Ashes 2021: England Collapse As Ruthless Aussies Claim First Test
Australia defeated England by nine wickets to win the first Test at Brisbane’s Gabba on Saturday. The hosts took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
The English batting lineup was dismantled by the Aussies as Root and Malan failed to capitalize on yesterday’s performance.
The Aussies needed just 20 runs after bowling England out for 297 in their second innings with Nathan Lyon claiming his 400th Test wicket. Australia cruised to the target in 5.1 overs when Marcus Harris square-drove Mark Wood for a boundary. Australia chased the small total with nine wickets to spare. Makeshift opener Alex Carey, who was out for nine, was caught behind off the bowling of Ollie Robinson. David Warner was unable to bat due to a rib injury he suffered when he was twice hit by Wood in the first innings.
“A lot of things did go right,” said Pat Cummins, making his debut as Australia Test skipper. “So someone was smiling on me. I’m really proud of everyone, I thought it was a really complete performance.”
“Frustration, we worked really hard to get ourselves back into the game last night and we knew how important this first session was. If we had got through to the new ball unscathed and carried that partnership forward we would have given ourselves a really good opportunity to go in and post a total that would have kept us in the game. It’s a shame we couldn’t quite get through that initial phase (today) because it could have been very different” said Root. Root was also fined 100 percent of his match fees because of the slow-over rate and the rest of the teammates were fined 15 percent
