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England’s batting once again collapsed on the second day in Adelaide and their hopes of retaining the Ashes suffered a huge blow.
After defeats in Perth and Brisbane, England The deficit crept closer to an irreparable 3-0 as the top order faltered in its familiar fashion.
Jofra Archer bowled out Australia for 371 in the morning session as he took five for 53, a modest score that the tourists should have seen on the soft surface.
With temperatures rising above 40 degrees, conditions were set to make hay for an underperforming batting group. Instead, unwilling or unable to stay the course, they faltered at 132 for five at tea.
jack crawley, Ollie Pope And ben duckett Joe Root fell in the space of 15 balls before lunch. harry brook An afternoon session followed. Pope’s innings was easily the worst, ending his awkward 10-ball spell limping to midwicket and, potentially, ending his time as England’s number three.
Brook scored 45 runs and shared a half-century partnership with Ben Stokes, while the captain remained unbeaten on 19 runs from 76 balls.
Australia relied on two returning stars to do the damage, with captain Pat Cummins and spinner Nathan Lyon taking two wickets each, while all-rounder cameron green He was the man to end Brook’s fightback with a superb ball just before half-time.
The hosts started the day adding 45 runs for their last two wickets against undisciplined bowling, but Archer eventually finished the innings by dismissing Mitchell Starc and Lyon and recorded his first Test five-for since 2019.
A brief glimpse of what the day could have been for England came when Ben Duckett hit a few cheap fours against the new ball, but old weaknesses were soon exposed.
Crawley was the first to fall for nine, caught out trying to defend a fine delivery from Cummins, and Pope was all over the place before giving away his wicket with a wickedly placed chip to midwicket for three.
Now his average in 15 innings against Australia is 17.66 and he looks a long way from improving that poor record.
This brought Lyon equal to the career tally of Australian great Glenn McGrath with 563 and required three balls to overtake him, moving into sixth place on the all-time list. This time Duckett was the victim, bowled by a classic off-break which clipped the outside edge.
Things almost got worse for England when their number one batsman Joe Root took a catch off Scott Boland, the only one to his name, but was saved by a DRS review which could have gone either way.
TV umpire Chris Gaffney must have been feeling the pinch after the snickometer controversy on the first day, which resulted in batsman Alex Carey, the system operator and match referee Jeff Crowe all admitting that the outside edge had been unfairly missed. Ultimately, he delivered a strong verdict in Root’s favour.
It felt like a crucial moment, but England’s record run-scorer couldn’t make it count, with Cummins dismissed for 19 by Carey in the third over after lunch.
Stokes held out the rest of the session at one end, trying to lead an apparently futile resistance, with Brook scoring more quickly before edging a neat seamer past Green.