The Ashes 2013 – 4th Test, Day 2: Chris Rogers hits maiden ton to put Australia in ascendancy

Resuming second day’s play, Australia’s Jackson Bird uprooted James Anderson’s middle stump to dismiss England for 238 without any rune added to their overnight total.

When England came to bowl, ball was seaming alarmingly. From one end, Anderson kept Aussie batsman under check, but it was wrecker-in-chief Stuart Broad who found the right combination of swing and seam which stunned the opposition top order.

Back to his favorite position as opener, David Warner found the going tough and was comprehensively bowled by an in swinger from Broad, which was through him before Warner realised.

Usman Khawaja was caught in two minds about whether to play or not and as in the end it was too late in withdrawing his bat from a Broad delivery that zoomed across him. The ball feathered its way to the Prior as Australia were reduced to 2-12.

Shortly after that, the most controversial moment of the day arrived when the ball brushed Rogers’s back pad on its way through to Prior, and England appealed for a caught behind. Umpire Tony Hill raised the finger, and Rogers, while shaking his head, decided to refer that decision.

The replays showed the ball did not hit the bat, but would have hit the top of the off-stump. Seeing this, England players were celebrating wildly. But the celebrations were short lived as Hill’s decision had been caught behind,and not the LBW. Hence, Rogers correctly got the reprieve.

Skipper Michael Clarke was the next man to follow the procession as a reckless swipe at the delivery moving away, he only managed to edge it to Cook, who held it gleefully. Smith fought bravely till lunch, but was dismissed soon when prodding forward to Bresnan he edged the ball to Prior.

At 76 for 4, Watson walked to the middle. With Rogers accompanying him, the pair put on 129 for the 5^th wicket taking Australia close to England’s first innings total. On the other hand, England had only themselves to blame as they dropped both the batsman on their way to their game changing partnership.

Late in the day, Broad, who finished the day with figures of 20-6-48-4, removed a well settled Watson to revive English hopes but that did not stop Rogers, 35, from becoming the second oldest Australian to score a maiden Test hundred. At stumps, Rogers was unbeaten at 101 runs and with Haddin accompanying him on 12 runs not out, Australia are on their way to achieve a sizeable first innings lead.

In the conditions which favoured England’s seamers, the story of the day was all about survival for Australia’s batsman with a combination of grit and little bit of good fortune.