Wednesday 5 January 2011
Sydney Day 3: Australia 280, England 488 for 7. England lead by 208 runs with 3 wickets left. Day 3 at the SCG was dedicated to the memory of Jane McGrath, an English lady who fell in love with and married legendary Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath, but tragically lost her life to breast cancer. Jane believed that "it takes a real man to wear pink", so it is only appropriate that pink should be the colour of choice for the McGrath Foundation, which seeks to raise money (and awareness) to fund breast care nurses for cancer sufferers. The majority of the 40,000 spectators in the ground today wore at least one item of pink - in some cases matching pink bra, panties and top hat, in others an unexpected pink sunburn as the sun finally came out on the SCG around midday. On the pitch the day went with the form of the rest of the series. Resuming on 167 for 3 with the match finely balanced, England proceeded to score a further 321 runs for the loss of only four wickets. This was once again a day of commanding batting by Alastair Cook, who broke all sorts of Ashes records on the way to his superb 189, and Ian Bell, who batted beautifully to reach his long overdue but richly deserved first hundred against Australia. At the moment Bell reached his century I was glad of my sunglasses, as to be seen wearing pink and simultaneously shedding a tear may have been taking Jane McGrath's "real man" image a bit too far. Matt Prior also contributed a typically pugnacious fifty, at one stage spanking a straight drive into the crowd for the day's only six. Aside from night watchman Jimmy Anderson, who as usual did not last long, only Paul Collingwood failed today with the bat and must now be fearing for his Test place after a poor series. His skied drive presented Michael Beer with his first Test wicket at the third attempt: after the no ball call yesterday which denied him the prized wicket of Cook, there was also a huge Aussie appeal for a catch at short leg when Cook was on 99. TV replays clearly showed the ball had bounced before being "caught" by Phil Hughes. Conversely, the TV "snicko" technology suggested that Bell was caught behind on 67 but he was adjudged not out as the "hot spot" technology available to the third umpire did not detect contact with the bat. Australia really have not had the rub of the green with key decisions so far in this match. In short, today belonged once again to England, who will be looking to extend their first innings lead to 250+ tomorrow morning, then start to make inroads into the Australia second innings. It now seems inconceivable that they can lose this match from here, an outcome which would be sufficient to ensure a first series win in Australia since 1986/87.
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