Australia v England: Ashes third Test, day two – live

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Chalk it up to fates or fortune or a quirk of probability, whatever your inclination. If Australia’s first day of the Adelaide Test was a jigsaw puzzle hurled into the air, most of the pieces landed face up in the right place. It has been a pattern for Australia in this Ashes series: monstered by England’s bowlers in Perth, only to create an even greater collapse; sliding in Brisbane, rescued by the lower order.

England, meanwhile, brought a gameplan built on the surety that they couldn’t win in Australia with medium-fast seamers and a keeper up to the stumps, then lost to medium-fast seamers with a keeper up to the stumps. They were given the gift of no Pat Cummins, no Josh Hazlewood, no Nathan Lyon (in Brisbane) and still managed to lose twice in six days. Their third encounter brought the next gift: Steve Smith missing with an inner-ear problem, their own personal Ghost of Ashes Past replaced in the middle order by a creaking, squinting opener whom Australia had already tried to drop.

After the pandemonium of Perth and Brisbane’s pink-ball palooza came a more familiar opening day at Adelaide Oval. It was also roasting hot out in the middle – 35C on the mercury – and when the toss went against Ben Stokes and his embattled England players, they could easily have melted.

Instead, despite some sloppiness and Alex Carey’s magical century on the ground he calls home, the tourists kept plugging away with the fight that Stokes called for at 2-0 down. At stumps Australia were 326 for eight from 83 sapping overs – runs on the heritage-listed scoreboard, granted, but short of ambitions when the returning Pat Cummins got the choice first thing.

England are considering a formal complaint over the Snicko ­technology being used in this Ashes series after Alex Carey received a lifeline en route to a telling century on the opening day of the third Test.

Carey, who made 106 in Australia’s 326 for eight by stumps, was on 72 when Josh Tongue believed the left-hander had edged behind. He was given not out on the field and the third umpire, Chris Gaffaney, felt he did not have enough evidence to overturn the decision despite a spike showing up on the review.

Preamble

Hello one and all. There’s need for any hype ahead of today’s play in Adelaide – everybody knows that it’s on the Brobdingnagian side of huge. The likelihood is that, in the next eight hours, either Australia will take a decisive grip on the 2025-26 Ashes or England’s much maligned batters will breathe new life into the series.

First England’s bowlers need to take the last two wickets. Australia will resume on 326 for 8, a score that should have been better but could have been worse. Most of their batters got themselves out; on the flip side, their top scorers Usman Khawaja (82) and Alex Carey (106) were both dropped and Carey benefitted from a Snicko controversy.

If the pitch is as flat as everyone thinks – Justin Langer called it “a road” – England will hope to take a significant first-innings lead. Given the potential influence of Nathan Lyon in the fourth innings, this is the moment for England’s top eight to deliver. Next time, there’ll be no next time.