Gillespie fires Australia ahead

BRISBANE, NOV 30: After a few hiccups, Australia eventually scrambled to a seven-wicket victory and a one-Test advantage in the Ashes ser...

BRISBANE, NOV 30: After a few hiccups, Australia eventually scrambled to a seven-wicket victory and a one-Test advantage in the Ashes series. The win was a lot harder to claim than appeared likely after England8217;s first innings demise and Australia are now aware that they face a much improved bowling attack, but the fragile batting still leaves Alec Stewart8217;s team extremely vulnerable.

It was Jason Gillespie who fully exploited this fragility with a devastating spell that revived all the horrors of the first day massacre. Hick was the first to fall, edging as he had in the first innings, to Ricky Ponting8217;s safe hands. This was a big breakthrough as Hick was timing the ball sweetly and scoring quickly.

Hick8217;s dismissal opened the floodgates as once again the England tail crumbled. Gillespie trapped Dominic Cork lbw and very nearly did the same to Alex Tudor the following ball. Umpire Vekataraghavan ruled against the loud appeal, but the next delivery swung away slightly and took the edge of the bat. Thenext trapped Darren Gough in front to put the bouncy South Australian on a hat-trick, which he missed when Mark Ramprakash defended stoutly.

Not to be denied, Gillespie then completely fooled Alan Mullally and finished with his third five-wicket haul in Test cricket. While all this mayhem was occurring at one end, Ramprakash was fighting hard to protect his wicket and gather runs. He has great determination and fierce concentration, but he struggles to score at a reasonable rate against Test bowling and this shows up when he gets caught with the tail.

SCOREBOARD

England 1st innings 112

Australia 1st innings 240

England 2nd innings, 126 for five overnight: M Atherton c Taylor b Fleming 35, M Butcher c Ponting b Fleming 1, N Hussain lbw b Fleming 1, A Stewart c Taylor b Fleming 0, M Ramprakash not out 47, J Crawley c Langer b Miller 15, G Hick c Langer b Gillespie 68, D Cork lbw b Gillespie 16, A Tudor c Healy b Gillespie 0, D Gough lbw b Gillespie 0, A Mullally b Gillespie 0;Extras 8nb 8.

Total 70.2 overs 191.

Fall Of Wickets: 1-5, 2-11, 3-15, 4-40, 5-67, 6-158, 7-189, 8-189, 9-189, 10-191.

Bowling: McGrath 26-10-47-0, Fleming 19-7-45-4, Gillespie 15.2-2-88-5, Miller 10-4-11-1.

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Australia 2nd innings: M Taylor c Hick b Mullally 3, M Slater c amp; b Gough 17, J Langer c Atherton b Tudor 7, M Waugh not out 17, S Waugh not out 15; Extras 3lb, 2nb 5.

Total for three wickets, 23 overs 64.

Fall Of Wickets: 1-16, 2-24, 3-36.

Bowling: Gough 9-5-18-1, Mullally 9-0-24-1, Tudor 5-0-19-1.