England v Australian Headingley 4th Test match

16,17,18,19,20 August 2001 (5-day match) - England won by 6 wickets

Umpires : DR Shepherd and S Venkataraghavan (Ind)

Match Reports : Day 1; Day 2; Day 3; Day 4; Day 5

Toss: Australia (elected to bat) Man of the match - Mark Butcher

Third Day Report

At lunch on the third day, England had recovered from a poor start to the day, loosing three wickets for just 19 runs, Hussain, Butcher and Afzaal all back in the changing rooms.

It only took 11 minutes for the Australians to break through; Hussain was trapped leg before for 46 with a ball that kept low, the bowler, none other than Glenn McGrath. He had only added a single run to his score, the partnership a valuable 88 had closed.

Seven minutes later and Butcher was on his way back after calling for a suicidal quick single after Gillespie had half stopped the ball, parrying it to Lee who was unsighted by Butcher, aimed and hit the stumps; the England batsman well out of his ground.

Although Afzaal in his short innings looked comfortable out in the middle, he made an error of judgment, once again off McGrath edging the ball to first slip where Shane Warne took a superb two handed catch. The ball moved quickly and away from Warne but the Australian held on to put England further in trouble.

However, the fight back came courtesy of Ramprakash and Stewart, both guiding the home side to Lunch without further loss. Warne did get the ball to turn, but looked out of sorts and never looked like taking a wicket. With McGrath rested to take the new ball after lunch, Gillespie and Lee tried to force the break but both failed and apart from a knock on his wrist, Ramprakash took the attack to the Australians.

With only 16 runs required to avoid the follow on at Lunch, England look comfortable for the first time in the series and have succeeded to bat for more than 66 overs and more than two sessions.

Rain forced the issue in the afternoon session between lunch and tea, but not before the crowd witnessed possibly the most exciting period of cricket since Gilchrist's amazing knock in the first Test.

The 16 runs required to avoid the follow on, were scored in the very first over after lunch of Brett Lee, bowling the final over before the new ball was taken. Stewart hit two fours and Ramprakash one in a very attacking over from England.

Surprisingly, Gilchrist showed enormous faith in his fast bowler and kept him on after conceding the runs. It was to pay off, Ramprakash attempting to play a hard cut, only succeeded in nicking the ball to Gilchrist behind the wicket. It was good bowling from Lee, great courage to fight back and take a much-needed wicket.

Both Tudor and Caddick managed to stick around a little while at the other end, Alec Stewart continued his swashbuckling role, hitting four after four, and even one huge six off Glenn McGrath despatched to the newly built stand. Tudor was the first to go, once again the Gilchrist / McGrath partnership responsible for the wicket when Tudor tried to force the pace from his end.

Caddick was then subjected to an awesome display of quick, aggressive and dare I say Bodyline bowling from Brett Lee, who in one over struck Caddick on the forearm, bowled him off a no ball and reached 93 mph on the speedometer.

In fairness to Caddick, he was given out caught behind by umpire Vengkat, a decision that if he had called for the third umpire, Vengkat would have seen that the ball came off his arm guard and not his glove, unfortunate but nevertheless, he was given out, Lee the beneficiary.

England were now close to the end, Gilchrist continued to bowl Lee who, although expensive was bowling with as much aggression as he did before his injury. McGrath, two wickets away from taking the magic 350 in Tests bowled with the accuracy the cricketing public have come to expect.

Gough came in throwing his bat and was duly sent back the very next over after scoring 5 runs, McGrath taking the wicket after Gough had skied an attempted pull, Slater running in to take the catch.

Bad light and then rain came down and play was suspended for well over an hour. Mullally was on strike and the umpires had no other decision but to offer the light to the batsmen for Lee was bowling to the number 11.

When play did resume, Alec Stewart managed to score eight more runs before Mullally fell to a Katich catch at silly point. It was McGrath's 350th wicket in Test cricket, he finished with bowling figures of 7 for 76 off 30.2 overs. Only two other bowlers have reached 350 wickets quicker; Hadlee in 69 Tests, and Lillee in 70 - McGrath has taken 74 test matches to reach the landmark.

England all out for 309 runs, 138 runs behind the Australian first innings total.

Australia began their second innings positively, continuing the score at over four an over as they did in the first innings. Hayden hit Gough to the boundary on his second ball to get the score moving, but struggled to score thereafter. Slater on the other hand looked very comfortable, and in his short innings of 16, he hit three 4's before Darren Gough bowled the Australia. Slater was unlucky to play on to his stumps; the pitch was already showing signs of inconsistency and Gough profited from a ball that kept low.

Ponting came in with the total on 25 and set about increasing the Australian lead. He was fortunate to escape with a life after Atherton dropped him early in his innings; Gough hanged his head in disgust and walked back to his mark. Ponting was given not out on 0 in his first innings and with this life, was it another bad omen for the English?

At the close of play, brought about prematurely for bad light for the second successive day, Australia, 1 for 69 runs, are 207 runs ahead with 9 second innings wickets still standing. Ponting is 30 not out off only 35 balls, and Hayden 12 not out off 48 balls.