BIRMINGHAM: Australia captain Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon took four wickets each as the Ashes holders were left needing 281 to win on the fourth day of the first Test against England at Edgbaston on Monday.
Cummins struck at both ends of the innings in taking 4-63, while veteran off-spinner Lyon’s haul of 4-80 included the key scalps of Joe Root and Harry Brook.
Both batsmen fell just short of half-centuries in an England total of 273 all out as Lyon closed in on 500 Test wickets.
But England’s last two wickets added 44 runs.
England 28-2 as rain halts opening Ashes Test for second time
Only three teams have made more than 200 to win in the fourth innings of a Test at Edgbaston.
The highest chase was England’s 378-3 against India last year and the next best was South Africa’s 283-5 in 2008.
Australia, bidding for their first Ashes series win in England in 22 years, have plenty of time to get the runs, with 42 overs left in Monday’s play and all of Tuesday’s final day to come.
England resumed on 28-2 after openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had been dismissed in the best bowling conditions of the match during a rain-interrupted third day on Sunday.
Both Ollie Pope and Root, who made an unbeaten 118 in England’s first-innings 393-8 declared, had yet to get off the mark.
But the sunny skies at Edgbaston suggested there would be less movement for Australia’s pacemen on a pitch labelled “soulless” by England seamer Stuart Broad.
Root signalled his intentions – and underlined England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach – from the very first delivery, when he failed to make contact with an audacious reverse scoop off Cummins, the ball just missing his off stump.
Root risks
The former England skipper demonstrated the range of his strokeplay in two balls from Scott Boland in the next over.
A classical legside clip for four was followed by a spectacular reverse ramp for six.
But Cummins hit back when he bowled Pope (14) with a near-unplayable thunderbolt yorker that left England 77-3.
Lyon made the crucial breakthrough when the advancing Root slogged and missed, with wicketkeeper Alex Carey completing a neat legside dismissal as the star batsman, who faced just 55 balls, was stumped for the first time in his 240 Test innings.
Australia were then rewarded for keeping Brook tied down when he miscued a sweep off Lyon to Marnus Labuschagne.
Jonny Bairstow, who made a run-a-ball 78 in England’s first innings, was given out lbw for just one to Boland just before lunch but reprieved on review.
The wicketkeeper extended England’s lead beyond 200 with two fours off successive Cummins deliveries.
But he was dismissed for 20 by Lyon, appearing in his 99th consecutive Test, when lbw playing a reverse sweep.
Stokes then became the third batsman in the innings to fall in the 40s, playing down the wrong line on 43 to Cummins to be trapped in front.
Australia were now into England’s tail.
Moeen Ali swept Lyon for a well-struck six to the delight of the all-rounder’s Birmingham home crowd but he gloved Josh Hazlewood down the legside to Carey.
Ollie Robinson smashed Hazlewood down the ground in tennis fashion before he holed out for 27 and the innings ended when James Anderson was caught behind off Cummins.
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