.png)
1 hour ago
2
The ball may be pink and the meal breaks off-kilter, but for so much of the second day in this pivotal day-night Test match, the atmosphere inside the Gabba was an all-too-familiar one for England’s supporters.
Gone was the triumphalism that met Joe Root’s first Test century on these shores 24 hours earlier and in its place the sight of Australia taking control. England’s attack had been in the madhouse, sending down a feast of wide long hops and half-volleys to make Jackson Pollock look positively precise.
But as everyone knows, the pink Kookaburra ball comes out to play at night and, at stumps, despite a string of catching chances going to ground across the course of the day, Ben Stokes and his side still believed. A frenetic evening session had stemmed the tide, with Australia’s ominous 291 for three turned into 378 for six – a healthy lead of 44 runs albeit not yet decisive.
Summing up the chaos was Brydon Carse. The fast bowler had shipped a landslide of runs yet removed two set men in the space of four balls. Cameron Green’s bails were lit up by a yorker while on 45, before Steve Smith fell for 61 to a jaw-dropping one-handed catch from Will Jacks.
In between, however, came a life for Alex Carey and one that England were still stewing on at the close. Ben Duckett followed his golden duck on day one by putting him down at gully, with Australia’s pugnacious wicketkeeper unbeaten on 46 by the close. Alongside him was Michael Neser, who was dropped by Carse at cover on six and walked off 15 not out. In the 70th over, Root spilled another presentable opportunity to remove Carey that went between wicketkeeper and slip.
The other wicket to fall was Josh Inglis, Australia’s No 7 sparking the initial counterattack with Carey and similarly earning a life on 23. Duckett was again the guilty party here, even if Stokes, the bowler denied, took matters into his own hands two balls later by knocking over middle stump.
And so a wild evening on Vulture Street left the Test match delicately poised – frustrating for England, no question, but a damn sight better following an opening session to forget. It began with Marnus Labuschagne pulling off the first champagne catch of the day. Jofra Archer had fallen for 38 and an attack held together by Mitchell Starc’s six-wicket haul could finally rest up.
From the sanctuary of the dressing room Starc and Co watched the Gabba come to life as, in the space of an hour, Jake Weatherald and Travis Head wiped off the 70 runs Root and Archer had put on for England’s 10th wicket. This was clinical, aggressive batting, no question, but also fed by an attack that was just as scattergun as during the final rites in Perth.
There was a dropped catch nestled among all this, naturally, Archer finding the initially dormant Head’s edge on three only for Jamie Smith to clang the chance and leave his teammate distraught. Not overly costly per se – Head eventually stuck one up in the air on 33 – but the flurry of 47 runs off five overs that it triggered sent English chins plummeting south.
Knocked off his feet by Archer on his debut innings in Perth, it is fair Weatherald has now found them. Here he was as inventive as Head, ramping uppercuts, driving the inevitable over-corrections that resulted. Comparisons with Eoin Morgan end with the crouching stance, however, Weatherald having recently called T20 franchise cricket “shit”.
Archer eventually repeated the dose from Perth with a pinpoint yorker after lunch that was apparently not worthy of an appeal. But, joined by his long-time muse in Smith, Labuschagne continued his recent return form and a stand worth 50 runs developed. Though eventually wafting behind Stokes for 65, he had set the template for those to follow.
Among the more mystifying aspects of the day was Archer being pushed through a seven-over spell here, eventually sent to graze after an hour of bowling but at the exact moment the lights were starting to take over. As the bowler was later denied Neser’s wicket during the evening’s chaos, his figures of one for 74 did not exactly tell the full story.
