Jarrod Kimber reports from MCG as England got two big wickets of David Warner and Shaun Marsh with Australia having a lead of 14 runs with two session (0:49)
Tea Australia 327 and 4 for 225 (Smith 87*, M Marsh 10*) lead England 491 by 61 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
England’s hopes of a consolation victory in Melbourne had all but disappeared by tea on the final day at the MCG, where Steven Smith was eyeing up yet another hundred and Australia still had six wickets in hand. The Australians also held a lead of 61 runs, meaning England not only needed to run quickly through the rest of Australia’s order, but would also require adequate time to chase down a small total in order to arrive at the SCG with a 3-1 scoreline.
Smith and Mitchell Marsh had batted right through the middle session with few problems, adding 47 runs for the loss of no wickets. At the tea break, Marsh was on 10 from 97 balls and Smith had compiled a patient 87 from 228 deliveries. Smith will finish 2017 as the year’s highest Test run scorer worldwide, and has the chance to register his sixth hundred of the calendar year as well, which would match his career-best tally of six tons in 2015.
The session was a much-needed steadier for Australia after England claimed the wickets of David Warner and Shaun Marsh shortly before the lunch break to give themselves a sniff of victory. Warner had crawled to the slowest half-century of his Test career, a 161-ball effort that ran completely against type, but he threw his wicket away when his eyes lit up at the part-time spin of Joe Root and he skied a catch on 86.
Marsh edged behind off Stuart Broad for 4 on the stroke of lunch, falling to a fine catch by Jonny Bairstow moving to his left, to leave Australia only 14 runs in front at the break, with six wickets in hand. It had been a slow-scoring two-and-a-half-hour session for the Australians; the first 14 overs of the day brought only 20 runs as Smith and Warner focused almost exclusively on survival.
Smith brought up his half-century from his 151st delivery, a patient effort, though not the slowest fifty of his Test career.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo