The Ashes best bets for day five & odds: Khawaja ton leaves England in trouble

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for the fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England.

Where to watch

BT Sport 1, 11.30pm Saturday

Scoreboard
England 294 (Bairstow 113, Boland 4-36) & 30-0 need 358 runs to beat Australia 416-8d (Khawaja 137, Broad 5-101) & 265-6d (Khawaja 101 not out, Leach 4-84)

Best prices
8-5 Australia, 50-1 England, 4-7 Draw

Story of day four

Resuming on 258-7, England were bowled out for 294 with Jonny Bairstow the ninth man dismissed for a courageous 113.

That left the tourists with a first-innings deficit of 122 but it could have been much worse after they were reduced to 36-4 early in their innings.

Given the unsettled weather in Sydney, Australia were aiming to extend that lead quickly to set up a second-inning declaration but England chipped away at the top order as Mark Wood got rid of David Warner (three) and Marnus Labuschagne (29) while spinner Jack Leach dismissed Marcus Harris (27) and Steve Smith (23).

Three of the top four were caught behind by substitute Ollie Pope, keeping wicket due to injuries to Jos Buttler and Bairstow, but Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green stopped the rot with a fifth-wicket stand of 179.

Khawaja, playing his first Test since the 2019 Ashes, followed up his first-innings 137 with an unbeaten 101 and all-rounder Green, who had had a lean series with the bat, contributed 74.

Pope took another smart catch off Leach to get rid of Alex Carey for a golden duck and Australia declared, setting England a mammoth target of 388 for victory.

Openers Zak Crawley and Haseeb Hameed put on 30 in the last 11 overs of the day (only the second time in the last two Ashes series that England have not lost a wicket in the first ten overs) but they will have plenty more batting to do if they are to save the Test.

Star of the day

Khawaja's dream comeback to Test cricket continued as he made his second century of the match and the left-hander has scored more series runs than any England player other than Joe Root, despite playing only one of the four matches.

Moment of the day

Late in the day there was a reminder of the task facing England on day five when a delivery from Scott Boland, by no means the quickest of Australia's bowlers, took off, catching the shoulder of Crawley's bat and flying over the slips for four.

View from the camp

'I couldn't stop smiling. I was grateful with one hundred, but I'll take the second one too. It reminds me of an old-school SCG wicket. Hopefully it will be a dry day and we can get some reverse swing. Nathan Lyon will hopefully come into the game.'

Usman Khawaja, Australia batsman

Day five preview

On paper, England have 98 overs to survive on day five although more rain is forecast and the draw remains favourite at 4-7.

The tourists did well to see out day four without losing a wicket but Australia are still worth backing to make it 4-0, having skittled England for 68 in just 27.4 overs in the second innings of the third Test in Melbourne.

England have injury concerns over first-innings century-maker Bairstow as well as Ben Stokes and Buttler, who dug in for 26 off 207 balls as his side tried, in vain, to bat out for a draw in the second Test in Adelaide.

A batting collapse is never far away for this England team, who slipped from 22-0 to 36-4 early on day three at the SCG, and Australia's quick bowlers pose a real threat on a fifth-day pitch. Spinner Nathan Lyon took 5-50 in the fourth innings of the 2020 Sydney Test against New Zealand and should be heartened by the success of fellow spinner Leach on day four.

Hameed, who has scores of 25, 27, six, nought, nought, seven and six in this series, is eight not out and bet365 and Hills make him 4-1 to reach 50.

Crawley, unbeaten on 22, is 4-1 with Coral to be England's top second-innings runscorer but Root's injury-hit batting unit may struggle to stave off another defeat.

Best bet

Australia
2pts 8-5 bet365

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