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Aussies win Ashes series opener
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Cameron Bancroft scored the winning runs for Australia in his test debut, shared a record partnership with David Warner, and then fielded a flurry of questions about an incident that happened last month over a few beers with England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.
Bancroft scored an unbeaten 82 in the 173-run opening stand as Australia wrapped up a 10-wicket victory over England yesterday, surpassing the 170-run victory target with 2 1/2 sessions to spare in the Ashes series opener.
鈥淔irst test of an Ashes is very important,鈥 Australia captain Steve Smith said at the post-match presentation. 鈥淭here was a bit of pressure but really pleased with how we played.鈥
The last session of the match, when Australia had all day to score 56 runs, was overshadowed by news overnight that the England Cricket Board was investigating Bairstow for reportedly head-butting Bancroft during a meeting in a Perth bar four weeks ago.
Bairstow made a brief statement after the match, saying there was no malice in his actions and no animosity between the players. Bancroft agreed there was no malice, but said he鈥檇 been surprised by Bairstow鈥檚 unorthodox method of greeting. The incident only came to light when some Australian fielders made a reference to the head butt 鈥 picked up on an on-field microphone 鈥 while Bairstow was batting on Sunday.
The ECB said Bairstow wouldn鈥檛 be punished for the incident, even in the wake of a separate episode in September outside a club in Bristol that has resulted in allrounder Ben Stokes missing the start of the Ashes tour.
England coach Trevor Bayliss said the latest incident was 鈥渂lown out of proportion鈥 and was a case of 鈥渁 couple of young guys out on a night out and some silly things happened鈥.
He said team policies on curfews would be reviewed because he didn鈥檛 want his players鈥 off-field behavior giving the Australians any advantage.鈥淚t gives the opposition team ammunition to put pressure on as well,鈥 he said.
The Australians did exactly that late in the match to extend their unbeaten run at the Gabba to 29 years.
The unbroken stand between Warner (87) and Bancroft capped the win, and was the biggest opening partnership in a successful fourth-innings run chase in test cricket, according to Cricinfo. It beat the mark of 172 set by Australians Archie Jackson and Bill Ponsford against the West Indies in 1930.
Smith鈥檚 unbeaten 141 from 326 deliveries in the first innings turned the match and earned him the player of the match award. The Australian skipper helped his team recover from 76-4 to reach 328 in reply to England鈥檚 302.
鈥淚t meant a lot. I really had to dig deep. It was tough, my slowest (century), but one of my best,鈥 Smith said, adding that Australia鈥檚 second innings showed more composure. 鈥淐ameron looked very good, had good plans, played very straight. The partnership with David was magnificent.鈥
The bowlers set up the easy chase with Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood taking three wickets apiece as England was bowled out for 195 on day four.
The second test 鈥 the first day-night test contested in an Ashes series 鈥 starts on Saturday in Adelaide.
England holds the Ashes after a 3-2 win at home in 2015, but was swept 0-5 on its last tour to Australia in 2013-14.
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