England hold on to draw in the fourth Test and avoid Ashes whitewash

England secured a draw in the Ashes fourth Test and avoided a possible series whitewash in the process.

Evergreen duo James Anderson (0*) and Stuart Broad (8*) withstood late Australian pressure for the final wicket to ensure a 5-0 humiliation was no longer possible, however, the majority of the heavy lifting had already been done by the English batsmen.

Beginning day five on 30-0, England’s highest opening partnership of the series, Zak Crawley attacked from the first ball and appeared to be in good touch for his score of 77.

Effective on the pull and strong off his pads, the fourth Test has provided England with a glimmer of hope from a batting perspective and Crawley’s return to form will undoubtedly be welcome, especially when his 2021 average of 10.81 is taken into consideration.

Nonetheless, another early wicket would fall as Haseeb Hameed (9) registered his sixth consecutive single-figure score to place further doubt on his position.

While Crawley continued to throw the Australian attack off their line and length with impressive strokeplay, Dawid Malan lost his wicket for just four after misjudging the length of Nathan Lyon’s delivery.

Crawley and Joe Root (24) combined for a partnership worth 60 before the former lost his wicket as he approached a maiden Ashes century with relative ease.

Having enjoyed success against good length bowling, Cameron Green opted to pitch the ball further up and pinned Crawley LBW with an inswinging yorker which, in fact, was certainly against the run of play.

That brought Ben Stokes to the crease off the back of an eye-catching 66 in the first innings, as Australia’s chief tormenter from 2019 eyed up another big score.

Yet, when Scott Boland continued his impressive series and found the outside edge of Root to reduce the tourists to 156-4, hopes of batting until the close of play had seriously been reduced.

Stokes, similarly to Crawley, attacked from the outset hitting 10 fours and one maximum. He was joined at the crease by first-innings hero Jonny Bairstow with both players nursing respective side and thumb injuries.

Though, if there was one thing that Bairstow showed on his way to making a first Test 100 since 2018, it was fight and there was plenty more to come, particularly once Lyon found the edge of Stokes on 60.

The Yorkshireman only needed 138 balls to register England’s first century of the tour, but, on this occasion, he occupied the crease for more than two hours and consumed 105 deliveries for his score of 41.

Jos Buttler (11) and Mark Wood (0) both fell LBW to Pat Cummins inswinging yorkers within the space of three deliveries, as the Aussie skipper led his side’s late charge for victory.

With 10.5 overs remaining in the day, Boland again struck to dismiss Bairstow, leaving Jack Leach to block out the remaining deliveries. Sounds familiar, right?

It then seemed the match was destined for the hosts to win when Steve Smith, who had only bowled three overs since that 2019 series, found the edge of Leach with just two overs remaining.

Thankfully for England, Broad and Anderson survived those remaining 12 balls to avoid a repeat of that infamous 2013/2014 5-0 scoreline.

The fifth and final Ashes test begins on January 14th with Root already ruling Buttler out through injury whilst Stokes and Bairstow are doubts.

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