial spell and the near three-hour second session on a pitch with few gremlins to leave England 125-2, 372 runs in arrears.
Mitchell Starc, playing his first Test of the series, was particularly leaky – the left-armer is going at nearly four an over and conceded the boundary from which Burns nailed his fourth Test fifty, from 100 balls.
England – who must avoid defeat in order to keep their hopes of regaining the urn alive – resumed on 23-1, a mammoth 474 runs behind Australia’s Steve Smith-inspired 497-8 declared, with Joe Denly (4) having fallen late on day two to an excellent short-leg catch from Matthew Wade.
Watch day three of the fourth Ashes Test live on Sky Sports The Ashes. You can also follow over-by-over commentary and in-play clips on our rolling blog on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app.
(c) Sky Sports 2019: Ashes 2019: Rory Burns and Joe Root share century stand as England impress at Old Trafford
