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| Sunday, 29 December 2002 |
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England in another hole as Aussies close in on fourth Test MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec 28 - Australia were on course for a fourth-day victory after forcing battered England to follow on in the fourth Ashes cricket Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday. Having taken a whirlwind 11 playing days to wrap up the lopsided series by the third Test, the Australians once again illustrated the considerable gulf between them and Nasser Hussain's tourists on a sweltering third day's play. Only allrounder Craig White, batting with painkillers for a torn side muscle, offered stout resistance with an unbeaten 85 as England were dismissed for 270 in their first innings for a 281-run deficit. Despite temperatures hovering around 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), skipper Steve Waugh opted to back up his bowlers and send England into bat again, with weather conditions expected to deteriorate during Sunday's penultimate day. At stumps England had lost the wickets of Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher to be 111 for two with Michael Vaughan scoring a fighting unbeaten 55 in 144 minutes and Hussain not out eight. England were still 170 runs in arrears of Australia's mammoth first innings declaration of 551 for six. "Stephen (Waugh) consulted us and we (the bowlers) were more than happy to have a bowl," said Jason Gillespie, who finished Australia's best with four wickets in the first innings. "All the quicks had probably not done a lot of bowling during the day. We'd only bowled less than 10 overs each and (sending England in again) wasn't really an issue, it was the thing to do to put us in the best position to win the game." Trescothick was out in the 30s for the fourth time in the series when he attempted to sweep Stuart MacGill and was given out lbw for 37 in a dubious decision by Zimbabwean umpire Russell Tiffin. Butcher was brilliantly snapped up by new boy Martin Love at slip off Gillespie for six nine overs before stumps. Hussain on seven survived a desperately close stumping chance off MacGill, which went to the third umpire for adjudication two overs from stumps. Earlier, White narrowly missed scoring a cherished century in the first innings as England were forced to bat a second time after tea. Yorkshire-born allrounder White, who played two Sheffield Shield matches for Victoria between 1990-94, played a lone hand and was left stranded on 85 when he ran out of partners. White revealed he had torn a side muscle while bowling in the Australian first innings on Thursday and would take around six weeks to recover. He was doubtful for next week's final Sydney Test. "I stiffened up during the day and bowled a fair few overs and just after tea I bowled a bouncer to Damien Martyn and felt a little burning sensation in the side... it got worse during the day," White said. |
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