England 294 for 7 (Pietersen 113, Cook, 62, Bell 60) trail Australia 527 for 7 dec by 233 runs
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For a little more than two hours, England asserted the measure of
control they required to secure this match, and the Ashes themselves.
Though Australia's bowlers had toiled manfully and persistently, finding
life where their opposite numbers had not, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell
stood firm, the former thrusting to a fine hundred, the latter
caressing his way towards a third such score of the series.
But right at the moment the tourists may have begun to flag, Ryan Harris
found a way through the previously impassable Bell, tilting back his
off stump and revitalising Australia. The wickets of Jonny Bairstow and
Pietersen himself followed, leaving the Old Trafford Test finely
balanced with two days remaining and maintaining Australia's heartening
revival as belatedly serious contenders for the urn.
On a day of high quality and considerable intrigue, Harris, Mitchell
Starc, Peter Siddle and Shane Watson all delivered searching spells.
Pietersen and Bell can seldom have played better, their calculated
attack on Nathan Lyon a critical passage on a pitch taking turn and
bounce throughout. There were imponderables, too. Pietersen on 62 would
have been out lbw had Michael Clarke assented to Watson's opinion that
his old-ball inswinger was bound for the stumps. When Starc dismissed
Pietersen lbw there was Hot Spot evidence of the merest nick.
Starc's contribution should not be underestimated, for his knack of
taking wickets countered a tendency to lose his length and line at
times. A mediocre delivery accounted for Alastair Cook thanks to a
supreme leg-side diving catch by Brad Haddin, but Bairstow and Pietersen
fell victim to a sublime spell of reverse movement as the evening drew
in.
Recovered from an apparent stomach bug, Harris had opened up for Clarke
alongside Siddle. Their early overs were relentlessly probing, offering
only the most occasional scoring chances for Cook and Jonathan Trott,
neither of whom looked comfortable despite a ball that was no longer new
and a pitch possessing few demons.
Trott, who had begun the series in grand touch, was particularly
scratchy, becalmed in much the same way Joe Root had been the previous
night. Unable to get off strike, or hit the middle of the bat, Trott
ultimately succumbed while doing his best not to play a shot at all,
edging to Clarke at second slip while trying to leave Harris.
Pietersen's first few deliveries were no more convincing, as he fiddled
loosely at balls zinging past him outside off stump as though wanting to
offer a nick to the Australia cordon. Harris nearly burst a yorker
through Pietersen also, but the entry of Starc and Watson to the bowling
attack - while Lyon was oddly given only two overs - allowed a little
pressure to be relaxed.
With Pietersen scoring freely and Cook carrying on stoically, England
appeared set to reach lunch without further loss. But 12 minutes before
the break a Starc delivery angling towards Cook's hip drew a fine leg
glance and a rasping catch by Haddin, clasping the chance in the tip of
his right glove as he threw himself full length. In the dying moments of
the session Bell may have given up the thinnest of edges to Haddin off
Starc, but only Australia's wicketkeeper went up for the catch.
That moment did not linger too much in Australian minds, but there was
to be another midway through the afternoon. Pietersen and Bell had
counter-attacked confidently and fruitfully, their chief achievement the
removal of Lyon from the attack despite Australia's offspinner bowling
well on a pitch that offered turn and bounce. Twice Pietersen lofted
Lyon for six and Bell followed up with one of his own; not once could
the bowler be said to have offered up something to hit.
Nonetheless, his withdrawal left Clarke searching for wickets, but when
Watson found a hint of swing after replacing Lyon, the moment of success
passed without the captain realising it. Pietersen had lurched forward
and across to play through midwicket, and though Watson seemed adamant
in his appeal Haddin and Clarke suggested the ball was swerving down the
leg side.
But Hawk-Eye revealed it to be hitting leg stump squarely enough for
Tony Hill's verdict to be overturned, and the sight of Darren Lehmann
raising a glum finger from the balcony left Clarke pondering whether his
moment had passed. Certainly there were few other glimmers offered by
Pietersen and Bell, both well entrenched by the time the interval
arrived and already taking some shine off the second new ball.
Safe as both batsmen looked, Australia required something beyond the
sturdy stuff dished up in the first two sessions. True to his form so
far in the series Harris would provide it. Moving most deliveries
fractionally away from Bell, he conjured a nip-backer that beat an
accomplished technician for length, pace and deviation, striking the top
of off stump and reviving his team.
Bairstow and Pietersen then prospered for a time, but never with the
security of the previous stand. Each bowler troubled Bairstow in turn,
while Watson singed Pietersen's outside edge with a series of deliveries
bending subtly away. Watson's frustration at this sequence was plain,
but it did not prevent him from pouching a sharp low chance when Starc's
angle eventually tempted Bairstow to flirt at a ball whirring across
him.
Starc was by now finding the reverse swing that won him selection ahead
of Jackson Bird, and two overs later he ensured Australian hope would be
raised for the remainder of the match by pinning Pietersen lbw. The
ball straightened down the line and would have crashed into middle
stump, though there was the suspicion of an edge so thin that even
Pietersen did not pick it up. Stuart Broad and Matt Prior were left to
scratch around in the lengthening shadows, the match and the series
still tantalisingly open.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
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