Crawley’s maiden Ashes ton revives England in fourth Test

MANCHESTER – Zak Crawley’s quickfire maiden century against Australia was the cornerstone of a dramatic England run-spree on the second day of the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford on Thursday.

England reached 239-2 at tea, having scored 178 runs in just 25 overs during the second session.

Crawley alone had added more than a hundred runs, going from 26 not out to 132 not out.

Joe Root was 44 not out, with England just 78 runs behind Australia’s first-innings 317 in a match the hosts, 2-1 down with two to play, have to win to maintain their bid for an Ashes series victory.

Their unbroken century stand was the second major partnership of the innings after Crawley and Moeen Ali (54) had put on 121 for the second wicket following the early loss of Ben Duckett.

The runs kept on coming after tea as Crawley extended his fourth hundred in 38 Tests to beyond 150, a landmark he reached with two superbly struck straight-driven fours off successive deliveries from Australia captain Pat Cummins.

England’s rapid run-scoring was a potential insurance policy against fears forecast weekend rain could scupper their push for a win.

Both Crawley and Moeen rode their luck as they repeatedly played and missed outside off stump.

Moeen had been in red-ball retirement until the start of this series but was recalled following Jack Leach’s season-ending back injury.

He was only batting at No 3 after Ollie Pope was ruled out from the remainder of the Ashes with a dislocated shoulder suffered in the second Test at Lord’s.

Two successive deliveries on Thursday summed up Moeen’s innings as he became just the fourth England player after Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and current team-mate Stuart Broad to complete the Test ‘double’ of 3,000 runs and 200 wickets.

Moeen luckily edged Cummins past gully for four to go to 3,000 runs before driving his next ball for an elegant boundary.

Crawley had made 20 when lbw to Cameron Green, but the batsman’s review indicated the ball would have missed leg stump.

Travis Head’s part-time off-breaks proved expensive in a return of none for 48 in six overs as Australia were left to rue dropping Todd Murphy – the first time in 11 years they were without a specialist spinner in a Test.

Crawley went to fifty when he reverse-swept Head for four before sweeping the next ball in more orthodox fashion for six.

Moeen, having exceeded many pre-match expectations was dropped on 53 before falling for 54, well caught by a diving Usman Khawaja following a fierce pull off Mitchell Starc.

Crawley entered the 90s with a slashed cut off Starc that sped to the third man rope before reaching 97 with a textbook cover-driven four off the left-arm quick.

A more sedate two off Cummins took the 25-year-old Crawley, a standard-bearer for England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ style under captain Ben Stokes and red-ball coach Brendon McCullum, to a 93-ball century. The Kent batsman’s second fifty had come in just 26 balls.

Cummins appeared to lose control, taking an increasingly long time to set the field, with Root’s reverse ramp six off Mitchell Marsh a sign of England’s growing dominance.

Earlier, Chris Woakes completed his first five-wicket haul against Australia as the Ashes-holders were bowled out after resuming on 299-8 in a frustrating innings where none of their batsmen made more than the 51 achieved by both Marnus Labuschagne and all-rounder Marsh.

James Anderson, England’s most successful Test bowler of all time, had gone wicketless Wednesday.

But with Thursday’s first ball, delivered from the end named after him on his Lancashire home ground, Anderson had Cummins caught for one by Stokes at cover-point.

Woakes then had last man Josh Hazlewood caught by Duckett in the slips to give the 34-year-old a return of 5-62 in 22.2 overs — his fifth five-wicket haul in 47 Tests.