It was only the second day of the Ashes and already Steve Smith needed to rescue Australia from the kind of trouble that local critics predicted England would be confronting throughout the five-Test series.
Smith yesterday scored a composed 64 in an unbroken 89-run, fifth-wicket stand with Shaun Marsh (44 not out) to lift Australia from 76-4 at the start of the evening session to 165-4 by stumps in reply to England’s 302.
Amid the banter and preseries hype, former Australian Test players and the local media questioned the quality of the England squad.
Photo: Reuters
Vice captain David Warner and veteran spinner Nathan Lyon generated headlines for some hostile commentary, too.
So far, England have been the more settled of the teams, sticking to batting plans to keep the big Australia pacemen bowling plenty of overs — Ashes rookies James Vince (83), Mark Stoneman (53) and Dawid Malan (56) all posting half-centuries in the first innings — and executing well-devised strategies in the field to pick off Australia’s top order.
“We’re in a good place as a team,” England fast bowler Jake Ball said. “We’ve done a lot of research and a lot of work on our plans to each batter, [and] we executed them well.”
“I thought the way [Marsh] and Smith battled there, especially in the hour after tea, was probably one of the hardest hours they’ve probably faced in a long time,” said Lyon, who added that the innings underlined his belief that Smith is the No. 1 batsman in the world. “I’m not amazed. He goes out there and sticks to a plan, and it works for him, so hats off to our captain.”
Australia’s bowlers were under pressure early on an unusually slow Gabba wicket when England added 50 without loss to the overnight total, but Mitchell Starc’s dismissal of Malan ended his 83-run fifth-wicket stand with Moeen Ali (38) and triggered a collapse as three wickets fell for four runs.
Lyon picked up two wickets in seven balls as the last six English wickets fell for 56 runs.
However, any confidence Australia gained in the first session eroded after the interval when opener Cameron Bancroft (5) was caught behind off Stuart Broad in the fourth over in his first Ashes innings.
Ali struck in his second over to trap Usman Khawaja (11) leg before wicket and Ball made a key breakthrough with his first Ashes wicket, getting combative opener Warner (26) out paddling a catch to mid-wicket as Australia slipped to 59-3 in the 20th over.
Australia’s position deteriorated to 76-4 when Peter Handscomb (14) was given out leg before wicket on review to James Anderson.
“The game is still in the balance,” Lyon said. “England bowled very well to take four early wickets, but I think we’ve fought back hard and there’s a massive partnership out there now, and hopefully we can build on that... there’s a lot of cricket left in this game.”
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