Key events
Day two report
Thanks for following along as England’s fading Ashes hopes survive another day – just – at Adelaide Oval. We’ll have all the analysis shortly, and be back with the over-by-over tomorrow, but for now … here is Ali Martin’s report on day two.
Nathan Lyon has returned to the side in style in Adelaide, as he picked up two wickets with his first over to help turn the game back in Australia’s favour early in England’s innings. The off-spinner dismissed Ollie Pope (3) and Ben Duckett (29) in the same over to move past Glenn McGrath and into second-place on the list of Australia Test wicket-takers, while the cartel of quicks did their thing even with Mitchell Starc less threatening than he has been in these Ashes.
Pat Cummins was another to send a reminder of his importance to the side after spending time on the sidelines as the captain claimed wickets at crucial times and finished the day with 3 for 54. Cummins dismissed Zak Crawley (9) and Joe Root (19) early, but it is his later wicket of Jamie Smith (22) that will remain the talking point as another contentious Snicko call went in favour of the Australians. Smith had survived a close call when Usman Khawaja reached low for a catch in slips, but the England keeper-batter was sent on his way when Snicko showed a spike as the ball flew past the toe of his bat shortly after.
Lyon is his usual understated self while speaking with Fox Sports.
It has been a pretty tough day. It’s nice and hot out there, but nice to contribute and finally get into the series.
There is no secret to what I do. It’s just about doing the basics for a long period of time and hopefully creating a bit of pressure.
Stumps: England 213-8
Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer guide England to stumps on day two at Adelaide Oval but they still trail by 158 runs with only two wickets in hand. The tourists will surely be grateful that those numbers are not as bad as they might have been after the pair put together a 55-run partnership to ensure England are still in the game – and series.
68th over: England 213-8 (Stokes 45, Archer 30)
67th over: England 213-8 (Stokes 45, Archer 30) Green continues digging the ball in short – or at least back of a length – to Archer who has a tendency to hook and pull. Ben Stokes steps down the pitch to remind his partner to rein it in with stumps now in sight. Maiden over and we’ll likely get one more in today.
66th over: England 213-8 (Stokes 45, Archer 30) Nathan Lyon returns with Australia hoping to get a few extra overs in before stumps. Stokes drives off the back foot into the deep but despite his best intentions doesn’t have it in him to get back for the second.
Allan Hobbs is finding some optimism with what is now beyond a 50-run partnership between Stokes and Archer, as he begins to wonder whether “Snickogeddon” might be what ultimately decides this Test.
“Seems to me the worst possible outcome here would be England losing the game by fewer runs than the difference between Carey’s final 1st innings score and his ‘edge’. Shades of the ol’ moral victory etc and so on. I mean, clearly a lot of quite inconceivable things would have to happen to get to that point from here, but still.”
65th over: England 211-8 (Stokes 44, Archer 29) England are understandably playing with one eye on stumps now. Stokes keeps Green out before picking up a single at square leg to hang onto the strike.
Another sizeable crowd at Adelaide Oval with 48,849 fans walking through the turnstiles today. A visit to the venue is certainly on my bucket list – 2029 it might have to be.
64th over: England 210-8 (Stokes 43, Archer 29) Cummins goes short to Archer but the England quick has looked as comfortable as any of his teammates against that sort of approach. Archer keeps a pull down for a single to deep square, before Stokes does much the same to the same area to end the over.
Finn has some high praise for Alex Carey, who deserves all of it that is coming is way after another critical performance today.
“Quite enjoying the thorough and patient dismantling of England by the Australians. I’m also happy that Archer is showing his quality, both with the ball and the bat after what I thought was some pretty average commentary by the media last Test.
“I just want to highlight the optics of watching Stokes’ body succumbing to cramp after batting for three or four hours while Carey, having batted for four hours yesterday under immense pressure, looks fresh as a daisy, keeping for five hours in 39 degrees with nary a blemish the whole match. No Country for Old Men, eh?”
63rd over: England 208-8 (Stokes 42, Archer 28) Cam Green returns and almost makes an immediate impact as Archer swipes at a shorter ball and a top edge sends it flying towards Marnus Labuschange at deep square. Labuschange races in and dives forward for what would have been a spectacular catch, but is unable to get a hand to the ball before it bounces over the rope.
62nd over: England 202-8 (Stokes 41, Archer 23) Cummins returns with this partnership now beyond annoying for Australia. England finally reach 200 as Stokes opens the face to guide the ball away for a single at point. Archer finishes the ball pulling high to deep square where sub fielder Brendan Doggett comes steaming in but is unable to reach the ball even with a desperate dive.
61st over: England 197-8 (Stokes 39, Archer 20) Starc ensures there is no suggestion he is tiring as the left-armer begins the over with a 147km/h rocket in the heat in Adelaide. Stokes and Archer are content working singles as England edge closer to the 200-mark.
