Controversy was back to hound the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge on Day Three in the form of umpire Aleem Dar and England all-rounder Stuart Broad, who appeared to have nicked the ball before it hit wicketkeeper Brad Haddin’s gloves and deflected into the hands of Michael Clarke at first slip. However, to the utter shock of 11 Australians on the field and a few more in the dressing room, Dar did not see it and turned down the appeal.
The Australians had exhausted all their appeals for the innings, having wasted one on Jonny Bairstow earlier, and were understandably incensed. Broad, for all his cherubic boy-next-door looks, put on a poker face and carried on with his game. It was the second DRS-related incident in the match, after Jonathan Trott was given out to an inside edge on Day Two that Hot Spot failed to catch. You win some, you lose some, goes the saying. Both sides have benefited from umpiring and technological errors, but Australia would consider themselves to have gotten the rougher side of the deal as Broad went on to share a potentially match-winning unbeaten 108-run seventh-wicket partnership with Ian Bell to take England to stumps on Day Three at 326 for six.
The incident provided for an interesting final hour of the day with the Australians charged up and throwing everything including the kitchen sink at the two Englishmen. However, Bell and Broad were stubborn as ever in their resistance and occupied the crease like they were guarding the Crown Jewels. Bell, who had just one half-century to his name in his last 10 innings prior to this one, played a responsible knock, playing second fiddle to Matt Prior’s aggressive innings at first before guiding Broad along to take England to safety. When he reached his half-century in the second session, it made him the 14th Englishman to cross 6,000 runs in Test cricket.
Earlier, in the morning session, England lost both their overnight batsmen, Kevin Pietersen (64) and Alastair Cook (50), after the duo brought up their 13th century stand in Test cricket. Pietersen and Cook had provided England with a steady start and negotiated the nervy first hour of play well. Pietersen was looking confident and struck a few glorious boundaries before bringing up his 31st Test half-century. However, at the stroke of the hour, the talismanic batsman chopped James Pattinson’s fullish delivery wide of off-stump onto his middle stump to end a responsible knock.
Cook, meanwhile, had begun showing his first signs of aggression as he approached his half-century, which was brought up in 164 balls, equaling his slowest ever. But the England captain was to fall soon after as he nicked Agar to first slip to give the teenager his first Test wicket. The left-arm spinner took his second wicket in the afternoon session after finding Bairstow’s edge less than half an hour after lunch. Wicketkeeper-batsman Prior then launched a counterattack and scored a quick 31 before his aggression got the better of him.
ENGLAND 1st innings 215
AUSTRALIA 1st innings 280
ENGLAND 2nd innings
AN Cook* c Clarke b Agar 50
JE Root c †Haddin b Starc 5
IJL Trott lbw b Starc 0
KP Pietersen b Pattinson 64
IR Bell not out 95
JM Bairstow c †Haddin b Agar 15
MJ Prior† c Cowan b Siddle 31
SCJ Broad not out 47
EXTRAS (b 2, lb 13, w 1, nb 3) 19
TOTAL 326
TO BAT GP Swann, ST Finn, JM Anderson
FALL OF WICKETS 1-11 (Root, 7.3 ov), 2-11 (Trott, 7.4 ov), 3-121 (Pietersen, 56.6 ov), 4-131 (Cook, 59.1 ov), 5-174 (Bairstow, 79.6 ov), 6-218 (Prior, 92.6 ov)
BOWLING
JL Pattinson 28-7-89-1, MA Starc 27-7-66-2, AC Agar 35-9-82-2, PM Siddle 28-10-63-1, SR Watson 15-11-11-0
Match details
Toss England, who chose to bat
Test debut AC Agar (Australia)
Player of the match tba
Umpires Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and HDPK Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)
TV umpire M Erasmus (South Africa)
Match referee RS Madugalle (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire NA Mallender
