England pace spearhead James Anderson claimed four wickets as England's opening Ashes tour match ended in a draw against a youthful Western Australia XI in Perth on Sunday. Anderson finished with four for 27 as the second-string WA side reached 342 in reply to the tourists' 349 for six declared in the two-day warm-up game. England's all-time leading Test wicket-taker was driven a few times in his first spell of the tour and went for 18 in his five overs, but he tightened things up in his second and third bowling spells.
"You could probably see from the first session that we were pretty rusty as bowlers," Anderson told reporters. England's bowlers initially struggled to make breakthroughs, with opening batsmen Jake Carder (22) and Josh Philippe (88) putting on 80 for the first wicket. Anderson's new ball partner Stuart Broad (1-64) took time to find his rhythm, conceding 32 runs from his first five overs, while seamer Jake Ball returned a tidy 1-31 off 12 overs.
Crane (2-75) and Overton (2-70) did their Test debut chances against Australia no harm with good spells on the flat WACA Ground pitch. The WA XI were bowled out for 338 but kept batting for the final few overs to give England additional practice time with the ball. The first of the five-Test Ashes series begins in Brisbane on November 23. England begin their second warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide on November 8.
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