England captain Joe Root hit yet another half-century, his ninth in Australia — the most by any visitor without making a Test century, but the right-hander fell soon after reaching landmark on Day 1 of the ongoing 3rd Ashes Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. Australia had won the toss, and put the visitors into bat. England’s batting woes at the top of the order continued with openers Haseeb Hameed (0) and Zak Crawley (12) falling without making much of a contribution. Root again had to bail his team out from a precarious position, and after batting well, fell to a rash shot against Mitchell Starc.
Root chased a widish delivery, trying to cut a delivery that was too full to do so. The ball found the edge of Root’s bat with Alex Carey pouching the catch safely. A visibly angry Root punched the bat in frustration.
Watch Joe Root’s dismissal and his angry reaction:
Starc gets the big one – England’s captain is gone!
Root out for exactly 50 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/cqkjIqCy3W
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 26, 2021
Earlier, after the fall of openers Hameed and Crawley, it was again left to Dawid Malan and Root to pull off the rescue act. Malan was patient and it seemed the duo would frustrate the Aussie bowlers again.
But returning Aussie captain Pat Cummins, who had already snared the openers, dismissed Malan at the strok of lunch to leave the English reeling.
After the break, Root and Ben Stokes tried to steady the innings, but one fell after another as Australia once again took control of the match.
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At the time of writing this, England were 128 for five in 50 overs with Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow unbeaten on 3 and 21 runs, respectively.
After heavy defeats in the first two Tests, at Brisbane and Adelaide, England must win to keep the series alive, with Australia only needing a draw to retain the urn as holders.
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