Australia are poised to wrap up the second Test on the fifth day and take a two-nil lead in the five-Test series. England have a mammoth task of scoring a further 257 on a last day’s wearing pitch with just six wickets remaining.
England were soon in trouble as they began the run chase of 371. With the exception of Ben Duckett, the top order fell apart rapidly with Zak Crawley caught behind in the third over and in the next over Ollie Pope’s middle stump was uprooted by a beautiful ball that came in sharply. Both batsmen had fallen to Mitchell Starc and England were 13 for two.
The thirteenth over bowled by Pat Cummins brought further disaster to the England innings as Joe Root, unable to keep the ball down which rose sharply, edged to first slip on 18 and three balls later Harry Brooks, on 4, playing from the crease was bowled by a ball that was angled into him. That was four down for 45 and still 326 required.
Then came the resistance in the fifth wicket stand between Duckett and Ben Stokes whose unbroken partnership lasted over an hour-and-a-quarter during which they faced 18 overs, adding 69. They remained not out with Duckett on his second half century of the match and Stokes on 29. Duckett was fortunate that Starc having caught him on 50, grounded the ball as he fell and on review he was given not out.
Earlier, England required early wickets with the tourists on 130 for two overnight and in an overall lead of 221. But with Usman Khawaja on 58 and in ominous form and Steve Smith with him at the crease the breakthrough took 23 overs to come.
Khawaja had taken his score to 77 and their partnership for the third wicket was 64 when Stuart Broad was brought on and he struck in his first over as Khawaja hooked into the hands of fine leg.
Smith, meanwhile, had moved on to 33 and had struck 4 fours taking three of them in an over from James Anderson. All three were beautifully struck, a lovely cover drive, an off drive from a half-volley and then a delicate late cut.
But in the following over after Khawaja’s dismissal, Smith fell in similar fashion being held from a hook at deep backward square leg for 34 off Josh Tongue who had seen Travis Head dropped off his bowling on the previous ball. Australia were 190 for four.
Head wasn’t to last long following his fine 77 in the first innings. On 7, he edged a rising ball from Broad and Joe Root at short square leg snapped up a left-handed low catch.
By lunch Australia had slowly progressed to 225 for five. With good controlled bowling England were keeping a check on the runs and Australia kept losing wickets. After the break, Cameron Green who managed just 18 in nearly two hours, hit a chest-high ball from Ollie Robinson to be caught at deep square leg.
Robinson struck again in his next over with a ball that rose on Alex Carey and he gloved it to short leg for a simple catch. That was the seventh wicket to fall on 242 with Australia still finding it difficult to score freely.
Broad, who eventually finished with four for 65 accounted for Cummins for 11 and Ben Stokes dismissed Josh Hazelwood with the ball going off the edge of the bat on to his thigh pad before Root took the catch.
Nathan Lyon hobbled out to bat despite his calf injury and defiantly lasted 25 minutes during which he helped Starc to add 15 to take the innings total to 279 before he plodded a rising ball for a catch at short mid-wicket.
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