Ashes

England on the edge

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Mitchell Marsh (right) celebrates his century with his brother Shaun

England teetered on the brink of their fourth Ashes defeat when they closed day four on 93-4, still 210 runs behind Australia in Sydney.

Joe Root was holding the fort on 42, alongside Jonny Bairstow on 17 after a dispiriting time in the field.

Nathan Lyon had made inroads into the England defence by dismissing Alastair Cook (10) and Dawid Malan (5), while Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins also struck.

Earlier the Marsh brothers had pushed England deeper into the mire with a century apiece, sucking the lifeblood out of the attack in 40-degree heat.

They had resumed day four with Shaun Marsh on 98, his younger brother Mitchell on 63 and Australia leading by 133. Marsh Snr completed his second hundred of the series in the first over of the day and was still there to celebrate with Marsh Jnr, who registered his second Test hundred later in the session before Tom Curran dismissed him the next ball. Still, they had combined for a 169-run partnership that continued Australia’s domination of the match.

Shaun Marsh continued on to 156, when he was run out, responding to a bad call from his partner Tom Paine, but by then he was second only to Steve Smith on the series run tally for both sides.

Smith declared halfway through the second session on 640-7, a lead of 303, by which time England’s weary men had spent 193 overs in the field.

Legspinner Mason Crane finished with 1-193 from 48 overs, giving him the most expensive analysis ever by an England bowler on Test debut, and the fifth most expensive among all-comers.

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