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Labuschagne, Marsh lead Australia’s fightback on rain-curtailed day
As expected, rain had a major say on the fourth day at Old Trafford with two sessions fully washed out. After a long wait, play finally had gotten underway during what would normally be the second hour of the post-lunch session. When play resumed, the odds were heavily stacked against Australia, more so the overnight pair of Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh. To their credit, the duo weathered the storm rather solidly, negotiating whatever England threw at them with calm.
A lot of the initial phase was about defiance but Marsh did surprise some with an attacking shot early, a nonchalant drop-kick that wasn’t all that far away from Moeen Ali who ran to his left from deep square leg. That apart, the partnership was mostly compact in their shot selection and gave England very few chances when together. Labuschagne gradually started flowing in terms of run-scoring even as Marsh dug deep at the other end.
A moral victory of sorts came for the pair when, after about 90 minutes of play, the umpires told Ben Stokes that England couldn’t operate their pacers anymore due to fading light. It meant that spin had to be bowled from both ends and Moeen came in, as did Joe Root. It allowed Labuschagne to up a gear as he eased towards a well-deserved Test ton, his second overseas. However, it was spin that would eventually break the partnership.
Shortly after completing his century, Labuschagne appeared to be a tad lazy against Root who was getting some bite off the dry Old Trafford surface, constantly threatening the outside and inside edges. His arm-ball in particular had a bit of fizz about it and that’s what got Labuschagne, whose half-hearted late cut ended up as a bottom-edge which Jonny Bairstow pouched on the rebound. It wasn’t given on-field but Bairstow egged Stokes to review and was proven right.
Cameron Green appeared a bit shaky, particularly against spin, and also survived a review at the stroke of Tea. Meanwhile, Marsh has looked quite flawless at the other end although spin is starting to have a say on this tired surface. England would have fancied to have a few more overs of spin in the final session but that wasn’t to be as the rain returned to wash out the remainder of the day.
The weather forecast for the final day is just as ominous as it was for the fourth day, if not worse. England will hope that they get at least a session like they did today or more as they seek to gun down the remaining five wickets. As for Australia, they showed a lot of fight today in the 30 overs that they had to face but will need to do a lot more of that on a wearing surface, if weather and light permits.
Brief scores:
Australia 317 (Mitchell Marsh 51, Marnus Labuschagne 51; Chris Woakes 5-62) and 214/5 (Marnus Labuschagne 111, Mitchell Marsh 31*; Mark Wood 3-27) trail England 592 (Zak Crawley 189, Jonny Bairstow 99*, Joe Root 84; Josh Hazlewood 5-126) by 61 runs
Three buses have exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police say is a suspected terror attack.
Devices in two other buses failed to explode, they said, adding that “large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects”.
Transport Minister Miri Regev paused all buses, trains and light rail trains in the country so that checks for explosive devices could be carried out, Israeli media reports said.
Footage on social media shows at least one bus on fire in a parking lot, with a large plume of smoke rising above.
There have been no reports of casualties at this stage, police said.
The Sri Lanka Navy seized three Indian fishing boats and apprehended 10 Indian fishermen while they were poaching in Sri Lankan waters, during a special operation conducted in the sea area north of Mannar and off the Delft Island in the dark hours of 19 Feb 25.
The Indian fishing boat, together with 04 fishermen aboard, held by the North Central Naval Command was brought to the Talaimannar Pier and they will be handed over to the Fisheries Inspector of Mannar for legal action. Meanwhile the 02 Indian fishing boats and 06 fishermen held by the Northern Naval Command were brought to the Kankesanthurai Harbour and they will be handed over to the Mailadi Fisheries Inspector for legal proceedings.
Including the recent operation, the Navy has held 13 Indian fishing boats and apprehended 99 Indian fishermen for poaching in Sri Lankan waters, thus far in 2025.
Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of their 3-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka last on similarly slow tracks. Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by a target that was kept by Mohammed Shami, who took his sixth ODI five-for and became the quickest man to 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled to get there.
