England’s batting woes continue despite a fightback with the ball

Australia have, once again, taken full control of another Ashes Test match after England’s woes with the bat showed no sign of stopping at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The brutal discussions and change in selection that proceeded defeat in Adelaide last time out failed to provoke a resurgence with the bat as England lost 14 wickets for just 216 runs across the first two days.

After winning the toss and electing to bowl first on his return to the side, it took Australia captain Pat Cummins only five deliveries to find the edge of Haseeb Hameed for four.

Brought in to the team to replace Rory Burns, Zak Crawley (12) soon found himself back in the pavilion early on, as the Burns had often done, with Cummins striking again during a rip-roaring opening spell to leave England 13-2.

Dawid Malan and Joe Root, again, looked to steady the ship with a third-wicket partnership but failed to make it to lunch with Cummins claiming a third.

If the tourists’ start did not set the tone for their innings, Root’s wicket certainly did. Having brought up another half-century, the England skipper needlessly played at a wide delivery from Mitchell Starc and edged through to Alex Carey.

Then followed a number of truly mind-blowing middle-order dismissals. Firstly, Ben Stokes (25) found the hands of Nathan Lyon at point when attempting to lift the ball over the slip cordon before Jos Buttler (3) horribly miscued a lofted shot into the hands of debutant, Scott Boland, at deep-midwicket when attempting to take on Lyon.

Jonny Bairstow (35) completed a trio of obscene dismissals in a similar fashion to Stokes as he gloved another attempted lofted shot straight to the gully.

In spite of brief resistance from Ollie Robinson (22) and Jack Leach (16), Australia bowled England for a poultry 185, wrapping up another horror show.

Marcus Harris and David Warner (37) began strongly on a difficult day for Root’s men, posting 57 for the first wicket. Yet, the evergreen James Anderson found the edge of Warner to provide a glimmer of hope going into day two.

Hope soon transitioned into a strong belief in the morning session as Mark Wood and Anderson respectively took the wickets of Marnush Labuschagne (1) and Steve Smith (16) with Australia 110-4.

Harris fought on nonetheless in need of a score to cement his place in the team. He may have not reached three figures, but a knock of 76 will certainly inject confidence into the Victorian opener.

An inability to see off the Australian tail cost England key runs as the hosts went from 219-8 to 267 all out.

A special mention must go to Anderson who continues to marvel in his twilight years, finishing with figures of 4-33 from 23 overs with the 39-year-old continuing to prove his critics wrong.

Nevertheless, a margin of just 82 runs was more than salvageable, right? With time still aplenty on during the evening session, Starc and Scott Boland stormed through the England top-order to eradicate that aforementioned belief.

The former claimed two wickets in two balls after finding the edge of Crawley and pinning Malan for LBW whilst Boland impressed onlookers by taking the wickets of Hameed and night-watchman Leach in one over.

Following such a spirited attempt to stay in the game with the ball, going into day three 31-4 must be extremely demoralising for Root and his bowling attack.

Although, Australia, on the other hand, will be buoyed by the fact they could seal another Ashes win and retain the urn after just three days of play.

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