After the visitors fell apart either side of Mitchell Marsh’s scorching century, Australia’s 263 all out on the first day of the third Ashes Test at Headingley on Thursday was built around his run-a-ball score of 118.
As the hosts supported captain Ben Stokes’ choice to put Australia in to bat after winning the toss on a green-tinged field, fast bowler Mark Wood of England took 5-34.
Following Pat Cummins’ reduction of England to 22-2, David Warner successfully caught Zak Crawley (33) at first slip in the most recent demonstration of the visitors’ excellent fielding. All-rounder Marsh was playing his first Test in almost four years.
At the time of the match’s conclusion, England had a score of 68-3, a 195-run deficit, with Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root both still alive.
But Root also lost a first-slip catch that would have been a legal catch off Chris Woakes when Marsh had just made 12. This was another day of squandered chances for England.
Without Root’s slip, Australia would have been 98-5, and with England behind the five-match series 2-0, it was an error England could ill-afford.
With a magnificent hundred and a 155-run partnership with Travis Head, whose 39 was the second-highest score of the innings, Marsh made England pay.
But from 240-4, Australia lost their last six wickets for 23 runs as Durham fast Wood smashed through the back end of the order in his first Test match since playing away to Pakistan in December.
England really needed his wickets since they were down a bowler after Ollie Robinson’s limping departure due to a back spasm just before lunch.
The day is incredible, Wood told Sky Sports. Being able to take five wickets was fantastic. I’m thrilled since it was the first time I did it in front of my parents.
We thought we had a few of wickets in hand, but Mitch Marsh batted well and was challenging to bowl at.
In his first Test since facing England at The Oval in 2019, Marsh, who was only chosen after fellow all-rounder Cameron Green was forced to withdraw due to a hamstring issue after Australia’s 43-run victory at Lord’s the previous week, made the most of Root’s error.
Before lofting Moeen Ali for a six-point run to bring the score to 99, he drove and sliced England’s quicks with force.
Marsh reached his hundred in only 102 balls, with 15 fours and three sixes, thanks to a single off the spinner.
In 33 Tests, it was his third century; each of those centuries came against England.
When the 31-year-old inside-edged Woakes off his leg to Crawley at second slip, he was finally out.
Australia, who had a score of 240-5 at lunch, quickly crumbled when Root caught Head off Woakes’ pass after the latter had dropped Alex Carey.
By clean bowling Mitchell Starc and forcing Cummins to be caught behind for a second-ball duck, 33-year-old Wood eliminated the fielders from the equation.
Todd Murphy was bowled by Wood to close the innings, giving him his maiden five-wicket haul in England despite playing 29 Tests and having a history of injuries.
From jeers to applause
Australia players were jeered by onlookers who were still incensed by Bairstow’s dismissal in the second Test after he was given out stumped when he believed the ball was dead, continuing the aftereffects of England’s contentious loss at Lord’s.
With the help of a superb slip catch by Crawley, Stuart Broad was able to dismiss Warner for the 16th time in Tests on the fifth ball, turning the jeers into cheers in the process.
After bowling Usman Khawaja (13) with a 95 mph ball that smashed the opener’s leg stump, Wood demonstrated what England had lost out on while he was away.
After scoring 100 at Lord’s, Steve Smith left the field in his 100th Test.
When he inside-edged Robinson with only four runs, diving wicketkeeper Bairstow missed a difficult one-handed opportunity.
When Smith, who was on 22, received a thin nick off Broad, the senior bowler in an attack without the rested James Anderson, Bairstow nonetheless held an easy catch.
