Veteran Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne said that Day 1 of the fourth Ashes Test could have been better for them had they not lost too many wickets towards the end as well. However, the Aussies finished Day 1 at 299-8 with almost every batter getting a strong start, but failing to convert it into a big score as well.
Labuschagne, who scored his first fifty of the 2023 Ashes, spoke to SEN Cricket after the first day at Old Trafford.
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“It’s one of those… we’re so close (to the urn)… we’ve just got to take it day by day. Whenever you finish a day with a three in front of it, it’s never a bad day. It obviously could have been a much bigger day, we had six guys get themselves in and I think whenever you do that and one of your big guns doesn’t get a big score, you’re pretty disappointed, especially when you’re talking about guys getting in the 40s and 50s, so no one has gone on to get 60 to 80 even. You add those 20 runs and all of a sudden it ekes out to close to 400 and that really puts a big dent in it,” Labuschagne added.
However, Moeen Ali trapped Marnus Labuschagne before the stumps soon after his fifty. He took 115 deliveries, hitting six fours as well. However, Australia were put into bat after losing the toss once again and Stuart Broad struck early in the innings by dismissing Usman Khawaja and picked up his 600th Test wicket later in the day as well. Notably, Chris Woakes was the pick of the bowlers as he returned with the figures of 4-52.
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“I think we played really well… I probably didn’t reiterate that enough… we just didn’t go on. 300, I think that’s a really good score so far. I think there was a lot of grass on that wicket, it was quite thatchy, it was tough to score,” he concluded.
