Rain halts England’s push for victory

Melbourne, December 30

England rejected ball-tampering allegations as a “beat-up” as rain frustrated their push for their first victory of the Ashes series against Australia here today. Alastair Cook carried his bat for a record unbeaten 244 before David Warner, unbeaten on 40, and captain Steve Smith, on 25, defied the visiting bowlers on a rain-truncated day. When the umpires called off play after persistent rain, Australia were 103/2 and trailing by 61 runs with a day remaining.
“Any time there’s a bit of rain and you’re on top in the game, it’s a bit frustrating, but we’ve got an opportunity tomorrow to win and that’s the attitude we’ve got to take,” said England coach Trevor Bayliss. “We showed in the first innings that we can take a number of wickets reasonably quickly. So, 98 overs tomorrow, it’s more than enough time if we play well to force a result.”
Bayliss also slammed claims of tampering after footage of James Anderson working the ball with his thumbnail drew suspicions. “I’m not sure you are allowed to use your fingernail there,” Shane Warne said while commentating. Fellow former Australian star Michael Slater added: “That’s interesting, you can’t get your nail into the ball. That’s a no-no.”
Jimmy was scratching the wrong side: Bayliss
But Bayliss said the umpires later told him that the allegations were trumped up. “It’s a beat-up. As soon as I saw the headlines I raced into the umpires and that was their words: ‘Nothing to worry about, it was a beat-up, absolutely fine’,” Bayliss said. “I did see the footage and if he (Anderson) was trying to scratch it, then he was scratching the wrong (shiny) side for it to go reverse. I’m quite sure that wasn’t the case.” Match referee Ranjan Madugalle said after the day’s play that there would be no report into the allegations.
Earlier, England were all out on their overnight total of 491 on the first ball of the day, when Anderson was caught by Cameron Bancroft off Pat Cummins for a duck. It meant that Cook achieved the highest score by anyone carrying his bat — the rare feat of batting throughout the innings — in Test cricket, bettering New Zealand’s Glenn Turner’s 223 not out against West Indies in Kingston in 1972. The last Englishman to carry his bat in Tests was Mike Atherton, who scored 94 in New Zealand in 1997.