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5th over: Australia 33-0 (Head 19, Weatherald 10) Archer sends down a searing ball at 94.1 MPH. Its a rapid over all told but Weatherald is up to it, clipping for a single into the leg side. Archer clocks up 94.3MPH with his final ball but can’t find a conciliatory breakthrough. That’s tea! Australia just need 32 more runs to win this test and go 2-0 up in the Ashes. I think they’ll enjoy their snacks.
4th over: Australia 29-0 (Head 17, Weatherald 8) Gus Atkinson has had a horrific half hour, the worst of his Test career to date. Head flicks a half volley for SIX and then clatters a drive through the covers for four! The Aussie crowd are cheering, jeering and giving him plenty. He might be bowling himself out of the next game at Adelaide here. A cunning ruse.
3rd over: Australia 19-0 (Head 8, Weatherald 7) Archer gets the speed gun clocking 92.9MPH. Weatherald is beaten for pace but gets a cue end to evade the slips and away for four.
2nd over: Australia 15-0 (Head 7, Weatherald 4) Gus Atkinson has a shocker with the ball in his first over, real deflated body language and wheels off stuff from the Surrey man – that tame dismissal with the bat is likely playing on his mind. Weatherald clips him for three into deep midwicket first ball and then Head collects two with a drive to off. Shot! Atkinson gives width and Head slams a back foot punch through point for four. That is nicht gut Gus.
1st over: Australia 6-0 (Head 1, Weatherald 1) Archer spears a ball down the leg side for four byes off his second ball and his third is down there too – sending Jamie Smith tumbling to his right to prevent the same. Archer could do with getting his radar right and bagging a few wickets to take to Adelaide, he’s had a poor match and the pillow stuff hasn’t exactly helped either.
His speeds are right up there, the fastest ball of the match is whizzed down by Archer at 92.5 MPH. Head drives for a single into the covers and the Aussie openers scamper a single. Weatherald does the same and Australia are up and running towards their easy target.
Jofra Archer is going to open from the Stanley St end. Travis Head is on strike – let’s play!
England’s bowlers are going through their motions on the outfield. We’ll have a short session of around 19 minutes before the dinner break, unless Australia can polish off this chase in double quick time – don’t bet against it. It’s Happy Hour here in Brisbane.
Here come Jake Weatherald and Travis Head! England are in a huddle, that’s going to have to be some speech from Ben Stokes…
England all out for 241 - Australia need 65 runs to win!
That’s yer lot! Smith pockets an edge from Brydon Carse at first slip to give Michael Neser a five wicket haul and he immediately turns to run off the field. Australia want to get this miniscule target knocked off pronto. They’ll be 2-0 up in the Ashes when they do.
England need a miracle under lights, where’s Stuart Broad when you need him*…
*At the back of the press box with a flight home booked this evening. Gah.
75th over: England 241-9 (Carse 7, Archer 5) Jofra Archer pulls Doggett for four runs into the leg side but unlike Atkinson he committed to the stroke, middling it and timing it all along the floor to the boundary. England’s lead is up to 64 runs.
74th over: England 234-9 (Carse 6, Archer 0) Carse has a swipe at Neser and picks up three runs into the leg side, the ball soaring high and plopping onto the turf in the deep. Atkinson’s dismissal really was abject when put into context, Stokes and Jacks had resisted the short stuff all day with the Australia plan to sucker them into a daft shot plain for all to see. Atkinson can bat and is an intelligent cricketer, he should have shown more nous and more ticker for the cause.
73rd over: England 231-9 (Carse 2, Archer 0) England have lost three wickets in ten minutes and the writing is becoming ever clearer on the wall for England. Jofra Archer joins Brydon Carse in the middle. The lights are starting to take effect here at the Gabba, a lead of 150 could have made things interesting…
WICKET! Gus Atkinson c Smith b Doggett 3 (England 231-9)
Hear them fall! Atkinson plays a really poor shot off a short ball from Doggett and plinks an easy catch to a gleeful Steve Smith at midwicket. Such a soft dismissal with the plan clearly telegraphed and on the back of the resistance that had gone before. Atkinson has a Test match century to his name but that was poor, poor batting.
72nd over: England 229-8 (Atkinson 2, Carse 2) Australia are buzzing now, I don’t think they were particularly worried before but with Stokes at the crease you just never know. Carse joins Atkinson in the middle and nudges for two off his first ball. England lead by 52 runs and have two wickets left.
HUGE WICKET! Ben Stokes c Carey b Neser 50 England 227-8)
The Stokes vigil ends! He turns on his heals and punches himself in the helmet on the way off, totally gutted but he’s given the England fans something to cheer today and shown that this side can do it when they really, really need to. Neser found the nick with Carey stood up to the stumps and the Aussie keeper takes a fantastic catch stood up. He’s been superlative with the gloves this game, not that that will be any comfort to Stokes or England.
