Australia dig in under lights
England snared the prized wicket of their nemesis Steve Smith as Australia toiled under the lights in a feisty opening day of the first-ever daynight Ashes Test here.
It was debutant Craig Overton who claimed the huge scalp of the world's top-rated Test batsman for 40 and his first Test wicket in the 63rd over of a grimly-fought contest between bat and ball. But the Australians, leading the series after a 10-wicket first Test win in Brisbane, only lost four wickets after being surprisingly sent into bat by England skipper Joe Root. At the close, the home side were 209 for four with Peter Handscomb unbeaten on 36 and Shaun Marsh on 20 before an Adelaide Oval record 55,317 crowd.
"It was a pretty nice one, obviously," Overton said of his dismissal of Smith. "He's one of the best players in the world to get that one to start with and hopefully I can carry on with that on Sunday." Overton angled one in between bat and pad to scatter Smith's stumps to the unbridled delight of the England team after the Australian
skipper's match-turning unbeaten 141 in Brisbane.
The Somerset seamer earned kudos as the first bowler to bowl Smith in a Test match in Australia since New Zealand's Trent Boult in November 2015. "We're pretty happy. We felt like we bowled pretty well all day," Overton said. "We'll come back with the new ball and hopefully get a couple of early ones and be quite on top."
Smith, who faced 90 balls, had been contained by England's tight line and was never given a moment's peace by Joe Root's team to keep him under pressure.
At one stage James Anderson stood just off the pitch and close to Smith at the nonstriker's end as the pair exchanged barbs and needed umpire Aleem Dar to step between the two to calm tensions. Smith also traded heated words with Stuart Broad early in his innings as the tourists looked for ways to unsettle the imperious Australian skipper.
"I'm not sure what was said, I was on the boundary, but obviously they said a few things and it looked like he got under his skin," Overton said of the exchanges with Smith. "But he still got 40, so he played pretty well. It's nice to get him in the end."
Usman Khawaja raised his ninth Test half-century and was dropped on 44 by Mark Stoneman before he fell in the over after the dinner break. He shaped to cover drive Anderson only to get an edge to James Vince in the gully for 53. "I wouldn't say we're streets ahead but I'd say we're pretty happy with four for 200 at the end of the day," Khawaja said. "It's going to be important how we bat on Sunday. "