Spinner Nathan Lyon has made history on an Ashes morning where Australia has torn England apart in the blink of an eye.
Welcome to news.com.au’s live coverage of day 4 of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
England resumed at 2/220 after finishing the second day of play just 58 runs short of Australia’s first innings total.
Friday was a day where England showed some fight, led by captain Joe Root, who reached 86 not out at stumps, but Australia made a dream start on Saturday with three quick wickets leaving the tourists demoralised.
Root had earlier set a new England record for most Test runs in a calendar year, surpassing the previous best set by Ashes great Michael Vaughan (1481 runs) in 2002 — but his innings soon turned to misery when dismissed early on Saturday.
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The pressure was on the Australian attack to make sure England didn’t force its way back into the contest — and captain Pat Cummins would have been ecstatic at what he saw from his attack, despite the mystery surrounding Josh Hazlewood and his failure to bowl since early on day 3.
England in free fall in nightmare start
Nathan Lyon has captured his second wicket of day 4 to leave England reeling at 5/234.
Moments after bringing up his 400th test wicket, Lyon quickly snared Ollie Pope — caught by Steve Smith at first slip — for just four runs.
It was Australia’s third quick wicket of the morning in a spell where England lost 3/11 from just 25 balls.
It was absolute carnage as England went from being confident of setting Australia a competitive total to chase to suddenly looking on the ropes again.
Huge blow as England captain falls early
England is in real trouble again after Joe Root became the second batter to fall early on Day 4.
Root was beaten by a good line and length ball from Cameron Green that swung away late after landing a fraction outside off stump.
Root was tempted to push at the delivery, but only managed to send an outside edge through to keeper Alex Carey.
Root fell for 89, meaning he is still yet to ever record a test century in Australia.
It left England 4/229, with two new batters at the crease after Dawid Malan also fell early.
GOAT makes history with 400th scalp
Nathan Lyon has finally brought up his 400th test wicket, becoming just the third Aussie bowler to ever reach the milestone.
Only Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have previously gone past 400 test wickets.
It took almost two years for Lyon to move from 390 wickets to the 400-mark as a result of a form slump and Covid-19 restrictions.
He brought up the milestone by dismissing Dawid Malan in his second over early on day 4.
Malan fell skipping down to a good length ball that took an inside edge and popped up to Marnus Labuschagne fielding in close.
Malan fell for 82 to leave England 3/223.
Hazlewood mystery still left unexplained
The Australian cricket team has denied Josh Hazlewood is injured, despite the star quick failing to bowl in the final 40 overs of day 3.
Mystery surrounds Hazlewood’s situation after he was limited to just eight overs on Friday.
He was given just a few overs to bowl to Joe Root before he was taken out of the attack.
Hazlewood has previously made Root his bunny in Ashes combat, having dismissed the England captain eight times.
He remained on the field, but remained unused by Pat Cummins in the final session of the day.
Fox Cricket reporter Kath Loughnan said on Saturday morning Cricket Australia is continuing to tell reporters Hazlewood is fine.
“They’re saying, ‘All is OK. He’s going to be bowling’. It just makes it all the more bizarre as to why he didn’t bowl at all during the final session,” she said.
Aussie great Mark Waugh said the situation has left him bewildered”.
“That’s strange, I can’t work that out,” he said.
“For Josh Hazlewood to only bowl 11 balls to Joe Root yesterday, it bewilders me, really.”
Batter Marnus Labuschagne denied Hazlewood was injured after the end of play on day 3.
“Hoff’s fine. We’re just making sure we’re prepared really well,” Labuschagne said.
“We know that there’s some times at the Gabba where there’s not as many wickets that fall and we’ve just got to hold in that period and make sure we rotate our bowlers well so we’ve got someone fresh.”
Good sign after Warner suffers ‘severely bruised’ ribs
David Warner was spotted out inspecting the Gabba pitch early in day 4 after he failed to take the field on day 3.
Cricket Australia has told reporters Warner didn’t walk out at the start of England’s second innings after suffering “severely bruised ribs” on his way to a first innings knock where he fell agonisingly short of a hundred.
West Australian seamer Jhye Richardson had replaced him as a substitute fielder.
Speaking on Fox Cricket, sideline reporter Kath Loughnan revealed the injury came after he was struck in the chest by a Ben Stokes delivery the previous day.
“Cricket Australia have just told me David Warner has severely bruised ribs,” she said.
“He had a scan overnight which cleared him of any fracture, but he still is in severe discomfort with badly bruised ribs.
“He may come on at some point this afternoon. They are just going to have to monitor him.
“This was after a nasty blow from Ben Stokes on day two.”