The returning Queensland captain made a magnificent hundred, as Australia were in a commanding position at the close of play on Day 2 of the fourth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Resuming play on 147/3 after a rain-afflicted Day 1, the Aussies were in good touch from the very outset, as Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith were already in the zone. The day was very challenging for the English quicks as the duo looked at ease playing the pull against the short ball, which seemed to be England’s game plan against the duo.
Mark Wood and Stuart Broad, in particular, were taken to the cleaners early on, with Khawaja and vice-captain Steve Smith showing no signs of relenting.
All-rounder Ben Stokes left the field in the middle of some brilliant batting by Smith as he clutched his left side in pain. At first, the injury appeared serious, but Stokes returned post the lunch break to the field without concern but did not come on to bowl.
Smith was in perfect control as he cruised to his half-century, and looked destined for a hundred. Post his half-century, he did have a brain-fade moment, as he decided to leave a seemingly straight ball from Broad that crashed into his pads.
Hawk-eye revealed that the delivery was, in fact, missing the stumps. Nevertheless, that moment apart, his entire innings looked like a typical Smith hundred. However, that was not to be as Broad finally reaped the rewards of his toiling efforts as he snared the wicket of Smith with a tempting ball outside off stump, which Smith edged to Jos Buttler behind the stumps.
The promising Cam Green had a brief stay in the middle, as his woeful series with the bat continued. He made five runs before being dismissed by Broad, which included a streaky boundary that went between first and second slip, his only boundary in the series so far.
Wicket-keeper Alex Carey failed to capitalise on a decent start, as he fell to a tossed up delivery by Root, trying to chase it from outside the line of the wickets, but only managing to skew it to Bairstow, who completed the catch. Khawaja, who was at the other end, was losing partners at a very quick rate as skipper Pat Cummins walked in to remedy the situation.
Meanwhile, comeback kid Khawaja was as composed as ever, playing graceful cover drives off the fast bowlers. He also took the attack to the spinners, as he scored quite a few boundaries off the bowling of Jack Leach and Root.
After reaching the fifty-run mark, Khawaja raised his game to a different level, as he faced absolutely no problems on a misbehaving pitch. His scoring rate went up after his half-century and raced towards his ninth Test century, after being dropped from the squad in the middle of the 2019 Ashes in England.
As expected, Khawaja reached his much deserved century without any scares along the way, as the SCG crowd showered their appreciation on a wonderful comeback century. Khawaja’s century put the Aussies in the driver’s seat, as Cummins was also batting well at the other end.
The Australian skipper held on, scoring 24, before also falling prey to Broad’s disciplined bowling. Khawaja continued batting until he made 137, as he became Broad’s fifth wicket of the innings, as he secured a spot on the coveted SCG honours board.
Mitchell Starc had a nervy innings, as he survived multiple appeals and had decisions overturned in his favour as he scored 34 valuable runs, in addition to stitching a quick 18-run partnership with Nathan Lyon, who smashed Broad for a glorious six over square leg on the last ball of the innings, as the Aussies crossed the 400-run mark. Cummins decided to declare on 416/8, and gave the English five overs to bat.
Starc got Crawley to nick one to David Warner at first slip, but replays showed that Starc had overstepped. There were no more close calls until stumps, as the England openers blocked out the remaining overs to finish the day without the loss of any wickets.
Although the game is positioned slightly in favour of the Aussies, England’s batting on Day 3 will be crucial to England’s bid of avoiding a whitewash.
