Aussies turn the screw, hone in on 2-0 lead

For all the pain England captain Joe Root was subjected to after his day was bookended by a couple of brutal blows to what team officials politely described as his "abdomen", a more lingering hurt looms with his team staring at an 0-2 Vodafone Ashes scoreline.

Root was dismissed from what proved the last ball of the day four, caught behind off his evening tormentor Mitchell Starc for 24, leaving England 4-82 and a distant 386 runs in arrears heading into the last day.

It capped what would have been a forgettable day for Root and his team if only it had not been etched as deeply in his memory as he burned with pain.

Root was absent from the field throughout the day's first session after being hit in the unprotected zone by a member of the support staff providing gentle throwdowns before play began, but returned only to cop a far more ferocious hit from Starc shortly before stumps.

The 30-year-old father of two received prolonged medical attention while his opponents showed gentle concern and occasional knowing smirks, and a towel was held up to protect the wounded skipper's modesty as damage to his protector and his person was assessed.

But apart from being forced to run between the wickets like a man shoplifting a cactus down the front of his strides, Root looked to have somehow survived to stumps and a welcome warm bath before Starc landed the knockout punch.

Late on day four, with Root and Ben Stokes (3no off 40 balls) at the wicket and just under 100 overs remaining in the match, the gimmicky 'win prediction' algorithms quoted Australia at 85 per cent, a draw at 15 (noting no rain is forecast for Adelaide tomorrow) which left England with zero hope, apparently.

The victory target set by Australia of 468 from a minimum 134 overs was not simply gargantuan, it was fanciful given in almost 145 years of Test matches here they have never managed more than 417 in a fourth innings.

And that best effort came in the 1977 Centenary Test, when the Ashes weren't up for grabs.

That pursuit could hardly have got off to a less auspicious, or more predictable start with Haseeb Hameed pushing hard forward to the sixth ball he faced with Jhye Richardson's extra bounce ensuring it missed the opener's bat and took glove instead.

It represented the 22nd time in England's past 20 Tests they have started an innings with an opening stand of 10 runs or less.

Of far greater surprise was Hameed's partner Rory Burns, who has contributed seven ducks to the 18 recorded by England openers over that period, not only survived the new-ball onslaught but prospered to make 34, double his series aggregate before this evening.

Burns and England's first innings top-scorer Dawid Malan saw off a further six overs before tea, and an additional 13 after the break that began with Nathan Lyon operating from the cathedral end and immediately extracting extravagant turn from the day four Adelaide pitch he had helped prepare in a previous life.

On resumption, it seemed England's wretched fortunes were turning (albeit more slowly than Lyon's off-breaks) when Malan gloved Australia's most-prolific Test finger spinner to slip where Steve Smith saw it into his hands at waist height and then watched it slip straight through.

But in keeping with the series narrative to date, England gained no benefit from their lucky break with Malan pinned lbw next over by Michael Neser having added a single to his total, and burned one of his team's three reviews into the deal.

Smith then made spectacular amends for his earlier lapse by clasping a low chance that fizzed towards his right ankle off the edge of Burns's bat after Richardson got a delivery to straighten off the seam at pace.

Root and Stokes dropped anchor to see out the ensuring hour to stumps, adding just 12 runs in as many overs before England's leader and best Test batter of any given calendar year went in agonising circumstances.

It was difficult to imagine more could have gone wrong beyond what England have endured on a tour that began with biblical rains in Brisbane, a rout inside four days at the Gabba and a similarly insipid start to the Adelaide Test.

But the news Root was unable to take the field at today's resumption added an altogether new level to the unfolding disaster.

The circumstances of Root's initial mishap seemed almost as painful as the end result – struck while receiving gentle throwdowns in the nets from spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel which the England captain seemingly deemed of insufficient threat to don full protective apparel.

The resultant blow was serious enough for Root to undergo scans at a nearby hospital, which meant the touring team were led on to the field for day four by stand-in skipper Stokes.

