ASHES TOUR FROM HELL
Burns and Hameed flop after Aussie lower order tear into England bowlers. This is fast becoming another...
Only two days into the second Test, England’s 2021-22 tour of Australia is shaping up to be as grim as any. And, frankly, there has been some stiff competition.
After Joe Root’s bowlers were toyed with to the tune of 473 for nine, his opening batsmen flunked their pink-ball examination under the glare of Adelaide’s lights.
none of it discouraged fears that England are facing a thrashing as painful as their 4-0 defeat here four years ago, their 5-0 defeat four years earlier, and their 5-0 defeat seven years before that.
Truly, the 3-1 victory by Andrew Strauss’s team in 2010-11 looks like a glorious aberration, never to be repeated.
First Rory Burns poked Mitchell Starc to second slip to depart for four. Then Haseeb Hameed, on six, chipped Michael neser’s second ball in Test cricket to Starc at mid-on. It was a shot that would have raised eyebrows in the last over of a one-day game, let alone the seventh over of a crucial Ashes contest against an attack missing Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
Moments later, as if the gods had seen enough punishment for one evening, an almighty fork of
For day three reports, go to www.dailymail.co.uk/sport lightning was followed rather too quickly by a clap of thunder.
Play was abandoned at 17 for two, leaving Dawid Malan and Root the task of reprising their second-innings century stand at Brisbane if England are to have a realistic chance of staying afloat.
Root will never say it publicly, of course, but he must have been troubled by what he saw. Burns, in particular, resembles the accidental tourist, having already reacted to his golden duck at the Gabba — where he also dropped David Warner — by choosing not to face the first delivery in the second innings.
The policy continued here, but if he could run, he was unable to hide. After a firm push off his pads in Starc’s first over, he got into a tangle outside off from the first ball of his second; Steve Smith in the cordon did the rest.
Burns, who also gave away four overthrows in the field with a reckless shy at the stumps, now has 17 runs in three innings, and is feeling the breath of Zak Crawley on his neck. And yet if Burns fails in the second innings, a straight swap for the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne is no guarantee of anything.
For a start, he is England’s second-highest Test run-scorer in 2021 behind Root, even if his haul of 496 at 27 — more than 1,000 adrift of his captain — is modest. Crawley, meanwhile, was dropped as recently as August because he had spent the year averaging 11. In Australia, against this attack, there is no easy solution.
Hameed had twice fought hard at the Gabba, but undid the good impression by gifting neser his first Test wicket. It was the shot of a muddled mind — and Australia were jubilant.
At the end of two days in which their batsmen had offered valuable lessons in patience and crease occupation, they had every right to enjoy their dominance — though not before England had added to their catalogue of mishaps.
not long after Marnus labuschagne, gifted two lives by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler on the first day, brought up his sixth Test century and first against England, he was caught behind off Ollie Robinson’s first delivery. It almost seemed to go without saying that replays would reveal Robinson had overstepped — and they did.
Robinson recovered his composure to trap labuschagne leg-before in his next over for 102, but the moment set the tone for a day in which England’s seamers were repeatedly no-balled, and Australia’s batsmen did more or less as they pleased.
Smith moved ominously to 93 before Jimmy Anderson denied him a century in his first match back as temporary captain with a nip-backer into his front pad.
Wicketkeeper Alex Carey, born a couple of hours to the east in loxton, made a dashing maiden fifty in his second Test. The suspicion that Tim Paine’s demise would actually be to England’s detriment grows by the game.
Starc and neser then prepared the ground for their assault with the ball by mauling England with the bat, as 83 came in 10 chaotic overs after the second interval — a session in which both Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes conceded their 100th run.
In the first Test, Australia turned 195 for five into 425. now, they translated 294 for five into 473 for nine against an England attack that wilted in 37-degree heat and paid a predictable price for its uniformity.
With no Mark Wood to ruffle feathers with his pace, as he did at the Gabba, Root used Stokes as the battering ram, plus 20 overs of his own off-spin, to break up a steady diet of right-arm fastmedium. England have shown little consistency on this trip, except when it has come to picking the wrong team.
Robinson was rarely less than probing during 27 overs which cost just 45, and Stokes typically whole-hearted. But as Woakes was carted all over the Adelaide Oval by neser, it was tempting to wonder whether he will play again in the series.
Only failures for Travis Head, bowled by Root for 18, and Cameron Green, who followed his first Test golden duck by having his off-stump rearranged for two by Stokes, cheered England up.
But too often, they bowled too short — a malaise that only Robinson and, briefly, Stokes were capable of correcting.
It seemed inconceivable that England should repeat the mistake they made at Adelaide four years ago, when Anderson and Broad failed to give the new ball a chance to swing.
And yet here they were, bowling back of a length once more to defensive fields, as if 2017-18 had never happened.
Already eyeing a 2-0 lead with three to play, Australia can barely believe their luck.