Steve Waugh layers Rory Burns in praise: "It was a good innings for our players to look and learn from"

SAM MORSHEAD AT EDGBASTON: The Australians beat the opener's bat on numerous occasions, and should have had him lbw to Nathan Lyon, only for umpire Joel Wilson to turn down the appeal, but Burns kept his head to compile an unbeaten 125 by the close

Scorecard | Talking Points | Sam Morshead

Steve Waugh suggested Australia's batsmen could take a few pointers from the way Rory Burns went about his business compiling a maiden Test century at Edgbaston on Friday.

Burns batted all day to blunt the tourists' bowling attack and lead England towards parity on a day when runs were not easy to come by.

The Australians beat the opener's bat on numerous occasions, and should have had him lbw to Nathan Lyon, only for umpire Joel Wilson to turn down the appeal, but Burns kept his head to make an unbeaten 125 by the close.

And the innings drew substantial praise from one of the greats of the game as Waugh, in England with the Australians in an advisory capacity, was impressed by what he saw.

"That’s Test match cricket, you’ve got to grind it out and do the hard yards. It’s not about how good you look, it’s how many runs you get," he said.

^{Rory Burns made 125 not out against Australia}

"It was a good innings for some of our players to look and learn. I know myself when you’re playing tough Test match wickets and someone scores runs in the opposition, it would be smart to analyse how they got those runs and how they went about it."

Waugh's comments make particularly interesting reading following remarks made by his brother Mark about Burns on social media in recent days.

The former Australian selector was hugely critical of Burns after his twin failures against Ireland, saying he looked like a nightwatchman and followed that an hour and a half into play on Friday by claiming the opener was "digging a hole" for himself at the wicket.

By the end of the day, however, the elder Waugh sibling was showering Burns with praise.

"For our players when you watch someone get 120 not out you’ve got to take something from that and put it into your own game.

"To tell you the truth I haven’t seen a lot of him but his concentration was excellent.

"He obviously knows his game really well and to get a 100 on that pitch is a really good performance in Ashes cricket, it was really important for his side so I give him full credit. He certainly played and missed a few times but you needed a bit of luck. He showed a lot of character today so he’s got to be proud of that."

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Australia only managed to take four English wickets all day, but Waugh passed off the 90 overs as simply not going his side's way.

After "a shower, a massage and a nice meal" tonight, he said, the team would be raring to go on Saturday, even though their lead is down to just 17.

"I thought our boys really toiled well all day. It wasn’t easy there," he said.

"There were moments where we bowled really well and not much seemed to happen. We played well in the afternoon. I thought Ben Stokes played well at the end of the day, he took a bit of the initiative away from us. I can’t really fault our bowlers today or the effort in the field.

"Earlier, Pattinson hitting the stumps, maybe the referral – we got that wrong – we probably could’ve had three or four down at lunch and it might’ve been a totally different day.

"I think our bowlers, their efforts were really good and if they do the same thing tomorrow we could get a couple of edges first up and it could be totally different. It's just one of those days of tough Test match cricket – you’ve got to fire up again tomorrow and give it 100 per cent."

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