124 year old record broken in Boxing Day Test! There was a fall of wickets on the first day itself…after Australia, England also collapsed.

Mumbai:The fourth Test of the five-match Ashes series being played between Australia and England started on 26 December at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and on the very first day this match got registered in the pages of history. On the first day of the Boxing Day Test, the pitch was no less than a nightmare for the batsmen, while the fast bowlers completely controlled the game. By the end of the day’s play, the first innings of both the teams had ended and Australia’s second innings had also started.

20 wickets fell on the first day

A total of 20 batsmen returned to the pavilion on the first day and the special thing was that all the wickets went to the fast bowlers. After almost 124 years in Ashes history, such a scene was seen when 20 or more wickets fell on the very first day of a Test. Earlier in January 1902, 25 wickets had fallen on the first day on the same ground, which is still the biggest record for the first day of Test cricket in Australia. This happened for the fourth time at MCG, when 20 or more wickets fell in a single day.

Australia’s first innings was disappointing

The Australian team, which came to bat first after losing the toss, was not given any chance by the England fast bowlers to recover. The entire team was reduced to just 152 runs. For the Kangaroo team, Michael Neser made the maximum contribution by scoring 35 runs, while Usman Khawaja could last for some time by scoring 29 runs. Apart from this, no batsman could play a big innings. Josh Tong wreaked havoc on behalf of England, taking 5 wickets and breaking the back of Australian batting.

England’s innings also did not last very far

Despite Australia’s low score, England’s first innings also proved to be very weak. The English team could score only 110 runs and Australia got a lead of 42 runs on the basis of first innings. Harry Brook scored the highest 41 runs for England. Gus Atkinson (28) and captain Ben Stokes (16) were the only other batsmen who could reach double figures. For Australia, Michael Neser took 4 wickets and Scott Boland took 3 wickets to wrap up the English innings.

Start of Australia’s second innings

By the end of the first day’s play, Australia had scored 4 runs in their second innings without losing any wicket. Night watchman Scott Boland returned unbeaten after scoring 4 runs, while Travis Head was present at the crease without opening the account. In this way, by the end of the day’s play, Australia’s total lead was 46 runs.

Pitch and conditions made the match for the bowlers

The MCG pitch created problems for the batsmen from the very first day. The extra bounce, seam movement and help provided to the fast bowlers completely changed the course of the match. This was the reason why the batting of both the teams looked shaky and the dominance of the bowlers was clearly visible.

Ashes already won by Australia

It is noteworthy that Australia has already won the Ashes trophy by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the Test series. Despite this, the first day of the Melbourne Test was enough to prove that the excitement on this historic ground can last till the last ball. Now it will be interesting to see whether the batsmen are able to adjust to the conditions in the days to come or whether the dominance of the bowlers continues like this.