Yorkshire’s Finest Combine to Make Australia Toil

As sessions have gone so far for England in this Ashes series, the second one of the first day of the fifth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) has gone pretty well.

Joe Root (72*) and Harry Brook (78*) have added 97 runs in the session and stretched their unbroken partnership to 154, which is England’s third highest for the fourth wicket at the SCG.

The unbeaten stand between the Yorkshire pair came at a vital moment for the tourists and saw them progress to 211 – 3, after they had slipped to 57 – 3 in the morning session, following captain Ben Stokes’ decision to bat first.

Root’s innings has been one that England fans have become accustomed to seeing over the years, rock solid in defence and punishing any errors in line or length from the Australian bowlers.

He has been particularly effective through the offside, both driving on the front foot and easing onto the back foot to cut through point.

Meanwhile, after batting in a relatively circumspect manner prior to the lunch break, Brook’s innings has once again lurched from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Beautifully timed clips through the leg side and thumping cover drives have been interspersed with charges down the track and ungainly attempted pulls, as Australia moved to the short ball theory.

On the whole though, Brook has remained in control, surviving a couple of top edges that just landed short of the Australian fielders and even managing to handsomely pull Cameron Green for six over deep square leg.

With the Root and Brook partnership having just passed 150, the afternoon session was brought to a premature end, with the umpires calling the players off the field, due to bad light.

England are in a strong position and will be hoping to consolidate this in the evening session, although the current signs are that the players will be off the field for a while, due to a combination of both bad light and the potential threat of rain.