Nottingham: Ian Bell reached his 18th hundred on the day four of the first test of Ashes and gave his team a great chance of clinching this the opener here on Saturday. Later, some fine bowling from the English bowlers put the hosts on top after Shane Watson and Chris Rogers gave Australia a very good start of 84 runs while chasing the total of 311 runs in the fourth innings of the match at Trent Bridge. Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann picked up two wickets each and that too in quick succession to put England in the driver's seat.
The final Session of the play saw some great bowling from England. It was James Anderson who gave the first blow after the tea break by getting the wicket of Rogers who was looking quite good at 52 runs. Michael Clarke did try to play the waiting game alongside Steve Smith but that didn’t work out against the likes of Steve Finn and Graeme Swann. Bowling change made by Alastair Cook got a reward instantly when Broad struck in 59th over to get Clarke out and on the very first ball of next over Swann dismissed Smith to tighten the grip over this match which till now was very much in balance. Clarke and Smith scored 23 and 17 runs respectively and Aussies were reduced to 5/161.
The hero of the first innings, Philip Hughes made his way to the middle but couldn’t do much with the bat as Swann got his second scalp of the day. Overnight sensation, Ashton Agar made his way with this dismissal to accompany Brad Haddin who was also very much new to the crease. They added the 10 runs for their seventh wicket partnership to end up the day with 6/174.
Earlier, the second session of the fourth day saw some very fine batting from Watson and Rogers who were dealing more in boundaries rather than picking up singles. Broad struck in the 25th over, picking up the big wicket of Shane Watson who was looking quite elegant in his innings of 46 runs. Ed Cowan came into the centre but was sent back to the pavilion by Joe Root with Aussies at 2/111.
The day started with Bell and Broad reaching their century and hal-century respectively. Broad got it in the second over of the day with a four while Bell reached his second successive test hundred against Australia with a single. England were looking quite good as Broad struck his seventh boundary to take past his team over 350 mark but in very next over Pattinson got him out to break the 138 runs partnership between them.
Bell and Swann faced some very good bowling from the Aussie pace attack and finally Mitchell Starc managed to get the Bell out at 109 and England were reduced to 8/371. With just four runs added to the English total, Siddle dismissed Swann and Anderson to wrap up their second innings.
England added 49 runs to their overnight total of 6/326 and set up a stiff target of 311 runs for the Aussies.
Brief Scores- Australia 2nd innings- 6/174 (Chris Rogers 52, Shane Watson 46, Michael Clarke 26, Stuart Broad 2/34 , Graeme Swann 2/64 , James Anderson 1/44).
England 2nd innings- 10/375 (Ian Bell- 109, Stuart Broad 65, Kevin Pietersen 64, Peter Siddle 3/84, James Pattinson 2/101, Mitchell Starc 3/81 )