Root and Brook steer England to safety as wet weather again ruins record-breaking SCG spectacle
England’s middle order stars played their side into a handy position on day one in Sydney.
Root and Brook steer England to safety as wet weather again ruins record-breaking SCG spectacle
Sydney’s notoriously wet early-January weather again put a dampener on day one of the SCG Test, as Joe Root and Harry Brook steered England to relative safety by stumps in front of the biggest cricket crowd at the venue in half a century.
England negotiated their way to 3-211 from 45 overs by the close, thanks to unbeaten knocks of 72 from Root and 78 from Brook against a three-pronged Australian pace attack supported by all-rounders Cam Green and Beau Webster.
The decision not to pick a spinner for the first time in an SCG Test for 140 years did not go smoothly for Australia, with England taking the advantage on day 14 of the series.
Players came from the field at 2.55pm due to bad light – both teams agreed the ball was becoming hard to see – before the covers went on due to showers. Play was eventually called off at 5.01pm.
Considering the attendance on day one was 49,574 – the largest for a Test at the SCG since 53,001 showed up to watch Australia face the West Indies in 1975-76 – it was an anti-climactic end to a day that saw England take honours.
“I could hardly see the ball when I was batting at the end,” Brook said after play. “Me and Rooty just said, ‘It’s so dark out here’. The Aussie boys were saying, ‘Are we going off?’”
Harry Brook in action for England at the SCG on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
Root and Brook’s unbroken 145-run partnership is England’s highest of the series, eclipsed only by Travis Head and Alex Carey’s 162-run stand in Adelaide.
The next best for England this summer remains Root and Zak Crawley’s 117-run partnership in Brisbane, with this pair still some distance from the 234-run stand between Geoffrey Boycott and Bob Barber set at the SCG in 1966.
There was an overwhelming sense of what could be about Root and Brook’s partnership after the pair came together in the middle with their side precariously placed at 3-57 following the wickets of Crawley (16), Ben Duckett (27) and Jacob Bethell (10).
Mitchell Starc (1-53 off 12 overs), Michael Neser (1-36 off 10) and Scott Boland (1-48 off 13) took a wicket apiece in that order, with not an over of spin required. The closest off-spinner Todd Murphy came to getting a bowl was holding Green’s tape measure to mark his run-up before play.
