Steve Smith notched up another milestone as he continued to torment England and Usman Khawaja neared a century to put Australia in a strong position after day two of the final Ashes Test in Sydney on Friday.
The Australia skipper, playing his 111th innings, joined Garry Sobers as the second fastest batsman to reach 6,000 Test runs, second only to the legendary Don Bradman. At close, Smith was on 44 with Khawaja reaching his highest score of the series on 91.
Big partnership
The world’s top-ranked batsman and Khawaja batted through the final session in a 107-run partnership after openers Cameron Bancroft and David Warner had departed early in Australia’s reply to England’s 346.
The tourists, 3-0 down in the series, earlier posted a competitive tally in the face of some fearsome pace bowling on the back of a hard wagging tail and some wasteful Australian catching.
Stuart Broad’s 31, featuring two thumping sixes, had earlier been integral to a bright morning for the tourists after the hammer blow of losing two wickets in the last couple of overs of day one.
Dawid Malan (62) lasted less than half an hour after they had resumed on 233 for five, Mitchell Starc eliciting an outside edge which Smith caught brilliantly to make some amends for three spills in his otherwise impeccable series.
His fast bowlers then proceeded to produce a couple of howlers with Pat Cummins dropping Tom Curran on 21 off Nathan Lyon and, in the next over, Josh Hazlewood letting Moeen Ali off the hook with the all-rounder on 22.
England’s tail made the most of the reprieves with Curran hitting a confident 39 and Moeen 30.
Broad braved the short bowling almost until the scheduled lunch break before becoming spinner Lyon’s first victim of the match and the innings ended in a mix-up that resulted in Mason Crane being run-out for four in his maiden test innings.
The 20-year-old leg spinner later made a reasonably solid start to his Test career with the ball, returning figures of 0-58.
