Australia wasted a solid start on the rain-marred opening day of the final Ashes match against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday, despite a confident Test debut by Usman Khawaja. The Pakistan-born Khawaja, 24, the first Muslim to play a Test for his adopted country and replacing injured Ricky Ponting, fitted in seamlessly with a poised start to his Test career before he fell for 37.
Australia, under acting captain Michael Clarke and attempting to prevent England from winning their first series Down Under in 24 years, relinquished a hard-won start to be 134 for four when play was washed out late in the day. Michael Hussey was the not out batsman on 12. "I had a ball out there. I just wanted to stay out there as long as I could. It was a good start," Khawaja said. "You never want to get out, especially the last ball of the day as it turned out to be. "I'd like to be 37 not out overnight, but that's cricket. All you can do is learn from it." Seamer Tim Bresnan, who finished with two wickets, said it was England's day.
Khawaja's accomplished two-hour knock ended when he top-edged a sweep off spinner Graeme Swann to Jonathan Trott at backward square leg. It was to be the last ball of the day before the rain swept in. Khawaja caressed a two and a boundary off his first two balls in Tests to get off the mark through the leg-side and looked secure with his parents, Tariq and Fauzia, nervously watching from the stands. Clarke's dismal series continued when he went hard at Bresnan and found James Anderson in the gully on four.
Clarke, standing in for Ponting in this Test, struggled for 21 balls before he attempted to cut a ball too close to his body to give the chance just 11 minutes after a rain resumption. Clarke has scored just 152 runs in eight innings in the series at an average of 19. The Australians looked more assured in their batting early after Clarke won the toss.
The opening pair of Shane Watson and Phillip Hughes patiently left the majority of balls and put on 55 for the first wicket before Hughes fell in the last over before lunch. Hughes's concentration wavered when he needlessly sparred at a Chris Tremlett delivery outside offstump to edge to Paul Collingwood at third slip. Hughes had showed great application for his 31 off 93 balls up to that point with just three balls left in the session. Watson played forward to a Bresnan outswinger and nicked to Andrew Strauss at first slip. Watson toiled for three hours for his 45 and could be heard to cry "Oh no" as Strauss pocketed the catch.
Bresnan followed up his six wickets in the Melbourne Test to have 2-47 off 16 overs. Rain and bad light forced a couple of interruptions during the day and play was washed out from the time Khawaja was dismissed at 4:50pm (0550 GMT). Showers are forecast to clear early Tuesday.
England, who lead the series 2-1, outplayed Australia in heavy defeats in Adelaide and Melbourne while Australia won the third Perth Test and the first Brisbane Test was drawn. England were the last team to beat Australia at the SCG in 2003 when Andy Caddick claimed 7-94 after Michael Vaughan had amassed 183 in the second innings to pull off a massive 225-run triumph.
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Scoreboard
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Australia 1st innings
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S. Watson c Strauss b Bresnan 45
P. Hughes c Collingwood b Tremlett 31
U. Khawaja c Trott b Swann 37
M. Clarke c Anderson b Bresnan 4
M. Hussey not out 12
B. Haddin not out 0
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Extras: (lb4, nb1) 5
Total: (4 wkts, 59 overs) 134
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Fall of wickets: 1-55 (Hughes), 2-105 (Watson), 3-113 (Clarke), 4-134 (Khawaja)
Bowling: Anderson 20-5-34-0, Tremlett 16-6-40-1 (1nb), Bresnan 16-4-47-2, Swann 5-3-6-1, Collingwood 2-1-3-0
To bat: S. Smith, M. Johnson, P. Siddle, M. Beer, B. Hilfenhaus.
Toss: Australia
Crowd: 43,561
Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), Billy Bowden (NZL)
Third (TV) umpire: Tony Hill (NZL)
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI).
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