Ashes 2013-14: Australia v England, fourth Test, day three report In a low-scoring match a last-wicket stand of 40 can be a game-changer. So it has to be recorded that Cook had his worst session as a captain when Australia's last wicket pair of Brad Haddin and Lyon, in 8.5 overs at the start of day three, shrank England's lead to 51. In reducing Australia to 164 for nine, Plan A - to hit the top of either fourth or off-stump - had served England superbly. But it was jettisioned and not replaced by any discernible plan except bowling shorter and shorter, especially against Lyon, on a still-slow pitch. After James Anderson and Stuart Broad had resumed with a ball 73.3 overs old, Ben Stokes was given the 80th over ahead of more obvious candidates like Tim Bresnan or Monty Panesar. Stokes had not marked out his run and conceded five scoring shots, eight runs in all. Cook then took the second new ball - and spread the field so widely for Haddin that he had two slips and seven deep-fielders, then one and eight. It was almost a contradiction in terms to take a new ball and remove the close-catchers. But it was the new ball that Haddin miscued, after breaking his own record for most runs in an Ashes series by an Australian keeper (360) and stretching it to 390. This last Australian stand seemed not to matter as England cruised to 65 without loss, an overall lead of 116. By clipping the first two balls he faced from the labouring Ryan Harris for three, Cook rolled back three years to when Australia gave him all the width he wanted on both sides of the wicket. When he reached 16, another clip for three took Cook to 8,000 Test runs at 29 years and three days, 21 days younger than Sachin Tendulkar. Most of the Australians clapped: the too overt aggression which marred the first two Tests had yet to resurface here. The warning sign was Mitchell Johnson beginning to reverse-swing. Cook, yet again as captain, could not convert his start, but only because it was another perfect Johnson ball, swinging in late. Turning chest-on, the standard response to reverse-swing, was about all Cook could have done. Then came the seven senseless minutes, as nightmarish as anything England underwent at the Gabba or Adelaide, because now they aspire to rebuild without the skeletons of collapses in the cupboard. In those two overs they lost Michael Carberry lbw, Joe Root run out, and Ian Bell first ball, in ascending order of batsman-error until Bell was entirely culpable. Carberry would have been justified in asking for a review as Hawkeye deemed the ball was clipping the leg bail. Root seemed to try and persuade Carberry, but he would not seek a review. He has not sought one in this series. Is he set in his ways at 33? Test match batting does not allow anyone the luxury of being set in his ways. Carberry was becalmed here because Australia bowled very straight and he has not evolved his game as this series has gone on, perhaps to move towards the offside and nudge a bread-and-butter single off his legs, rotating the strike. His 12 off 81 balls was too similar to Nick Compton's run-rate when he was dropped, for similar inflexibility. Root's mistake was not to factor in fully that mid-off was left-handed. Johnson ran towards the ball, picked up with his left hand and threw to the base of the stumps, beating Root's dive. Trying to assert himself as England's new vice-captain is the kindest interpretation that can be put on Bell's first-baller. He reached for Lyon's offbreak and pushed it to mid-off. In a series dominated by pace, Bell has got out to spin three times. A partnership with Pietersen would have rammed home England's advantage; instead, the last senior batsman left him to hold the babies. At this crisis - England 138 ahead with only six wickets left - Pietersen, as responsible as in his first innings, added 44 gold-dust runs with Stokes. When Stokes tried to loft Lyon over a very deep mid-off, it was just about his first immature stroke of this series. The wind eddied around the stadium. The temperature dropped in 10 minutes from 35C to 23C. In the high wind the bails kept falling off and litter swirled across the pitch, causing Pietersen or Jonny Bairstow to pull away when the bowler was running in. When Johnson charged in for another assault, Pietersen pulled away again, blamelessly, because a child ran in front of the sightscreen. Johnson lost patience and hurled the ball, not at the batsman, fortunately, but towards first slip. As Pietersen completed a single off Johnson's next ball, angry words were exchanged too overtly - the overtness, not the anger, the sin. Bairstow hacked in Johnson's next over without a semblance of footwork and was caught behind. His wicketkeeping in Australia's first innings was faultless. His batting clubbed Lyon for two sixes but is so bottom-handed it allows Matt Prior a way back. Then Lyon held up two plastic pistols and England's tail surrendered. Pietersen was exonerated when he gave a catch to long-off because only Anderson and Panesar had not deserted him. Lyon rattled up his 100th Test wicket, and his smile extended when Australia's opening pair knocked off the first 30 of their 231-run target.