England halt Australia’s winning march at Sydney, deny hosts Ashes 2021-22 whitewash

England halted Australia's winning march in the Ashes 2021-22 series, forcing a draw in the fourth Test played at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) from January 5-9 on the back of impressive batting performance, particularly on the final day, wherein the visiting side fought all day hard to force a favourable result.

England's batting has been their biggest letdown in this Ashes 2021-22 series, in which they already lost the first three Tests to lose the Ashes urn in Melbourne in the Boxing Day Test. However, senior England batsmen Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Zak Crawley with a 100-ball 77 in the second innings denied Australia a fourth win on the trot and also their third whitewash of England in this century. 

However, the star of the Sydney Test this year was Australia comeback batsman Usman Khawaja, who struck centuries in both the innings to power Australia to positions of command. Khawaja scored 137 in the first innings, which came from 260 balls and 13 boundaries, which was also an incredible response to his omission from the Test side for a period of more than 2 years. 

In the second innings, the left-handed batsman followed his first-innings heroics with an incredible 101 not out from 138 balls with the help of 10 boundaries and 2 sixes, to signal his form and let the Australian selectors and fans know what they were missing so far. 

In the first innings, Australia, who won the toss and decided to bat, were bolstered with not only Khawaja’s century but also a 67 from 141 balls with the help of five boundaries from their run-machine Steve Smith, who has been surprisingly quiet in this Ashes series. 

Marcus Harris scored 38 whereas Marnus Labuschagne scored 28 but it was a late surge from tailend batsmen such as Pat Cummins (24) and Mitchell Starc (34 not out) which propelled Australia to a huge total of 416/8 declared.

For England, the right-arm venerable fast bowler Stuart Broad took a splendid five-wicket haul as he returned with figures of 29-5-101-5. James Anderson, Mark Wood and Joe Root claimed one wicket each. 

In their reply, England once again were off to a horrible start as we were left tottering at 34/4 with Australia fast bowler Scott Boland accounting for the likes of Root and Crawley. This was when Stokes and Bairstow joined forces to revive England's fortunes not only in the innings but also in the match, adding 128 runs for the fifth wicket from 176 balls to take them close to the follow-on mark.

After Stokes was dismissed for a 191-ball 66 which included 9 boundaries and a six, Bairstow carried on to score his first Test hundred since 2018. The right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman made 113 from 158 balls with the help of 8 boundaries and 3 sixes, and in the company of Mark Wood (39), Jack Leach (10) and Stuart Broad (15), he was able to reduce the first-innings deficit between the two teams.

With a 122-run lead, Australia still needed more on the board to challenge England with a couple of day’s play left. But the top order disappointed as David Warner fell for 3 whereas Harris, Labuschagne and Smith could only manage 27, 29 and 23 respectively.

Australia were served well by their comeback batsman Khawaja and Cameron Green in the second innings, who added 179 runs for the fifth wicket to put the team completely in command of the fourth Test. Both Khawaja and Green batted with aggression and control in the second innings for Australia, putting on an enormous partnership which look like to have batted England out of the contest.

Khawaja scored his third century at the Sydney Cricket Ground and overall 10th in his career, in the process challenging the left-handed opener Harris for a position in the Australian team for the fifth and final Test. On the other hand, Green made a spectacular 74 from 122 balls, cracking 7 boundaries and a six in the process. 

As has always been the case with declarations in Test cricket matches with time running out, Cummins’ declaration on the fourth day evening on which Australia got to bowl only 5 overs proved to be a debatable one.

England opener Haseeb Hameed continued to have a torrid time in Australia, despite having survived a caught-behind for Mitchell Starc overstepping, as he was dismissed for 9 from 58 balls but his partner Crawley did well to live up to the promises he made in the pre-match conference is before the game. 

Crawley had declared that he could sense a big score was due from him and the right-handed opening batsman made an impressive 77 from hundred balls, striking 13 boundaries in the process.

Root and Malan could not trouble the scorers as much as they fell for 24 and 4 respectively, but this was when England's resistance began as Australia continued to push for wickets. The senior England batsmen Stokes and Bairstow once again joined forces to frustrate Australia, batting for a total of 152 balls while making only 60 runs to make England's intention clear of forcing a draw. 

But Nathan Lyon got rid of Stokes and Boland made full use of the second new ball when he had Bairstow caught by Labuschagne at silly point. In between, Cummins returned with the new ball to trap both Jos Buttler — who batted with a fractured finger — and Mark Wood in front of the wickets to open up the game for his side.

While Australia continued to push hard for wicket wickets right till the end but rapidly diminishing daylight meant they could not use the strongest weapon — pace bowling — against the England’ tailenders. 

Australia vice-captain and legspinner Smith came into the attack and even got rid of the ninth wicket in form of Jack Leach, but the pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad incredibly went to bat out the final two overs and help England salvage some pride at Sydney.

The two teams will now move to Hobart in Tasmania where they will face off in the second day-night match of the series, starting on January 15 at the Bellerive Oval.