Australia's wicket keeper Alex Carey and Australia's Nathan Lyon (third left) celebrate with teammates after taking the wicket of England's Joe Root (unseen) for 46 runs on day four of the first Ashes cricket Test match between England and Australia at Edgbaston in Birmingham, central England on Monday, June 19, 2023. - AFP
BIRMINGHAM, June 19, 2023 (AFP): Nathan Lyon took the crucial wicket of Joe Root on the fourth day of the first Test at Edgbaston on Monday after the former England captain hit a quickfire 46.
Root, who made an unbeaten 118 in England's first innings 393-8 declared, was stumped by Alex Carey, leaving England 129-4 in their second innings, a lead of 136 runs.
The hosts resumed on 28-2 after openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had been dismissed in the best bowling conditions of the match during a rain-interrupted third day. Both Ollie Pope and Root had yet to get off the mark.
But the sunny skies at Edgbaston suggested there would be less movement for Australia's pacemen on a pitch labelled "soulless" by England seamer Stuart Broad.
Root signalled his intentions -- and underlined England's aggressive 'Bazball' approach -- from the very first delivery, when he failed to make contact with an audacious reverse scoop off Australia captain Pat Cummins, the ball just missing his off stump.
He scored his first run in more conventional fashion when he clipped Cummins off his pads for a single.
Root then demonstrated the range of his strokeplay in two balls from Scott Boland in the next over.
A classical legside clip for four was followed by a spectacular reverse ramp for six that soared over the head of wicketkeeper Carey, standing up to the stumps, and the slip cordon.
Root also drove Boland through extra cover for a textbook boundary as England looked to put the pressure on the often miserly seamer.
The former England captain's aggression scattered the field, with an initial cordon of three slips and a gully reduced to one slip and a deep backward point.
But Cummins hit back for Australia when he bowled Pope (14) with a near-unplayable thunderbolt yorker that left England 77-3.
Off-spinner Lyon came on only for new batsman Harry Brook to cut his first ball for four before Root's Yorkshire team-mate swept his third for another boundary.
But Lyon made the crucial breakthrough when Root came down the pitch and missed the ball, departing for 46 off 55 balls. - AFP
