Milestone man Lyon drives Australia to 1-0 lead

Like many a reveller at this time of year, England's high-spirited Friday afternoon was followed by the dull pain of a Saturday morning after as they suffered a remarkable batting implosion that gifted Australia a 1-0 Vodafone Ashes Series lead.

Having all-but erased Australia's hefty first innings lead thanks to an unbroken stand between Dawid Malan and skipper Joe Root, the seemingly set pair both fell before 10 runs were added to England's overnight score precipitating an unholy collapse of 8-77 in 33 overs prior to lunch.

That left Australia needing only 20 runs to secure a deserved win in a match they dominated for all but two sessions yesterday, and an additional day and a half's rest before the teams head to Adelaide to prepare for the day-night fixture starting there on Thursday.

That was duly achieved off 5.1 overs at 1.09pm local time under flawless Brisbane sunshine for the loss of Alex Carey who capped a memorable maiden Test by filling in as opener alongside Marcus Harris who finished unbeaten on nine after hitting the winning boundary.

It would seem Australia's only concerns heading into their first pink ball encounter for a year is the fitness of opener David Warner who did not bat in Australia's cursory run chase after being struck in the ribs while compiling an invaluable 94 in his team's first innings.

And while whispered doubts surrounding fast bowler Josh Hazlewood when he failed to bowl during last night's wicketless final session and was absent from the attack for the first hour today, the fact he sent down six overs (albeit at slightly reduced pace) today helped ease that angst.

Apart from those matters, Australia could hardly have hoped for a better start to their Ashes defence.

The selection talking points prior to the series opener were all answered emphatically, with Travis Head the only batter from either team to post a century, keeper Carey setting a record as the first man to claim eight catches on Test debut, and fast bowler Mitchell Starc setting the ball rolling with a stunning wicket from the first delivery.

Then there was the exemplary captaincy debut of Pat Cummins, who answered queries about the capacity of a fast bowler to effectively lead a Test team by claiming 7-89 in addition to securing a 100 per cent winning ratio as skipper.

And the gathering speculation about when Nathan Lyon would claim his 400th Test wicket has been relieved, with the spinner bouncing back to form with four wickets today.

England leave the Gabba with an altogether different outlook after extending their winless streak in Ashes Tests on Australia soil to 11, with their most recent win more than a decade ago.

They will face some selection dilemmas, with veteran new-ball pair James Anderson and Stuart Broad certain to come into calculations and early concerns over the form of opener Rory Burns and spinner Jack Leach.

Indeed, apart from a the threatening bowling efforts from quicks, most notably Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood and the third-wicket stand between Root and Malan that briefly raised the prospect of a rousing day five finish there was worryingly little for the tourists to take solace from.

The batting returns in the face of a familiar but no-less-potent Australia attack were meagre, with the Malan-Root union representing the only partnership of either innings to put England's rivals under pressure.

And even that might have been scotched before it reached 50 had Australia been a bit more vigilant.

Malan admitted after play yesterday he'd "got away with one" when, on 37, he advanced down the pitch to Lyon and watched the ball graze his glove as it bounced from his front pad and nestle in the hands of the bowler.

However, Lyon's appeal was perfunctory, and with Carey unsighted there was no discussion of a review and England navigated the remainder of yesterday's final session without losing a wicket.

There was therefore a measure of retrospective justice when Malan was dismissed 15 minutes play this morning having squeezed a catch into his front pad that was gobbled up by Marnus Labuschagne as he scrambled on to the pitch under the batter's feet.

It was a far more conclusive circumstance, and an infinitely more vociferous appeal followed by an outbreak of unbridled joy as Lyon was besieged by his teammates acknowledging his rare milestone.

As only the 17th bowler in almost 145 years of Test cricket to reach 400 wickets – and the fourth off-spinner after Sri Lanka's Muthiah Muralidaran and India pair Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin – Lyon's achievement deserved due celebration.

But adding extra pep to the party was the interminable time Lyon had spent on 399 – a total of 327 days – during which he sent down 209 deliveries, more than three times his career strike rate of a wicket every 65 balls.

It then took just 21 minutes and 11 deliveries to reach 401 when Ollie Pope was unable to reprise his stoicism of day one and aimed an ill-advised cut shot to a ball that fizzed and bounced and was bunted lamely to Steve Smith at slip.

In between those breakthroughs, all-rounder Cameron Green snared his second Test wicket with the world's top-ranked Test batter Root caught behind to a textbook outswinger having added just three to his overnight score.

Suddenly, Australia had claimed 3-11 in the space of 23 balls but more crucially had excised both batters who were involved in the 162-run third-wicket partnership that hauled England back into the Test yesterday.

And they had achieved within the 10 overs they were required to bowl this morning with an old, soft Kookaburra ball.

Unfortunately for England fans, their team's best spell of the morning came either side of Australia taking the second new-ball – when Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler survived 11 overs unscathed for the addition of 32 runs – which coincided with a power outage at the Gabba that put the world TV feed off air.

England's progress towards the 279 needed to ensure Australia batted a second time was thus heard but not seen, but when regular transmission to viewers worldwide was resumed it was also metaphorically restored on-field.

Having deployed his preferred pair of Starc and Hazlewood with the new ball, it took Cummins just four deliveries after reinstating himself to the attack to land a knockout blow by having Stokes caught at gully.

The means by which that was achieved largely summed up the rival camps respective fortunes on the fourth morning.

Stokes seemed stunned by a delivery that leapt at him off a length, and in his awkward attempt to fend it away he ended up facing the opposite direction to which the ball travelled, which was waist high to Green in the gully.

The manner in which a beaming Green pointed knowingly to his colleagues in the slips cordon suggested the ungainly and unlikely manner of Stokes's demise had been somehow foreseen.

Certainly the rapidity and vapidity of England's submission after the stirring fightback mounted by Malan and Root yesterday caught all viewers, and suddenly huge cohort of listeners, by abject surprise.

Less than three overs after Stokes's departure, Buttler fell to a tentative prod that yielded a thin edge for the second time in the match as the disparity between the England keeper's Test match returns and his remarkable white-ball deeds continues to widen.

The final three wickets fell in a clatter, and if not for the immovable nature of Test match lunch Australia would have secured their emphatic win in the space of a single, stunning session.

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena