By Peter Hall
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – England lost opener Ben Duckett early, but safely navigated through to lunch with no further damage to sit on 61-1 in their first innings, having bowled Australia out for 317 on day two of the fourth Ashes test on Thursday.
With the weekend weather forecast promising rain, England are in a race against time to get the win they need to level the series.
With Australia resuming on 299-8, England looked set to wrap up the tourists’ innings quickly after Jimmy Anderson dismissed Pat Cummins off the first ball of the day, but they took another 30 minutes to remove Josh Hazlewood.
Zak Crawley got England’s reply off to a positive start with a boundary off the first ball, but Duckett fell for one as he was caught behind off the bowling of Mitchell Starc.
Crawley survived one DRS review late in the session to remain unbeaten on 26, while Moeen Ali passed 3000 international test runs to move onto 31.
A draw or a win for Australia in Manchester will ensure they retain the Ashes, while victory for the hosts will level the series and take an exhilarating contest to a decider at the Oval in London next week.
(Reporting by Peter Hall; Editing by Toby Davis)
