Australia take huge steps towards another Ashes victory in Adelaide

Australia will need six wickets on the final day of the second Test to secure a 2-0 lead over England in the Ashes series.

Mitchell Starc picked up the wicket of Joe Root on the final ball of day four to hit England with a huge hammer blow going into the final day.

The third day of the second Test started very positively for England. Root and Dawid Malan put together their second 100-run partnership of the series and they managed to score the highest total partnership for a visiting team in Australia in pink-ball tests with 138.

After both batsmen survived the first session of the day, they fell soon after as Cameron Green got the wicket of Root for 62 and Starc dismissed Malan for 80. From that point onwards, it was the same old story for England.

Ollie Pope was bamboozled by the bowling of Nathan Lyon and he was followed back to the dressing room by Jos Buttler, who was caught behind for a 15-ball duck.

Root’s side were six down going into the final session and it did not take long for the hosts to finish them off.

Lyon bowled Chris Woakes out with a brilliant delivery before trapping Ollie Robinson for LBW in his next over. This encouraged Ben Stokes to go into a limited-overs mode for damage limitation. He scored 16 from two overs before playing the ball onto his stumps following Green’s delivery.

Stuart Broad tried to go aggressive but ended up being Starc’s fourth wicket of the innings leaving England trailing by 237 runs at the halfway point.

Australia chose to inflict more damage rather than enforce the follow-on and it worked perfectly for the hosts.

Marcus Harris and David Warner had to face 17 overs at the end of the day and almost made it through but a mix-up between the stumps led to Broad running Warner out for just 13.

Harris’ Test career was on the line and it did not get better the following morning. Buttler took a brilliant catch off Broad’s bowling and the Three Lions started gathering some momentum.

The threat of another partnership between Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne was put to bed early and Robinson got rid of the former for just six runs. However, Labuschgane had other plans.

The 27-year-old partnered by Travis Head put together 89 runs off just 105 balls as Australia were quickly increasing their lead and heading towards a big win. The England bowlers were now struggling to find a breakthrough and Root decided to let Robinson bowl as an off-spinner.

Both Labuschagne and Head made it to 51 before getting caught by Stokes. Green finished on 33 and not out as England were set a total of 468 runs to win.

Much like Harris, Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns were under pressure and needed a good score to secure their spots but this did not happen.

Hameed became Jhye Richardson’s first Test wicket as he gloved his effort straight into the gloves of Alex Carey. Burns was building a good partnership with Malan before Neser hit the latter plumb on his pads and gave the Aussie’s a much-needed breakthrough.

Richardson then picked up the wicket of Burns for just 34 as the batsman edged his shot towards Smith who made a good catch to dismiss the Englishmen.

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This left Root and Stokes trying the battle it out for the remaining few overs and try to secure a draw on day five. They were defending well until Root was struck in the unmentionables by a fierce ball from Starc.

The England captain was moving uneasily after this and led to a half-hearted poke at a ball from Starc again, edging it to a diving Carey.

Stokes will need to provide some magic on the final day to help England avoid defeat in Adelaide as Australia look a level above again.

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