Calcutta: Australia coach Darren Lehmann has effectively abandoned hopes of another Ashes whitewash and leapt to the defence of pacer Jackson Bird after England dominated Day III of the Boxing Day Test.

Alastair Cook’s masterful double century on Thursday guided the tourists to a 164-run advantage at stumps and Lehmann has all but conceded that England are the only team capable of winning the match.

With some rain forecast over the next two days, the coach believes his side would effectively have to score at five runs an over on Day IV to have any hope of setting up the game for an Australian victory.

“We’re 164 runs behind, we’ll have to get 450 in a day,” Lehmann was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia’s website.

“How do you want us to do that? Slog?

“We’ve got to worry about getting past them first and batting well. That’s the first challenge and a different challenge for the group, which is great.

“We’ll hopefully bat through the day and re-assess after tomorrow, that’s all we can do. England scored reasonably quickly, but you’d think we’re not going to score as quickly as that.

“We certainly didn’t go into the game looking that far ahead (at a whitewash). You only concentrate on this game.”
In the absence of the injured Mitchell Starc, Bird has sent down 30 wicketless overs in his first Test match in 12 months.