In keeping with his reputation as a man who makes things happen, often when they appear least likely, Stokes immediately oversaw England's most emphatic start to a day of the series to date.

With his sixth ball of the opening session, James Anderson nipped a delivery off the seam that would have challenged the most accomplished Test number threes and was therefore more than a match for Michael Neser who was filling that role as nightwatchman in his debut match.

Two balls later, Stuart Broad produced the sort of delivery that so haunted Australia's openers in the 2019 Ashes campaign in the UK only this time it was Marcus Harris and not David Warner who nicked off as he angled the ball in from around the wicket and got it to straighten.

Having failed to reach 20 in 12 of his preceding 13 Test innings, Harris looked to have pushed past his danger period until, on 23, he succumbed in the most unlikely manner.

England keeper Jos Buttler, whose pair of muffed chances on day one included one of the most straightforward missed by a Test gloveman, pulled in a stunning one-handed grab diving low to his left in front of first slip.

However, Buttler returned to type next ball when Steve Smith was squared up by the first ball he faced from Broad and edged a simpler offering to the right of the keeper who covered so much ground he was struck on the right wrist before the chance went down.

If that was an early seasonal gift for Smith, an even bigger present was delivered a ball later when Australia's stand-in captain was pinned so palpably in front of his stumps that Broad only bothered to appeal after he'd run the length of the pitch with arms spread wide in celebration.

Such was Broad's incredulity, Stokes had no choice but to review umpire Rod Tucker's not out decision but the technology deemed Smith might have been struck marginally outside the line of off-stump and therefore remained beneficiary of the on-field call.

But the man who so dominated England's bowlers in the two preceding Ashes series was unable to maximise his luck, so tough was batting on the well-grassed pitch that was offering assistance to England's seamers who had suddenly found an optimal fuller length.

For almost 45 minutes, the world's third-ranked Test batter laboured to produce six runs – including just one stroke of authority, to the long-off boundary – before fending at a ball angled into his rib cage that Buttler pouched neatly to his preferred left side after it brushed the batter's gloves.

Australia suddenly found themselves 4-55 with an overall lead of just under 300, and unable to make any meaningful progress against England's reborn seamers who conceded just 14 runs from as many overs in claiming three wickets in the day's opening hour.

However, Root's absence coupled with the tourists' decision to enter the game without a specialist spinner meant their lack of bowling variety coupled with need to step up their over rate saw seamer Ollie Robinson switch to bowling off-breaks (without bothering to remove his sunglasses).

Root returned to the field soon after having been cleared of damage to his person and his lineage but, having spent more than 80 minutes out of the action, was not permitted to bowl until well into the second session.

He was also inconvenienced in his movements, diving gingerly to his right in an unsuccessful attempt to intercept a low chance from Labuschagne (on 18) at slip and even slower to get to his feet after the ball had passed.

As the foot-weary England quicks began to tire and the pitch's earlier menace gradually subdued, Head launched into a similarly brazen counter-attack to that which netted him a century inside a session at the Gabba.

With his sixth ball of the opening session, James Anderson nipped a delivery off the seam that would have challenged the most accomplished Test number threes and was therefore more than a match for Michael Neser who was filling that role as nightwatchman in his debut match.

Cheered by a parochial home crowd, Head became the first Australia batter to reach 50 in the second innings and did so at better than a run-per-ball with seven boundaries crunching boundaries along the way.

He perished in search of an eighth, although it took a stunning outfield catch by Stokes – reminiscent of Glenn McGrath's famed effort at the same venue during the 2002-03 Ashes – at which point an Australia declaration seemed likely at any moment.

But for a further hour – perhaps with an eye on the encroaching dusk, at which point the pink ball supposedly starts 'sundowning' – Australia's lower-order swished and swung, clubbing 86 from 15 overs against a steady diet of part-time spin.

After starting the day with their seamers on top, England ended with declaration bowling which saw Malan claim his first Test wicket – the world's number two Test batter, Labuschagne – and Root finish as his team's best bowler (2-27) largely because he was unable to bowl for much of the innings.

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