James Wallace
71st over: England 226-7 (Stokes 50, Atkinson 1) Thanks Geoff. I really thought I’d be somewhere up the Sunshine Coast by now, topping up the pre flight home tan so I could look like one of those jet set-y people back home in the depths of winter but here we are, the Gabba press box with England scrapping is much more preferable option.
Doggett continues with some short stuff, Stokes cuts for a single and that takes him to 50. A battling knock, he’s showing some fight with the bat, the partnership with Will Jacks lasted longer than either of England’s entire innings in Perth in the first Test. So that’s something. Atkinson angles a single off Doggett to take the lead to 49 runs.
Geoff Lemon
70th over: England 224-7 (Stokes 49, Atkinson 0) The partnership was 96 when it ended between Stokes and Jacks. The third highest of the series by runs, and the longest by overs. Atkinson on strike, Neser goes upstairs for an lbw review but it was outside the line. Jacks was disconsolate walking off, he really believed he was going to be part of something special here. Well, he’s at least given the next three some chance.
That’s enough for me today. I really wasn’t expecting to be doing this at the appointed time, but I’m handing over to Jim Wallace.
Nobody has won the sweepstake yet, because everyone went over already except for Martin, who said “19:38... on Monday. With people’s belief in Bazball restored forevermore.”
If it’s done before then, Martin, you’re the winner. If it isn’t, Cricket Australia finances are the winner.
Later!
WICKET! Jacks c Smith b Neser 41, England 224-7
The resistance ends! It’s been a long, hot slog for Australia, and a similar one for Will Jacks, but it ends with an absolute blinder of a catch. Steve Smith is cock-a-hoop. He takes off running in a sprint, delighted with a one-handed snare going to his left, scooping it off the turf like a cherry from a cake. Goodness me. Neser is the bowler, and gets the edge by probing away at that dangerous line, so determined, so consistent. Jacks does nothing wrong really, just pushes forward in defence, tries to cover the line of this ball but can’t quite. Carey is up to the stumps, otherwise it might have been his catch. Too thick an edge for the keeper there. But Smith, standing back alone as the slip in this configuration, knows that he has space to leap and no concerns about spoiling anyone else’s attempt. Almost all of his screamers like this have been held in his right hand, his preferred side. This is in the left, so low down by the time he gets there, but he hangs on. Catch number 209 in his career, one behind Rahul Dravid, who for so long held the record before Joe Root recently squeezed by.
69th over: England 224-6 (Stokes 49, Jacks 41) Doggett, short, Jacks, swat. Single with sweepers at deep mid. You take the risk and only get one run. Stokes gets two more, driving a fuller length.
“Just woke up,” writes Tom Banks. “Switched on the cricket with my son and we are both amazed to see England still batting. Is it cowardly to pray for apocalyptic thunderstorms?”
There’s nothing major on the BOM radar, for what it’s worth. One chunky boi out past Toowoomba, but who knows if it stays on our path, and it would pass quickly if it did.
68th over: England 221-6 (Stokes 47, Jacks 40) Stokes has, in time-honoured fashion, been hit in the dick. Inside edge from Neser right into the box. Is there any more dick-struck cricketer in the world? Stokes does La Cucuracha on his back for a while, knees tucked up, for so long in fact that the runners bring drinks out for everyone. My round? Your round?
67th over: England 220-6 (Stokes 47, Jacks 39) You’d take a Test cap if one’s on offer, but it’s a rough gig to get one in exchange for pumping out bouncers. Doggett keeps going, and they’re scoring alright from him through the off side in this over, rather than falling into the trap of pulling to leg. Six runs in total, via twos and ones.
66th over: England 214-6 (Stokes 44, Jacks 36) It’s funny, it feels like the game is drifting and Australia are struggling, but England are still only 37 runs ahead. So much work yet to do, surely an impossible amount, but they add three from the Neser over.
65th over: England 211-6 (Stokes 42, Jacks 35) Oh, a drop! Tough chance at short leg. Doggett is back to doing the short-ball stuff, gets Jacks to flick one straight at short leg, but Head wears the ball on his thigh and it bounces away. Flat and fast there, no time to see it.
“Would’ve gone to the ground today but instead decided it was a fine day to do the IKEA in my new apartment. The rising humidity told me to instinctively check the BOM; the first storms are beginning to drift in on the radar periphery. What chances the rain throws another twist in the tale here? A certain amount of rain predicted for tomorrow morning too; far from the foregone result many were hollering about last week, this one could yet go all the way.”
Possibly, Russell Yong, there is a storm on the radar. On the other hand, as soon as a wicket falls, the whole thing could be over within an hour. Storms pass quickly in this part of the world, and the Gabba cleans up fast. But we might make day five, as slim as that possibility looked this morning.
