Brisbane,(AP/UNB) – Josh Hazlewood trapped Joe Root lbw with the ball after the England captain posted his half century Sunday, giving Australia the ascendency in the Ashes series opener as the tourists slumped to 119-5 at lunch on day four.At the interval, Moeen Ali was unbeaten on 26 and Jonny Bairstow was not out 1.England resumed at 33-2, with a slender seven-run lead, and handled the opening 11 overs without difficulty until Nathan Lyon took a pair of wickets to remove Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan, who had both scored half centuries in the first innings.Lyon broke the 45-run third-wicket stand when he Stoneman (27) out edging low to Australian skipper Steve Smith at slip.Lyon and Smith combined again to dismiss Malan (4) as England slumped to 74-4.After taking his second wicket, Lyon ripped the next two deliveries past Ali’s bat but just missed the edge.Ali had another half-chance before he’d scored when he got an edge off paceman Mitchell Starc but it didn’t quite carry to Smith, who dived across from second slip.Root determinedly held the innings together for almost two hours in the morning session, recovering after a being hit hard in the helmet on Saturday night by a short ball from Starc.He tucked Hazlewood for two runs on the leg side to reach 51 from 103 balls, but was out the very next delivery when the Australian paceman hit him directly in front on the knee roll. That gave Hazlewood figures of 3-38 off 11 overs.England’s lead at the break was 93 runs with five sessions remaining in the first test at the Gabba, where Australia hasn’t lost a test since 1988 and where England hasn’t won since 1986.The highest successful fourth-innings chase at the Gabba was Australia’s 236 against the West Indies in 1951-52, although teams have posted big fourth-innings totals in losses at the Brisbane venue.Pakistan scored 450 chasing 490 in the fourth innings in a loss here last year, and England scored 370 chasing 648 in a loss in the 2006-07 Ashes series.UNB news agency
