The city of Manchester, as reported by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), On the second day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford, England’s Chris Woakes achieved his first-ever five-wicket haul against Australia. This remarkable feat occurred as the Ashes holders were dismissed for 317 runs on Thursday.
Australia’s innings recommenced at a score of 299-8 following notable contributions from Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh, who scored 51. Travis Head and Steve Smith also made promising starts without surpassing the fifty-run mark.
On the first day of the match, Woakes demonstrated exceptional performance as he led England’s bowling attack with figures of 4-52. He achieved this feat while bowling with an older ball, having been introduced as the first change bowler. It is worth mentioning that Stuart Broad, a seasoned paceman, also made history by becoming only the fifth bowler in Test cricket to reach the milestone of 600 wickets.
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On Wednesday, James Anderson failed to take any wickets on his home ground in Lancashire.
On Thursday, the first ball of the match was bowled from the end, named after England’s all-time leading wicket-taker. During this delivery, Australia captain Pat Cummins was caught by home skipper Ben Stokes at cover-point off a gentle drive.
It appeared that Warwickshire paceman Woakes, who performed exceptionally well with both bat and ball in England’s third-Test victory at Headingley, had successfully achieved a well-deserved five-wicket haul. This occurred when the final batsman, Josh Hazlewood, with a score of one, unintentionally directed the ball towards the second slip fielder, resulting in an edge.
However, England’s jubilations were abruptly halted due to a stringent no-ball decision by third umpire Kumar Dharmasena.
The fact that Hazlewood, who was on four, edged the ball high to Ben Duckett at third slip left no room for doubt regarding the performance of the 34-year-old Woakes.
Woakes anxiously directed his gaze toward the umpire. However, the dismissal was upheld, resulting in his bowling statistics of 5-62 from 22.2 overs. This achievement marked his fifth instance of claiming five wickets in a single innings across 47 Test matches.
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Mitchell Starc’s batting score stood at 36, indicating that he had not been dismissed.
England must secure a victory at Old Trafford to sustain their aspirations of reclaiming the Ashes, given their current standing of 2-1 behind with two matches remaining in the five-match series.