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Australia v England, Perth
Australia won the toss and bowled first on a very overcast day. The pitch was perfect for batting. England without the injured Graham Thorpe managed to score just 264 runs. England got off to a bad start losing Michael Atherton for just 4 when the score was 16. At 11.45AM rain stopped play for 14 minutes. Shortly afterwards Nasser Hussain was out lbw to McGrath for 12 runs. The score was 42/2 and England were in trouble. At 12.19PM rain stopped play and the umpires decided to take an early lunch. Play resumed at 1.10PM and Mark Butcher went out within a couple of minutes lbw to Miller for 35 runs. With the score 64/3. 12 overs later Alec Stewart was out for 22 and England were 95/4. At 2.08 PM rain stopped play again for 22 minutes. And shortly after that at 2.59PM rain stopped play again for another 12 minutes, which didn't let the batsmen, really get going. After that Mark Rampraksh(43*) and John Crawley (20*) reached the 50 partnership and took England to 146/4. But collapse was just around the corner. At 3.35PM rain stopped play for the rest of the day and England finished 150/4.
Day 2 was also very overcast and the pitch was still good for batting with no visible cracks. Jason Gillespie and Glenn McGrath opened the bowling and Mark Ramprakash reached his half-century off 95 balls. 4 overs after that John Crawley was dismissed for 32 and England were 181/5. Straight after that Mark Rampraksh was out for 69.Fraeme Hick came in and went out with just 10 runs and at lunch on day 2 England were 204/7. When play resumed Tudor was dropped by Ponting and McGrath dropped Cork. But it didn't take long for Australia to dismiss Tudor. Cork was eventually out for 29. At 3.28PM Gough was out and so were England. Their first innings score was 264 all out. After tea Australia started their innings. The first wicket fell with the score 60/1 and it looked like England were going to be thrashed again. But the England bowlers never gave up and at the end of day 2 Australia were 124/7.
Day 3 was cloudy and the pitch was still in perfect condition. No play took place though as the rain came down and thunderstorms started in Western Australia. Australia were hoping it wouldn't stop for the rest of the game as they were looking like losing.
Day 4 was fine and sunny with light clouds. It took England just 16 overs to knock over the Australian tail end. It was a poor performance by Australia who only managed 166. Darren Gough and Dominic Cork were the leading bowlers and took 9 wickets between them with Alex Tudor picking up the 10th. Butcher was out for 0 and Atherton for 4. At lunch on day 4 England were 8/2. After lunch Stewart, Hussain and Ramprakash all batted fairly well to take England to 97/5. Graeme Hick was out for 0. And England finished 106/9 at tea. After tea Australia bowled England out for 194. Jason Gillespie took 6 wickets. This meant that Australia required 293 runs to win. But at the close of day 4 it didn't look good for Australia who were 1/1.
The weather forecast for the last day of this test was cloudy with occasional breaks of sun. At lunch Australia were 94/4 and the draw looked hopeful. But after lunch the England bowlers got to work reducing Australia to 166/9. It took England 1 over after tea to wrap up the game. Australia were all out for 171 and England won the game by 121 runs. The man of the match was Darren Gough and the series was all equal at 1-1.
