North ton puts Australia on top

Marcus North hit a morale-boosting 106 not out as Australia extended their lead against the England Lions to 282 at stumps on day three at Worcester. North put on 170 runs with Michael Clarke (80) as the tourists recovered to 276-4 after Steve Harmison (2-36) had reduced them to 41-2. Earlier, Adil Rashid made a composed 66 as the Lions ended on 352, six runs behind Australia’s first-innings total. Brett Lee added a further wicket to finish with impressive figures of 6-76. North had endured a miserable time with the bat in Australia’s previous warm-up match against Sussex, scoring just one and 11. However, he capitalised on his promotion up the order after Harmison had once…

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