Cricket: Milestone man in Lyon spins Australia to win first Ashes Test, sports news and top stories

MELBOURNE (REUTERS, AFP) – Nathan Lyon captured the victim of the long-awaited 400th cricket test and scored Australia’s clear nine-point victory in the first Ashes Test on Saturday (December 11) as England lost eight cards in an amazing morning crash. on the four days in Gabbas.

The spin-bowling cult hero grabbed four cards as the England strikers crumbled after lunch, leaving Australia with 20 runs after the break.

After dominating the racket, ball and field, Australia head to Adelaide for a day-night test led by new captain Pat Cummins.

England, meanwhile, are pondering their failures after the second show of horror in Brisbane. They have now lost seven of their previous nine matches in Gabba, where the series ’losses seem to be rising.

Captain Joe Root said his team needs to fix their game and punch to get back into the Ashes series, while defending the decision to exclude Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad from the first test.

There are question marks hanging over their choices and tactics, and there seem to be little ready-made solutions to their hitting problems before the pink ball test begins in Adelaide on Thursday.

“If I’m being honest, we can’t create as many places as we did and destroy them,” Root said.

“Our bowlers were excellent. We have to be better on the field and on the racket.

“We know where we need to improve, but the way we react in the second turn showed great character and struggle, which will be in good shape.”

Australian Cummins said in his first match as skipper that he thought someone was smiling over him.

“A lot of things went right, probably about throwing,” he added.

– I thought it was a really perfect show.

“I was really glad almost everyone was fired.”

England went on to win 220 with two matches still in hand, but lost their last eight innings for 77 runs to lose 297.

England striker Ollie Robinson improved his match stats by dismissing goalkeeper Alex Carey (9), who took the place of opening player David Warner as he cared for bruised ribs.

But Marcus Harris (9 not absent) hit the seamstress Mark Wood’s fence to finish the road.

Root was disappointed when his and Dawid Malan’s big third day partnership proved futile.

However, the match was over when Root won the throw and sent his bats in for 147 on the first pair.

“Frustration,” he said. “We worked really hard to get ourselves back into the game last night. It’s a shame we just didn’t get through the initial stage because it could have been very different.”

“Great morning”

Lyon, who took 4-91 second innings, were left at 399 points after India won the series ’final defeat in January at Gabba, but did not waste time to turn the race on its head on Saturday.

In the second round, the 34-year-old veteran betrayed Malania (82) and caught a club cushion for Marnus Labuschagne, breaking the decisive 162-run position with Root.

“It was amazing,” Lyon said. “The amazing audience and marking of a personal milestone is fantastic, but even better to crown it with a pretty stunning win.”

England immediately lost three cards in 11 runs when young all-rounder Cameron Green grabbed the Root key at 89, with the English skipper once again denying a virgin hundred in Australia.

Batsman Travis Head was named match man from Quickfire 152, who created Australia’s first innings 425 in response to England’s meager overall result.

Carey, who replaced former captain Tim Paine behind the stump, took a record eight prey catch debuts.

Lyon’s day, however, was enjoyable as he only became the third Australian in the company of 400 wickets led by Shane Warnen (708) and Glenn McGrath (563).

He caught Ollie Popen from slipping the ball out of the field. He took the other two coals to help clean the tail.

England’s Talisman Ben Stokes (14) combined with goalkeeper Jos Buttler (23) in a 32-round partnership, but the multiplayer fell to Cummins again with a short ball similar to the one that got him in the first five innings. .

With Warner sick and pacemaker Josh Hazlewood also having an abdominal strain, Australia is happy with the extra day off.

English fans may hope for salvation when Adelaide Oval lights up and a pink ball in the hands of resting warriors Anderson and Broad.

Despite the fact that the Gabba field used to favor seamstresses, England decided to leave their two biggest drivers out of the starting position.

It aroused confusion and criticism, to which Root did not respond directly when asked in his post-match television interview if he would have chosen otherwise if he had had his time again.

“One thing I’m saying is that we wanted a variation on the attack so we could change the pace and move in different gears for a couple of shifts,” he said.

Off-spinner Jack Leach, who came to Broad, was punished for the Australian attack, but Root said he would take responsibility.

“If anything, it’s because I gave him too aggressive fields too early, I didn’t let him settle in and give him a little more chance early,” he said.

“Jack is a great cyclist in the 20 tests he’s played, he’s shown what instrumental role he can play on this team, and I’m sure he’ll be in a big role in the series going forward.

– In the five-match test series, it is really important that we do not feel sorry for this, the English captain added. “We have to remember that there’s a huge amount of cricket to play.”

It was previously reported that Hobart will host the first-ever Ashes Test after winning a race to replace Perth in the fifth and final match of the series.

The capital of Tasmania beat heavyweight rivals in the Sydney and Melbourne Test at the 20,000-capacity Bellerive Oval on January 14-18.

Perth’s hosting rights were stripped earlier this week due to strict Covid-19 quarantine rules in the state of Western Australia, which require players to be quarantined for 14 days.

There are no such provisions in Tasmania.

“The suggestions we received were excellent and we had no doubt that every venue would have hosted a great event,” said Nick Hockley, head of Cricket Australia.

While Sydney Cricket Ground and Melbourne Cricket Ground are larger venues, Hobart received strong support from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Sports Secretary Richard Colbeck.

“If there was one in Tassi, I think it would be great, especially since the Afghanistan test apparently didn’t progress for obvious reasons,” Morrison said during the week.

It makes up for the fact that Hobart lost what would have been Australia’s first ever test against Afghanistan in November. The test was postponed after the Taliban regime banned women from playing sports.

Dominic Baker, head of Cricket Tasmania, said he was excited about the island’s biggest sporting event ever.

“This is a great day not only for cricket in Tasmania, but for Tasmania in general,” he said.

“While the circumstances that have led us to host this test are undoubtedly unique, we are excited that Tasmanians will have this once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the Ashes Test in their own backyard.”