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Late strikes drive home Aussie advantage

A patient 93 from Steve Smith set the platform for quickfire declaration runs before lightning struck – both with the new ball and overhead – as Australia took control of the second Test

Steve Smith's dream of a century upon return to the Australia captaincy might have evaporated amid the heat of a stifling Adelaide afternoon, but his batting protege Marnus Labuschagne notched another ton as England were made to toil in the second Vodafone Test.

Play was abandoned 10 minutes before the scheduled time for stumps due to the arrival of an electrical storm at the end of a day in which the temperature peaked at 38.6C around 3.30pm.

The lightning bolt that lit up the night sky as Dawid Malan faced up to Michael Neser in the innings' ninth over was not sufficient to prevent the England batter seeing the ball safely past, but it convinced umpires and match officials that danger lurked.

England would feasibly argue that had arrived 40 minutes early when Australia took the new ball and promptly made significant inroads with openers Rory Burns (4) and Haseeb Hameed (6) sent packing in the first half-hour.

Neser's first comes with just his second ball

Burns's demise at the hands of Mitchell Starc was hardly a surprise given his recent history, but Hameed's would have been unlikely two days ago given he fell to debutant Michael Neser – a last-minute replacement for Pat Cummins – who struck with his second ball in Test cricket.

The tourists were already looking down the barrel of history before they faced a ball in their first innings, given the 16 day-night Tests completed since the format was pioneered in Adelaide six years ago have yielded seven scores of 400-plus for the team batting first.

Each one of those teams have ended up winning the match.

Pink ball king Starc nicks off Burns

Having toiled diligently for five sessions during which eight catches of varying difficulty were dropped and Labuschagne became the latest Australia batter to benefit from being dismissed off a no-ball, England coughed up 83 runs from 10 overs in the final session before Smith declared.

So savage was the assault from Australia's tailenders, at one stage Ben Stokes was bowling with eight fielders on the boundary rope with captain Joe Root the only exception, mainly because someone had to help relay the ball from keeper to bowler if it somehow missed the bat.

It was a different scenario when England took to the crease just before 8.30pm on a balmy Adelaide evening with a phalanx of catchers sweating on any mis-stroke from openers Hameed and Burns.

That wait extended just 12 minutes and 13 deliveries before Burns edged to Smith at second slip, although the reason it took so long to achieve that initial breakthrough was opener Haseeb Hameed's inability to lay bat on ball during Jhye Richardson's scintillating first over.

It was the onset of the storm that prevented any further damage, but the sight of their 456-run lead will ensure Australia begin with a spring in their step when play begins at 2.11pm Adelaide time tomorrow.

Smith looked set to crown his re-elevation to the national leadership – albeit as a stand-in for regular skipper Pat Cummins sidelined due to COVID-19 protocols – with the 28th hundred of his career and his first as captain since the Boxing Day Test of England's previous visit in 2017.

But having survived the second new pink ball last night, and dogged tactics from England's all-seam attack that persisted with a largely leg-side strategy, Smith was pinned lbw by James Anderson on 93 after almost five and half hours at the crease.

Having marginally reduced his pronounced shuffle across the stumps as balls have been delivered in Adelaide, he might have wished he'd gone a bit further and a bit faster to the ball that jagged back in and hit him below the knee roll of his front pad.

In much the same way as he did at the end of his dramatic innings at Lord's in 2019 when he was flattened by a Jofra Archer bouncer, Smith knew he was plumb but apologetically called for a review in the vain hope he'd been struck outside the line of off stump.

Smith compiles patient 93 on captaincy return

It was a similarly optimistic ploy used by Labuschagne earlier in the day amid a frantic 10-minute period between him posting his sixth Test century and being dismissed for 103.

That mini-episode within the day's storyline saw him celebrate his century which arrived (off a patient 287 balls) with a deft glide to the third-man boundary, then be adjudged caught behind 10 balls later only to be called back as he was about to exit the arena when Ollie Robinson's overstep was revealed.

Back at the crease, Labuschagne offered a tough chance to Robinson next over with the fast bowler only able to get his fingertips to the overhead catch, and was trapped lbw an over later with his call for a review failing to secure him yet another reprieve.

Labuschagne lives dangerously to notch maiden Ashes ton

It was a frenetic finish to an innings that stood as a model of patience and concentration as the 27-year-old – the world's second-ranked Test batter behind Root – also assumed second place on the all-time list of highest Test averages for players to have batted in 20 innings or more.

Labuschagne's current benchmark of 62.48 is bettered only by Don Bradman's unattainable 99.94, and lifts him ahead of Smith whose 93 today saw his average lift marginally to 61.65, just behind his former Australia teammate Adam Voges (61.87) who sits in third place.

The third-wicket partnership between Smith and Labuschagne yielded 65 runs either side of stumps and included the arrival of England's second new-ball which failed to deliver any immediate impact.

But when Labuschagne fell, the visitors enjoyed their most productive spell of the match to date in which they claimed three wickets for 53 runs in the course of less than 14 overs as first Test player of the match Travis Head (18) and Cameron Green fell in quick succession.

Head was left in a tangle by a slower, flighted delivery from Root that escaped the left-hander's awkward efforts to counter it with bat and pad, while Green went in a worryingly similar way to his Brisbane first-ball duck with his stumps rattled by a textbook outswinger from Stokes.

It also underscored the belated value of attacking the stumps, which numerous commentators and Australia opener David Warner had pointed out was the glaring deficiency in England's day one tactics when they repeatedly and fruitlessly toiled back of a length.

Any thoughts the double-strike shortly before tea, with Smith having recently reached 50, might open up a fast-track to Australia's lower-order proved illusory as keeper Alex Carey forged a 96-run seventh-wicket stand with his stand-in skipper.

Carey began cautiously but as Smith neared his hundred he picked up the pace, a sign that Australia were looking for quick runs before a declaration post-dinner that would allow them a spell at England's top-order under lights.

Smith's departure for 93 was followed immediately by Carey's maiden Test half-century, a hybrid of studied defence and exciting strokeplay, before he chipped a catch to extra cover and the tailenders swung into action.

As it turned out, the brazen T20-style hitting Starc (39no from 39 balls), Neser (35 from 24) and Richardson (9 off 3) didn't provide the definitive pyrotechnics of the evening session.

But it was enough to leave England dazed and confused heading into day three of a series they already trail 0-1.

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