Both sides will rue missed opportunities in their Champions Trophy opener. Bangladesh won a crucial toss on a tired pitch with no dew expected to make chasing easier, but they got off to such a poor start that they needed three dropped catches and a superlative fighting hundred from Towhid Hridoy to stay in the contest. India had Bangladesh down at 35 for 5, Axar Patel was on a hat-trick, and Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter followed by two lives for the record-breaking sixth-wicket stand. It allowed Bangladesh to get to a target that denied India a net-run-rate boost, which can prove crucial if they happen to lose one of their three matches.
India will still consider this a banana peel survived having misread the conditions and decided to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn’t wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.
Bangladesh were 35 for 3 when Axar was introduced in the ninth over. Tanzid Hasan, the only batter who had looked comfortable, played him for the turn and paid the ultimate price with an outside edge. Mushfiqur Rahim, arguably batting too late at No. 6 especially in the absence of the injured Mahmudullah, played the original line, and was done in by the rare one that turned. Axar slowed down the hat-trick ball even more, Jaker Ali obliged with an edge, which Rohit spilled.
Soon Hardik Pandya dropped Hridoy on 23 in Kuldeep Yadav’s first over. Scoring runs was still a task on the sluggish surface, more than 10 overs went without a boundary, but also India went the middle overs without a single wicket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup final. Jaker did provide an opportunity on 24 but this time KL Rahul missed the stumping off Ravindra Jadeja.
The duo found their touch deeper into the innings, but Hridoy was hampered by cramps all over his body. Shami returned to the challenging task of bowling with a short leg-side boundary but used the slower ball wide outside off to not just deny them boundaries but also collect three more wickets. A cameo from Rishad Hossain and Hridoy’s fight despite crippling cramps took Bangladesh to a fighting total.
Rohit continued his high-intent starts of recent times, and Gill matched him shot for shot as India raced away from the three Bangladesh quicks. Just before the field was about to spread, Rohit fell for 41 off 36 in a bid to make one last use of the field restrictions. Immediately, scoring became laborious. Even the master accumulator Virat Kohli struggled to manipulate the ball into gaps before falling to a legspinner again, this one with the letters of Rashid scrambled to Rishad.
Shreyas Iyer played the conditions for a while, but once he got a couple and a boundary off Mustafizur Rahman, he overreached and lobbed a slower ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 15 off 17. Promoted for the dual tasking of breaking the sequence of right-hand batters and also have an eye on the net run rate, Axar skied a slog-sweep, failing to read the Rishad topspinner.
The last three wickets had fallen for 75 runs and had taken 20.2 overs. You would have thought the sight of KL Rahul would have brought calm to the proceedings, but he tried an uncharacteristic hoick early on only to be dropped by Jaker, whom he had himself reprieved earlier in the day. That proved to be the last opportunity for Bangladesh even as India overcame the ghosts of the failed chases in Sri Lanka last year.
The man to thank was Gill, who anchored the chase and made sure he was there at the end. He was 26 off 23 when Rohit got out, but as the conditions changed he tightened his game and took only selective risks. His next boundary came only when the skiddy fast bowler Tanzim Hasan came back. In the 32nd over. By that time had brought up his slowest half-century.
Gill was content with singles off the spinners and even Mustafizur, who bowls a wicked slower ball to make use of these conditions. He scored just 30 off the 52 balls following Rohit’s dismissal, then went into middle gears before finishing it off in glory. He needed 12 out of the 19 runs to bring up a hundred, and hit a six and a four off Tanzim to get to the mark off 125 balls and take his customary bow. Rahul took India home with a six off Tanzim with 21 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
India 231 for 4 in 46.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 41, Shubnam Gill 101*, Virat Kohli 22, KL Rahul 41*; Taskin Ahmed 1-36, Mustafizur Rahman 1-42, Rishad Hossain 2-38) beat Bangladesh 228 in 49.4 overs (Towhid Hridoy 100, Tanzid Hasan 25, Jaker Ali 68; Mohammed Shami 5-53, Harshit Rana 3-31, Axar Patel 2-43) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
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