{"id":30116,"date":"2025-12-04T15:05:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=30116"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:05:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:05:20","slug":"roots-elusive-ton-guides-england-to-325-9-against-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=30116","title":{"rendered":"Root’s elusive ton guides England to 325-9 against Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Joe Root finally scored his maiden Test century in Australia on his fourth Ashes tour to guide England from a precarious 5-2 to 325-9 at stumps after a pulsating first day of the second Ashes Test in Brisbane on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Starc became the most successful left-arm fast bowler in history as he claimed 6-71, but the opening sessions of the day-night contest were dominated by Root, who scored a masterful 135 not out.<\/p>\n

Number 11 Jofra Archer thrilled the travelling army of fans as he smashed a career-best unbeaten 32 off 26 balls with two sixes to provide some late fireworks.<\/p>\n

His unbroken 10th-wicket partnership of 61 with Root was a record for England at the Gabba.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s top-ranked batter, Root, had failed to reach triple figures on three previous Ashes tours.<\/p>\n

But the man who is second on the all-time run-scoring list behind only Sachin Tendulkar silenced the critics who said he couldn\u2019t be considered a true batting great until he had made a century in Australia.<\/p>\n

Coming to the crease in the third over at 5-2 with Starc swinging the new pink ball, he embarked on an epic knock, bringing up his century with a leg glance to the fine leg boundary off Scott Boland.<\/p>\n

Starc\u2019s six wickets moved him to 418 in Tests, surpassing Pakistan great Wasim Akram\u2019s 414 as the most prolific left-arm paceman in Test history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWasim\u2019s still the pinnacle, I think he\u2019s still better than me,\u201d said Starc.<\/p>\n

Starc again was the destroyer at the top of the order, removing Ben Duckett in his first over and Ollie Pope in his second to reduce a shell-shocked England to 5-2.<\/p>\n

But unlike in the first Test defeat in Perth, England showed some grit with the partnership between Root and Crawley moving the score onto 122.<\/p>\n

Australia, who won the opening Test inside two days, went into this match without regular skipper Pat Cummins.<\/p>\n

He had been rumoured to be making an early return from a back injury, but instead the hosts sprung a major surprise by leaving out off-spinner Nathan Lyon for seamer Michael Neser.<\/p>\n

It was the first time in almost 14 years that Australia played a Test at home without a frontline spinner.<\/p>\n

Duckett was first to go on the last ball of Starc\u2019s first over, nicking a full ball to Marnus Labuschagne at first slip for a golden duck.<\/p>\n

Pope then chopped on a wide delivery he could have left alone to leave England wobbling.<\/p>\n

Crawley and Root survived an examination from the Australian attack and began to take advantage as the wicket flattened.<\/p>\n

Root shared important partnerships with Harry Brook (31), Ben Stokes (19) and Will Jacks (19) as England played more conservatively than they had in the first Test.<\/p>\n

Root brought up his half-century off 83 balls, shortly after England had reached 150.<\/p>\n

Starc was the only Australian bowler who looked threatening, but Boland did produce the ball of the day \u2014 bowling Jamie Smith for a duck with a beautiful delivery which cut back from outside off stump.<\/p>\n

England had slipped from 210-4 to 211-6 before off-spinner Jacks justified his inclusion to bolster the batting with some positive stroke play before an expansive drive to Starc brought his downfall.<\/p>\n

England were 251-7, which quickly became 264-9 as Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse came and went to a rampant Starc under the lights.<\/p>\n

Just when it looked like England would fold, Archer and Root went on the attack.<\/p>\n

Pace bowler Archer hit two towering sixes, and Root joined the fun with a reverse scoop off Boland that cleared the ropes at third man.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Root finally scored his maiden Test century in Australia on his fourth Ashes tour to guide England from a precarious 5-2 to 325-9 at stumps after a pulsating first day of the second Ashes Test in Brisbane on Thursday. Mitchell Starc became the most successful left-arm fast bowler in history as he claimed 6-71, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}