Australia continued to pile up more runs on Day 2 where they’ve set up a good batting total in the first innings of 473-9 via declaration not long after tea before they finished their hard day’s of work a bit early due to lightning & rain with the ball at 17-2.
Plenty of good moments that began from Marnus Labuschagne who secured his sixth Test 100 after he was fortunate to escape Jos Buttler’s sloppy catch of his gloves & cashed into runs, although Travis Head & Cameron Green were clean bowled for low scores but it doesn’t mean Australia regressed when Steve Smith batted superbly as stand-in skipper even though he was gutted not to escape the nervous 90s on 93 & we also saw Alex Carey score his 50 on his 2nd Test match.
We also cannot forget Michael Neser & Mitchell Starc, who not only scored quick fire spells in the mid 30s run mark, but they also shared two early wickets with the ball that gave another advantage going into Day 3 tomorrow for Australia & make more damage on England’s best remaining batting card as Neser is settling really well at Test level after waiting his debut for a very long time even though he’s 31 now.
England on the other hand may have caught up with a few wickets on hand with great areas around the stumps including an excellent late spell from James Anderson (2 wickets) not long before tea, however, they continued to leak runs when the fielding continued to flop such as Ollie Pope at the back & Jos Buttler with the hit and miss catches behind the keeping gloves.
But the one player who disappointed everyone so far this Ashes series is Rory Burns having miscommunicated that overthrow for four as well as still being vulnerable to the Australian quicks & not delivering these numbers as required at Test level, nothing to say right now as if he continues that poor start later in this game then it’s time to go by the Melbourne Boxing Day Test.
England need Dawid Malan & Joe Root to rekindle that spark tomorrow which worked so well in their 2nd innings run last week as it’s going to take a lot of time.
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