Perth: In a chaotic opening day of the Ashes, Ben Stokes won the toss and watched his team skittled for 172 before taking a five-wicket haul to give England a first-innings advantage Friday in the first Test.
Day 1 lived up to the pre-series hype, with pace bowlers dominating on a sunny day in front of more than 51,000 spectators at Perth Stadium.
Mitchell Starc took a career-best 7-58 as Australia bundled England out by the second session. Jofra Archer took a wicket in the first over of Australia’s reply to show the five-man England pace arsenal wasn’t to be outdone. The home team was 123-9 at stumps, still 49 runs behind.
In terms of wickets — 19 tumbled in 72 overs — the Test is almost half over with four days remaining.
England lost wickets at regular intervals but batted with intent, scoring at 5.23 runs per over. The disjointed Australian batting line-up went in defensively and lost wickets at even more regular intervals, without the flow of runs. Batters from both teams were hit in the grill by sharply rising short-pitch deliveries, with Cameron Green struck by a 147 kph (91 mph) Mark Wood bouncer that knocked him off balance and almost had him tripping on his stumps in the 24th over of Australia’s innings.
England’s attack was bowling with the kind of menace that the Australian pacemen usually dish out to visiting teams Down Under. For Australia, the 35-year-old Starc took a wicket in the first over of a Test for the 24th time to set the tone, having Zac Crawley caught at slip by Khawaja on the sixth delivery. agencies