Jazba is another reader checking in from the other side of the globe and the first, as far as I’m aware, to call for the return of something resembling Bazball.
“Looking in from Blighty this is an all too familiar plight. England have snookered themselves. No intent on the best surface is baffling. Maybe Stokes ought to conjure something now because this series is done as of this point. A counterattack could be the trick.”
Cricket fans are just waking up in England to find a seemingly familiar score at Adelaide Oval. Guy Hornsby has summed up the day well, as though he has seen it all before …
“Ah well, waking up to a familiar disintegration of an England team down under. It could be any year since the late 80s. It sounds like we’ve tried to play more sensibly, but met with a renewed and brilliant attack, we’ve wilted in the brutal Adelaide sun? Add in a snicko drama, have I missed anything? I’m going to be in Melbourne at Christmas with my family, swapping rainy Sale for Fitzroy and my brother Dave, and Boxing Day at the MCG. I hoped it might be a live Test, but that’s not how it really goes, is it?”
60th over: England 194-8 (Stokes 37, Archer 19) Stokes is keen to get on the back foot and work Lyon onto the offside, as he picks up a pair of singles. The England skipper is still moving slowly even after the recent break.
59th over: England 191-8 (Stokes 35, Archer 18) Loose from Starc to Archer as the left-armer oversteps then drifts down leg for five no-balls. Carey won’t mind that not being called as byes. Archer turns a page in the text book with a cover drive to the rope and Starc rightfully responds with a 145km/h bouncer. Handy over for England with 12 coming off it.
58th over: England 179-8 (Stokes 33, Archer 9) Lyon overpitches and Archer’s eyes light up with a straight drive for three. Stokes takes guard but doesn’t seem to have much left in the tank as he almost crawls between wickets for a single to deep cover. That’ll be drinks. And not before time for the England skipper who has faced 121 balls for his 33.
Chris Brereton tells us he is a former Guardian reporter and in the present day is calling for a Hail Mary.
“It’s pretty clear to me that England need to take the rogue option and recall Jimmy Anderson. His skills are superior to anything else we have seen so far, he’d stick in when the going gets tough and his experience would be priceless. For an added bonus, maybe we could even get him to bowl a few overs as well?”
It has become apparent over the almost-eight days of cricket in this series that there is a gulf in depth as much as class between the two sides. But that would be quite the call for England to draft in a 43-year-old Anderson. I’m all for it …
57th over: England 175-8 (Stokes 32, Archer 6) Mitchell Starc returns and is still searching for his first wicket in the innings. Jofra Archer takes England beyond the follow-on mark with a crunching drive to the rope. That is one of the better shots of the innings, or at least since Brook departed.
56th over: England 170-8 (Stokes 32, Archer 1) Stokes gets the scoreboard ticking over again with a single to square leg before Archer gets off the mark with a less convincing inside edge.
Stephen Herzenberg is beyond seeing the funny side of England’s efforts, while he says he was “born in Manchester, spent 100s of days at Old Trafford with my grandfather from ages 4-11 watching Bumble, Clive Lloyd, Engineer. Family moved to US when I was 11 but never lost my love of cricket.”
“If England is going to use a batting all rounder who’s a part-time spinner, Liam Livingston makes more sense than Will Jacks. Livingston’s bowling figures in all forms of cricket in which he’s bowled a fair amount (first class, 20-20, ODI’s) are comparable or better than Moheen Ali’s and not that far off Rashid’s. And Livingston’s batting and bowling records are better than Jacks’.
“PS: I miss Bumble a lot on commentary. The Aussie commentators on Willow (Sky) are humourless.”
Colum Fordham has been inspired by earlier references to Bob Dylan, if not this England batting performance:
“I read a reference to Dylan’s ‘It’s all over now Baby Blue’, which it probably is, and then saw your ‘advice’ to Stokes and Jacks to ‘wait for the bad balls’. How unBazball-like although it might make sense against this Aussie attack.
“Bob Marley’s ‘Waiting in Vain’ came to mind for some reason. Radiohead’s ‘You Do it to Yourself’ also seems appropriate for England’s Ashes campaign thus far [Pope or Brook for example] without wishing to downplay the masterful bowling of Cummins, Starc and Lyon. But if truth be told, this England pair are in the minority of England players adopting a more sensible approach.”
55th over: England 168-8 (Stokes 31, Archer 0) Two wicket-maidens in succession for Scott Boland as Australia turn the screws. Jofra Archer is at the crease much, much earlier than hoped and at least looking more comfortable defending than Brydon Carse was during his brief stint in the middle.
WICKET! Carse b Boland 0 (England 168-8)
Scott Boland strikes again with the ball nipping back into Brydon Carse, cutting past the inside edge and taking out middle and off. That’s England’s 10th duck of the series.
54th over: England 168-7 (Stokes 31, Carse 0) Nathan Lyon with a maiden to Ben Stokes. The England skipper is running out of partners with his side still short of avoiding the follow-on, as unlikely as Australia are to enforce it.
53rd over: England 168-7 (Stokes 31, Carse 0) Scott Boland gets his first as the Stokes-Jacks partnership falls well short of their stoic effort in the second innings in Brisbane. Brydon Carse is in at No 9 and needing to play the game on its merits rather than hitting out at this stage. Stokes, on the other hand …
WICKET! Jacks c Carey b Boland 6 (England 168-7)
Alex Carey is back up at the stumps even with Scott Boland bowling. The ball nips back to find an inside edge that crashes into the pads, pops up, and the keeper is on hand to dive forward to complete a simple catch. More hugely impressive glovework from the Australian keeper.
52nd over: England 168-6 (Stokes 31, Jacks 6) Lyon to Stokes as the off-spinner gives the six balls plenty of flight but can’t lure England skipper into much more than a clip off his pads. Maiden.
51st over: England 168-6 (Stokes 31, Jacks 6) Stokes nudges a single to point and allows Boland to go to work pitching the ball up and trying to tempt Jacks into a drive. Jacks is happy to see out the over defending.
50th over: England 167-6 (Stokes 30, Jacks 6) Lyon overpitches just a fraction and Jacks punishes the off-spinner with a sublime drive to the boundary. Waiting for the relatively bad balls seems the only sensible way left for England to play through the rest of this session.
49th over: England 162-6 (Stokes 29, Jacks 2) Boland continues to Jacks with neither side overly concerned by any hint that the runs are drying up. Carey ends the over coming up to the stumps to the pacer – in my view one of the most underrated scenes in sport. Brendan Foster did it justice after the second Test.
Well, we should feel partly responsible – Tom Latham has just been dismissed for 137 to leave New Zealand reeling at 323 for 1. But that’s the equal 12th-highest opening stand in Test history, and Conway is still going.
Will Jacks takes guard with Scott Boland at the top of his mark. Meanwhile, Ben Bernards has pointed out that there is a rather large partnership forming across the Tasman: “NZ with an unbeaten 312-run opening partnership vs West Indies happening right now. Top 15 in history and climbing fast! #realcricket”
Devon Conway is beyond 170 while Tom Latham has pushed past 130 to put New Zealand in command.
48th over: England 162-6 (Stokes 29, Jacks 2) A double change as Lyon replaces Cummins and almost makes an immediate impact – the off-spinner lures Jacks into overreaching with a defensive prod and the ball flies towards short leg. Head dives hard to his left and gets a hand to the ball but is unable to hang onto it. That would have been a cracker, but Australia are due to hold onto one or two of those. That’s drinks.
47th over: England 160-6 (Stokes 28, Jacks 1) Scott Boland comes back into the attack as the heat rises at a steaming Adelaide Oval. Will Jacks is not in a hurry with England still trailing by 211 runs, and he sees off a maiden over.
46th over: England 160-6 (Stokes 28, Jacks 1) England must once again turn to Ben Stokes and Will Jacks to get them out of a bind, as yet more Ashes controversy brews at Adelaide Oval. The tourists have already made a complaint about Snicko’s part in a non-decision in Alex Carey’s favour when the Australian was batting yesterday, now a similar scenario – and perhaps a correction – has worked against them while it is their turn to bat. Stokes looked to be taking deep breaths as Smith’s dismissal was confirmed, but the England captain will need to compose himself and use that as inspiration if he is to guide his side to safety or even more.
WICKET! Smith c Carey b Cummins 22 (England 159-6)
Snicko takes centre stage again as Jamie Smith pulls at a shorter delivery from Pat Cummins and the ball carries to Alex Carey behind the stumps. The umpire prepares to give it out but wants the third umpire to check whether the ball carried. This time, it clearly did. There is a noise, and a spike on Snicko, but – just as we saw yesterday – the video and audio don’t quite match up. Smith is sent on his way and England, led by Ben Stokes, are not happy.
45th over: England 159-5 (Stokes 28, Smith 22) England have found it difficult to deal with Green’s bounce from back of a length since tea but Smith finds an answer as he gets on the front foot to slog over midwicket for four. Stokes adds another boundary with a stylish square drive.
44th over: England 150-5 (Stokes 24, Smith 17) SIX! Smith lifts Cummins over the boundary as he finally begins to settle into his innings. But, next delivery, Smith is almost gone as he lifts his hands to fend away a shorter ball that takes a deflection and pops up towards Khawaja at slip. Khawaja isn’t sure whether the ball carried – and replays suggest that it didn’t. The third umpire is relieved from making a decision over whether the ball struck bat, helmet, or both on its way through. That’s the second very close call behind the stumps that has left the Australians frustrated after Joe Root survived an earlier, similar appeal.
