The third test match between Australia and England ended in a draw as Michael Clarke and Marcus North gritted it out on the final day with a classic 185-run fifth wicket partnership. Clarke finished unbeaten on hundred while North narrowly missed his by four runs, but that was enough for the match to be called off an hour before scheduled close of play.
Australia started the day on 88/2 and with Graeme Swann having spun one through the Ricky Ponting defences the previous day, the worry for the tourists was the drying wicket. However, the English attack started with Graham Onions and Andrew Flintoff, two bowlers who have had success bowling first up. Onions had picked up a couple of wickets in the first innings off the first two balls of the day, while Flintoff had won the second Lord’s test match for his team.
However, there was no swing in the wicket and that meant that Onions was rendered ineffective and Flintoff struggled with his injuries as the overnight pair of Shane Watson and Michael Hussey continued on. Watson reached his second half century of the game, while Hussey also brought up his fifty.
Finally, it was left to James Anderson and Stuart Broad to pick up both the wickets, almost in similar fashion; caught behind while trying to poke at deliveries outside the off-stump. Australia went into the lunch break at 172/4, and England needed to pick up quick wickets after the lunch to hold an opportunity. Effectively, at this stage, Australia was 59 runs ahead and knew that they had to bat out much of the session without losing a wicket.
That is precisely what happened, as the Aussie duo of Clarke and North played on quite comfortably. There was one moment of indiscretion though, as Clarke pulled Ravi Bopara to the short mid-wicket, where captain Andrew Strauss muffed up a sitter which was as close as the hosts got to taking a wicket.
The entire session went wicketless, and it was only an unfortunate North who fell immediately after tea for 96. He had tried to cut Broad away but Anderson dived to his right in the gully region and held an absolute ripper of a catch; North walking off dejectedly, four short of what would have been his second century of the series. At the other end, Clarke hit a four and brought his hundred up and the captains decided to call the match off.
Clarke won the man-of-the-match for his match-saving century. The fourth test match begins on the 7th of August in Headingley.