Labuschagne hits ton as Australia continue to dominate England in Ashes series

Marnus Labuschagne struck a first Ashes century as Australia asserted their dominance on the second Test with England made to pay for more costly errors.

The South African-born batsman scored 103 runs from 305 deliveries as England failed to stop the 27-year-old in his tracks, with Jos Buttler fumbling twice behind the stumps.

Having lost the toss and made to bowl, Joe Root will once again rue his side’s inability to capitalise on straightforward opportunities, something that plagued England’s performance in the field at The Gabba.

On 21, Labuschagne misjudged a short ball from Ben Stokes and saw a slight top edge travel towards Buttler’s left. Poor footwork saw the wicketkeeper miss the opportunity as the hosts then piled on the misery.

Buttler’s second mishap was unforgivable. As day one drew to a close, the returning James Anderson found the edge of Labuschagne, who was just five runs short of 100, only for a regulation catch to be put down.

These events marked a drastic change from the start of the day which saw Buttler take a magnificent, one-handed, leg-side catch to dismiss Marcus Harris for just four.

Truthfully, that was as good as it got for England who, as expected, replaced Mark Wood and Jack Leach with Stuart Broad and Anderson to bolster their attack with the pink ball.

Runs were somewhat of a necessity for Australia as captain Pat Cummins and star man Josh Hazelwood were both absent with Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson coming into a weakened bowling lineup.

David Warner remained patient alongside Labuschagne and his score of 95 was far less fortunate than his innings in Brisbane.

However, he would just fall short of a century. Whilst England’s consistent bombardment of short balls from Stokes was a questionable tactic, Warner holed to Broad at cover off, a delivery that should have been sent to the boundary.

Stand-in skipper, Steve Smith (93), saw out the night with Labuschagne going into day two 221-2, before adding further runs.

The latter was handed yet another life as he nicked Ollie Robinson’s no-ball into the hands of Buttler. However, the Sussex seamer would eventually claim his man LBW shortly after.

For a short period, it appeared that England had fought back to put themselves in a salvageable position after quickly seeing off Travis Head (18) and Cameron Green (2), yet, Smith, alongside Alex Carey (51), took the game away from the tourists.

By the time Anderson pinned Smith for LBW seven runs short of his ton, an intimidating total was always on the cards.

After Carey had posted his maiden Test half-century and quickly chipped into the hands of Haseeb Hameed at cover, debutant Neser (39) and Mitchell Starc contributed with quick runs prior to Smith declaring at 473-9.

It got even worse for England, whose batting deficiencies were again evident for all onlookers to see. Starc, once more, saw off Rory Burns (6) with relative ease, prior to Hameed (6) picking out the fast left-arm bowler at short-mid-on to hand Neser a first Test wicket with just his second delivery.

Only thunderstorms could save England, as lightning struck to end play prematurely at 17-2. Australia lead by 456 runs going into day three.

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