England battle to survive in first Ashes Test

Clarke, Warner hit centuries as Australia push overall lead to 561 on day three

BRISBANE: England were fighting to save the opening Ashes Test after a demoralising third day dominated by Australia at the Gabba on Saturday.

Skipper Michael Clarke left the tourists toiling in the field chasing after the ball, before calling a halt with just over an hour left and setting England an improbable 561 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series.

England will have to create Ashes history to win the Gabba Test, with their previous highest winning fourth innings score at 332 for seven in Melbourne in 1928.

England had a wretched start to their marathon salvage operation when Michael Carberry was bowled by Ryan Harris in the fifth over, and Jonathan Trott completed a sorry match when he pulled straight to Nathan Lyon at deep square leg for nine.

England went to stumps at 24 for two with Alastair Cook on 11 and Kevin Pietersen not out three.

Clarke held on to his declaration decision, seemingly to inflict maximum mental damage on Cook’s team to set the tone for the rest of the Tests.

Clarke and David Warner hit centuries as Australia accumulated an imposing 401 for seven, representing an overall lead of 560 as the home side set out to protect their 25-year unbeaten run at the Gabba ground.

Warner slates ‘scared’ England

Warner kept on swinging after his first Ashes Test century, saying England looked frightened.

“We’ll take the third wicket tomorrow [today] morning and hopefully we take the rest after that,” he confidently predicted.

“Our bowlers are bowling fast at the moment. England are on the back foot. It does look like they’ve got scared eyes at the moment.”

Warner said although the match was still to be won, a victory at the Gabba would be a massive boost for Australia going into the rest of the series.

“It will be massive to get a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series. If the Tests were back to back it would be quite tough on the English bowlers to try and back up.”

“We will all have a good break after this so hopefully we can take the eight wickets and take it from there.”