England have secured the draw and avoided the humiliation. Considering the context of the series this draw might not help the visitors a lot but the way they managed to draw the Test is something cricket fans would love to remember for a long time.
Down by 3-0 already, another defeat seemed inevitable in the fourth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) for the Joe Root-led side after the Aussies set a formidable target of 358 runs. However, England’s brittle batting order hung on well enough to stage a great escape at the SCG.
Stuart Broad and Jack Leach faced 69 balls between them for the ninth wicket as England survived defeat with one wicket remaining. In the final over, James Anderson stood strong against Steve Smith.
A solid start
Early on in the day Zack Crawley, Ben stokes and Jonny Bairstow anchored the ship for the three lions as the trio managed to face more than 100 balls each. Opener Crawley scored 77, Stokes scored 60 off 123 deliveries and Bairstow scored 41 off 105 deliveries.
Usman Khawaja stole the show as he scored centuries in both the innings of the match. For England, Bairstow led the fightback with a century (113) in the first innings. All-rounder Stokes on the other hand, struggling with an injury managed to score two half-centuries in the match.
Australia pacer Scott Boland’s extraordinary impact continued as he managed to pick up the big wicket of Joe Root. Boland removed Root with an out-swinger for 24 and break up his stubborn 60-run partnership with Stokes.
Second time in two years
For the second time in two years a visiting team have managed to pull off an extraordinary draw at the SCG.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari helped India in securing a draw in the Sydney Test last year. For England, memories of 2009 Ashes Test at Cardiff were revived. That time, the last-wicket pair of Monty Panesar and Anderson saw off 69 deliveries in tandem to earn an unlikely draw for England to leave Australia one scalp shy of victory.
Australia have already won the Ashes 2021-22 series after crushing their opposition England in the first three Test matches. Moreover, the hosts have also got a joyful start to their journey in ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-22. Winning the first three Tests, Australia have moved to the top spot in WTC 2021-23.
The final Ashes test will be played on January 14.
