Sport Pixx Sport Photography.

                                          Perth.Western Australia.

 The Magellan Test series

Boxing Day Test.

Australia  vs England

26th - 30th December'17 ..

MCG.Melbourne.Victoria.

Select an Image

Mouse over image to control the slideshow.

The Australian team came into the Boxing Day Test knowing that they had already wrapped up the series, the English team had nothing to lose .The captains went out to the middle, the coin was tossed and Australian captain Steve Smith won the toss and decided to bat. Aussie openers David Warner and Cameron Bancroft  came out to face up to James Anderson and Stuart Broad .The openers started to build on a total gradually ,the pitch was flat and not taking any bounce ,Chris Woakes came on and put down a ball that stayed down and hit Cameron Bancroft on the pads ,the English went up and Bancroft was given out LBW  at 1/122,next bat out was Usman Khawaja who started slowly to add to the scoreboard and  then David Warner on 103 was caught behind of a ball from James Anderson at  2/135.Steve Smith was the next bat to take centre on the flat pitch ,after a couple of over’s it was Usman Khawaja who headed back to the pavilion after being caught behind  from a Stuart Broad delivery with the score at 3/160.Coming out next was Shaun Marsh ,Smith and Marsh added to the score but when the partnership reached 100 runs it was the Aussie captain Steve Smith on 76 that was bowled by Tom Curran ,the Aussies were 4/260 ,Mitchell Marsh was the next batsman to line up ,but with total at 5/278 Mitchell Marsh on 9 played a lazy stroke and played the ball on and was bowled  by Chris Woakes ,with the total at 6/314 Shaun Marsh was LBW to Stuart Broad  for 61 runs, Tim Paine  was the next batsman to come out and take centre , but with the score was at 7/318 Tim Paine was bowled for 24 of James Anderson ,Jackson Bird came out and after he made 4 runs he was on his way back to the pavilion for 4 after being given LBW to Stuart Broad with the score at 8/325 ,Pat Cummins was the next batsman to head back to dugout after making 4 runs after being caught off a ball from Stuart Broad ,the score was now at 9/326 ,Nathan Lyon batted thru’ a few balls but was given out LBW to James Anderson for a duck Josh Hazelwood was 1 not out ,the Australian innings closed at all out for 327 runs.

The English openers  came out and took centre ,when the score was at 35 Mark Stoneman  on 15 was given  out caught and bowled by Nathan Lyon ,the next batsman was James Vince who on 17 was given out after being trapped in front by Josh Hazelwood .The English captain came out and then Joe Root and Alistair Cook steadied the ship and  took the score to 218 before Root was caught by Lyon off the bowling of Pat Cummins  for 61 runs , Dawid Malan came out to partner Alistair Cook who was batting his innings of the series ,but when the score was at 246 Dawid Malan on 14 was given out LBW to Hazelwood  ,England were now 4/246 ,Jonny Bairstow came out and took centre ,then put on 22 runs before he was caught behind  off the bowling of Nathan Lyon ,the total was now 5/279 ,Moeen Ali was the next to line up ,after dispatching the bowlers to various parts of the ground for a quick 20 Moeen Ali was caught by S.Marsh and bowled by Nathan Lyon ,at 6/307 ,The next batsman to come out was  Chris Woakes who held up his end while Alistair Cook knocked up his 150 ,but putting on 26 runs Woakes was caught behind of the bowling of Pat Cummins ,England were now 7/366 ,Tom Curran came out and took centre but after hitting a 4 was caught behind of the bowling of Hazelwood the tourists were now 8/373 ,Stuart Broad came out  started to play the his best innings of the series ,but after putting together a partnership of 100 with Alistair Cook who had made 200 during the partnership , he was caught for 53 of the bowling of Cummins ,the score was now 9/473 ,James Anderson took centre ,then tried to hold  up his end and finally caught off the bowling of Cummins for a Duck ,England were all out for 491 ,giving them a lead of 164 runs over Australia .Alistair Cook’s innings of 244 runs was a well hit innings not giving away any chances.

Day 4 Started and the Melbourne weather had decided to open the skies so the covers remained on ,when the weather let up the ground staff began to roll up the covers but then it started to rain again ,but after a while the sun came out and the ground started to dry out .Play began with James Anderson bowling to opener Cameron Bancroft who with David Warner put on 51 runs before Bancroft chopped a ball onto the stumps and was out bowled for 27 to Chris Woakes.Usman Khawaja came out and with Warner took the total to 2/65 before Khawaja was caught behind for 11 runs of the bowling of James Anderson. Captain Steve Smith came out and with Dave Warner took the total to 172 before Warner was caught of the bowling of Joe Root .Shaun Marsh came out made 4 runs and was back in the pavilion and Australia were 4/178 Next batsman out was Mitchell Marsh who held up the other end while Steve Smith made another century, eventually the match was called a draw .Steve Smith remained 102 not out while Mitchell Marsh was 29 not out.Man of the match went to Alistair Cook for his 244 not out.Around 250,000 cricket fans attended this Test..