The Ashes: Ben Stokes hits 42 but Joe Root fails with bat in England warm-up

Joe Root
The match was played at the Ian Healy Oval in Brisbane
The Ashes: Australia v England, first Test
Venue: Gabba, Brisbane Dates: 8-12 December Time: 00:00 GMT
Coverage: Ball-by-ball commentary on Test Match Special, plus live text commentary, features and analysis on the BBC Sport website and app

Ben Stokes scored 42 but there were failures for the other England batters on the final day of their intra-squad Ashes warm-up match in Brisbane.

Stokes, playing for the first time since July, followed his two wickets by hitting six fours in 56 balls before retiring to allow others to bat.

Captain Joe Root made eight Jonny Bairstow fell for a first-ball duck against England Lions.

Opener Haseeb Hameed was dismissed for seven while Dawid Malan made nine.

Rory Burns scored 37 as England responded to the Lions' 226-4.

A number of players then swapped sides or returned to bat for a second time to gain match practice, Bairstow scoring 11.

It was England's last day of warm-up action before the first Ashes Test against Australia begins on Tuesday, but many of the batters' first middle practice of the tour.

England's preparations have been severely hampered by rain which washed out the first two days of the four-day match and all but 29 overs of last week's three-day warm-up.

Bowler Stuart Broad said he was viewing the lack of game time "as a positive".

"I've been on Ashes tours where we've been extremely well prepped, played three or four first-class games before and come out on the losing side," Broad said.

"Arguably we are going to be the freshest England team ever going into an Ashes series.

"We should have a lot of energy, a lot of buzz throughout the next two months so I'm seeing that as positive"

Around the BBC iPlayer bannerAround the BBC iPlayer footer

Elsewhere on the BBC

Cricket on the BBC