England’s dreams wilted under the heat and a disciplined Australian attack as the hosts took a vice-like grip on the third Ashes Test at Adeliade on Thursday. By stumps, England were delicately placed at 231 for eight with skipper Ben Stokes battling it out with an unbeaten 45. Giving him company was Joffra Archer on 30 as England were left staring at a hefty first-innings deficit. Their hopes of keeping the series alive looks bleak right now.
Stokes played an uncharacteristic innings as he battled on defiantly. He faced 151 balls and was at the crease for more than four hours for his 45. Unfortunately for him, he found few allies to salvage the situation. The skipper had asked his players to ‘show a bit of dog’ so that they could make a comeback in the series, which they are trailing 0-2.
All hopes vanished with Australian skipper Pat Cummins getting rid of Zak Crawley (9) in the eighth over of the innings. Off-spinner Nathan Lyon then got into the act by sending off Ollie Pope (3) and Ben Duckett (29) to leave the visitors at three for 42.
Cummins had last match centurion Joe Root (19) caught behind by Alex Carey to have England delicately placed at four for 71.
Cameroon Green, who was bagged at a whopping Rs 25.2 crore by Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL mini auction on Tuesday, got the prized wicket of Harry Brook. The Englishman had begun well and looked set for a big innings, but it was cut short by Green as he had the batter caught behind by Carey for 45.
With half the side back in the dressing room, Stokes and Jamie Smith did their best to rally things around. They added 32 for the sixth wicket before Smith fell to Cummins for 22.
Will Jacks (6) and Brydon Carse (0) were sent back by Scot Boland and England were staring at a huge deficit. However, Archer lent good support to his skipper as the duo took the score to 213 for eight at stumps. England are still 158 runs behind.
Lyon overtakes McGrath, goes second on all-time list for Australia
Cummins took 3 for 54 in his first competitive outing since July’s tour of the Caribbean. Much had been said about Lyon’s absence in Brisbane after he had only bowled two overs in the victory at Perth. He came into this game one wicket behind Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 for Australia, having sat there since July when he was also omitted for the Jamaica Test against West Indies. But within the space of six balls, he had drawn level with and then overtaken McGrath to go second on the all-time list for Australia.
Earlier, Australia made 371 with Mitchell Starc scoring 54. Archer finished with figures of five for 53. Starc started off proceedings by thumping a flurry of fours to bring up his second half-century in as many games, with Australia merrily adding 45 runs to their overnight 326 for 8, that could only be claimed as a partial success for the visitors.
There was more Snicko aggro, too, with both sides making their frustrations with the technology clear. England were aggrieved at Chris Gaffaney, the third umpire, giving Jamie Smith out caught behind off Cummins on the evidence from Real-Time Snickometer, following the controversy around Alex Carey’s non-dismissal on day one. Smith had survived moments before in bizarre circumstances, with Gaffaney determining the ball had come off his helmet, despite TV pictures suggesting contact with the glove, as Australia argued (although whether the ball had carried to Usman Khawaja at slip or not was a different matter).Joe Root was also reprieved, with Gaffaney unconvinced that an inside edge on to pad had reached Carey’s gloves on the full.
Brief scores: Australia 371 (Alex Carey 106, Usman Khawaja 82, Mitchell Starc 54; Jofra Archer 5/53, Brydon Carse 2/89, Will Jacks 2/105) vs England 213/8 (Ben Stokes 45 batting, Jofra Archer 30 batting, Harry Brook 45; Pat Cummings 3/54, Scot Boland 2/31, Nathan Lyon 2/51).