64th over: England 209-6 (Stokes 42, Jacks 34) Maybe thrashing Mitchell Starc through cover hasn’t proved to be a good idea in this series? Jacks tries it anyway. Perhaps thinking that they need to cash in with daylight and the old ball before the job gets harder again under lights with a new one. He does better harvesting singles with Stokes, who then last ball of the over nearly pops back a ball to Starc off the pad. Was there an inside edge on that?
“England just can’t help helping Australia can they?” gripes Peter Salmon. “Given the Lions game too, I reckon there was literally only one unhappy Australian player in the world this morning, and now they’ve even let Nathan Lyon have a healthy dose of schadenfreude. Enough!”
63rd over: England 206-6 (Stokes 41, Jacks 32) Stokes is finally confident enough to launch into a drive against Green. Only gets two runs with the sweeper at point getting around, but still. Green bowls a wide to Stokes
“The bars in the Gabba are running out of crisps and chocolate bars,” writes Jon Hall. “They didn’t cater for a full day and nor did I with my family picnic bag.”
62nd over: England 203-6 (Stokes 39, Jacks 32) Starc is still a handful, getting the ball to lift sharply at Jacks a couple of times in the over, hard to time. But he gets a single from one of those balls, and Stokes drives another of those. The lead is up to 26.
61st over: England 201-6 (Stokes 38, Jacks 31) There’s a nice start to the session from Jacks! He gets a full ball from Green and clips it sweetly through midwicket, the long roll to the rope out there. He’s worked bloody hard so far, he’s into the 30s, and England pass 200.
60th over: England 195-6 (Stokes 37, Jacks 26) We’re back after lunch, with Mitchell Starc to have a burst at Stokes with this older ball. Still a bit of shape, just a touch, as he aims at the toes. Stokes keeps it out. A couple of singles from the over.
That said, it rather illustrates that such a feat is not common.
Timothy Sanders and Andrew Goudie both answered my call to find a Test where a side came in six down and batted all day. It’s one of my faves actually, I should have remembered this one: 1955, when the beautifully named partnership of Denis Atkinson and Clairmonte Depeiaza both made big slow tons for West Indies against Australia to draw the undrawable in Bridgetown. I believe they still hold the record for the seventh wicket.
Tea - England 193 for 6, lead by 16 runs
Where is your spinner, Australia? Where is he? I’ll tell you, he’s in a vest running drinks.
England stay alive. The only wicketless session in the series so far, and Stokes and Jacks are five balls away from the longest partnership in the series, which is currently still the one of Starc and Boland yesterday.
Only 59 runs added in the session, and who cares? Because they’ve done the main task, getting through the first spells from the fast bowlers, and now can look to build some sort of lead in the second session. It’s probably futile, it’s probably doomed, but there is real value in these two showing their teammates that it can be done.
Imagine if a couple of the other top-six types had been able to survive last night and be here today.
We’ll be back after the snags and the sangas.
59th over: England 193-6 (Stokes 36, Jacks 25) Labuschagne from the Vulture Street End, and where Crawley or Duckett or Pope would surely be thinking that they have to lay into this joker, Jacks flicks a couple of runs square, carefully defends a length ball, then runs a single to point. Stokes defends with straight bat, on the crabwalk. And again, and again, and England survive wicketless to the break!
58th over: England 190-6 (Stokes 36, Jacks 22) Sadly, nothing very funny happened in Head’s over. Jacks took a single. But all is redeemed, because now Marnus Labuschagne is going to bowl seam up.
57th over: England 189-6 (Stokes 36, Jacks 21) A single for Jacks, angling Green down to deep third, then Stokes is again twitchy against the tall bowler, carefully defending a blockhole ball. Gets a single to cover late in the over, then Green’s bounder is ruled a wide, allowing Jacks to flick a run behind square. So, Jacks the more comfortable against Green at the moment. One over, maybe just two, before the break, but Australia are dawdling with the helmet coming on for Carey… oh right, because Head is going to bowl, so we should get two overs.
56th over: England 185-6 (Stokes 35, Jacks 19) Oh, edged over gully! If it clears Green it’s clearing anyone, and Stokes gets lucky as Boland gets a ball to leap in the way that he can, the edge flashing over the cordon for four. Stokes wasn’t even going at that ball, just desperately trying to keep it out. England’s captain has suddenly looked squeaky in the last few overs, has to find a way through these last 12 minutes to the break. Gets off strike with a cover push, but Jacks hands it back with a leg-side dink. Stokes survives the final ball.
England lead by 8.
55th over: England 179-6 (Stokes 30, Jacks 18) The fifty stand, and England are ahead by one run, as Jacks pulls in dicey fashion to midwicket for one. Stokes flashes and misses! Don’t be doing that now. Green tempted him. He blocks and leaves the next couple, then deflects a run behind point.
