Even rain may not save England

Perth: The torrid form of England's senior players showed no sign of ending on Sunday, as paceman Stuart Broad went wicketless and opener Alastair Cook's 150th Test was spoilt by another cheap dismissal on day four of the third Ashes Test.

Already 2-0 down in the series, England finished a rain-hit day at the WACA in a precarious position of 132 for four, still trailing Australia by 127 runs with an innings to spare.

Dismissed for seven in the first innings, Cook was caught and bowled for 14 by seamer Josh Hazlewood to continue a dreadful series with the bat.
The former skipper has scored only 83 runs in the series at an average of 13.83, comfortably the worst of England's specialist batsmen.

Captain Joe Root said prior to the match that he and his senior team mates needed to lift if England were to claw their way back into the series.
"It probably will take one of the senior players to... really take it on and do something special this game," the young captain had said.

Root himself was also unable to capitalise on starts of 20 and 14, leaving the unbeaten pair of Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow to rescue the team again after they combined in a first innings stand of 237 runs.

"If (Cook and Root) don't score runs, you expect them next innings to score runs," England number three James Vince told reporters after a knock of 55, having fallen to an unplayable Mitchell Starc delivery that jagged back into his stumps.

"They've shown over their careers that they often don't have long periods without scoring runs." England have long relied on Cook and Root to lay a solid foundation, so the lack of runs from the duo has put a heavy burden on the inexperienced trio of opener Mark Stoneman, Vince and Malan. The tourists also have struggled with their bowling.