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Match Report:

Scorecard

Late wickets edge Aussies towards Ashes victory

The tourists had largely outplayed Australia until late on day two, when Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland claimed two wickets apiece to finish with one hand on the Ashes urn

England fleetingly hauled themselves back into the Vodafone Ashes series on the back of a vintage bowling effort from evergreen seamer James Anderson, only to see the urn all-but snatched away in a final hour of batting mayhem.

Having restricted Australia's first innings advantage to 82, England then crashed to 4-31 in 12 rousing overs that saw Mitchell Starc miss a hat-trick by the barest margin and debutant Scott Boland grab 2-0 in a stunning over that had the MCG rocking, even allowing for social distancing.

Boland's double-strike ended a triumphant day for the hometown hero, with his Victoria teammate Marcus Harris top-scoring with a hard-fought 76 off 189 balls faced making him the only batter in the Test thus far to pass 50.

Late-day double! Boland scalps ram home advantage

It will require scores significantly superior to Harris's from either or both of England's not out pair Joe Root (12) and Ben Stokes (2) if the visitors are not to slip 0-3 down in the series which would ensure Australia retain the Ashes.

But the under-siege tourists have another significant hurdle to clear before they resume their second innings 51 runs in arrears.

The news of positive COVID results among members of the tourists' support staff and family entourage before play began this morning saw the players confined to their hotel until they were able to undertake rapid antigen tests that cleared them to travel to the ground.

However, the game's immediate fate hinges on the findings of the more comprehensive PCR tests that will be administered to the entire touring party tonight with the potential for positive results ensuring both camps – along with match officials and organisers – face an evening of fitful sleep.

If the news from that medical procedure is positive, in the sense that the results for on-field competitors show negative, then England's heroic salvage of today might yet prove the most effective booster.

Having seemingly batted themselves out of the third Vodafone Test on Boxing Day when they were skittled for 185, England piled pressure on Australia's batters today to snare 9-206 and restrict the home team's advantage to 82.

That slim margin now looms as a huge task after their top-order batting woes were revisited in an hour of chaos that seems destined to cost them the game.

Before then, it was the bowling of Anderson that had defined the day as the 39-year-old returned his second-best Test figures in Australia (4-33 from 23 overs) on his fifth – and what logic suggests is his last – Ashes campaign down under.

Not only did he provide a masterclass of seam bowling on an MCG pitch that continued to offer as much encouragement for quicks as it has fodder for slips catchers, but the template he provided was regularly employed by fellow quicks Mark Wood (2-71) and Ollie Robinson (2-64).

Spellbinding Anderson's morning of brilliance

Anderson missed his first red-ball haul of five wickets in Australia when he was unable to dislodge debutant Boland with the second new-ball, and very nearly hauled in one of the catches of the summer with a diving effort as the Australia tail chased quick runs.

He resembled a soccer goalkeeper of 20 years younger as he launched himself to his right at mid-on and nearly plucked Pat Cummins' mishit pull shot in his right claw before he returned to earth and the ball trickled away.

But for all the inspiration provided by their most-capped player, and for all the impetus gained by scything through Australia's top-order for the first time in the Vodafone Series, England ended their best day of the summer in familiarly dire strife.

Luck initially looked to be with the visitors' besieged batting when opener Zac Crawley (on 2) edged Cummins between keeper Alex Carey and David Warner at first slip, with neither getting a hand to the chance before it hit the turf and sped to the boundary.

However, the fortune evaporated next over when Starc had Crawley nicking off in near identical fashion and then pinned England's most obdurate batter Dawid Malan leg before with the following delivery.

Starc goes close to hat-trick, sends MCG wild

The MCG crowd of 42,626 sounded almost double that number as Malan's review failed to produce sufficient evidence to overturn umpire Paul Wilson's decision, and went up a further notch as the hat-trick ball fizzed past Joe Root's usually broad bat.

They were on their feet again and in full voice soon after as local boy Boland replaced Starc and claimed the wickets of battling opener Haseeb Hameed and nightwatchman Jack Leach in his first and final over of the day.

It briefly seemed England allrounder Stokes might be timed out, such was the delay in him making his way to the middle through the carnage, but he and Root negotiated seven balls to stumps and will (hopefully) begin another daunting salvage job tomorrow.

If the start England made this morning becomes the new benchmark, the pair might consider instituting a COVID scare in place of the habitual football game to the daily pre-play routine.

Even the absence of their fastest bowler Wood from the attack – unable to bowl until 18 minutes into the second day having been absent from the field for that time the previous evening – seemingly worked in the tourists' favour.

In Wood's absence, Ollie Robinson opened in tandem with Anderson after being England's most expensive bowler on day one, and quickly nipped out nightwatchman Nathan Lyon with a form of dismissal that would become a familiar sight.

Lyon was lured forward by a full-length delivery that moved sufficiently to graze the edge of his bat and present keeper Jos Buttler with a straightforward catch.

The reality they had only removed Australia's regular number 10 was quickly overtaken by the elation of knocking over the newly crowned world number one Marnus Labuschagne for his lowest Test score (1) since he made his debut in the UAE three years ago.

Labuschagne, who replaced Root at the top of the ICC global rankings last week, was hurried by Wood's pace which was routinely around 150kph today and was clearly the weapon England had most missed in Adelaide.

Root's joy at pouching that catch was briefly tempered when a false stroke from Steve Smith induced an inside edge that flew agonisingly wide of Buttler's outstretched left glove having clipped the batter's thigh pad on the way past.

The chance to remove Smith for five might have proved costly if Anderson had not repeated the delivery half an hour later but saw the deflection crash into the off-stump.

It's the eighth time Smith has fallen to England's most successful bowler which – along with Anderson's long-time new-ball partner Stuart Broad – represents the most dismissals by a single rival in Smith's decorated Test history.

It was also just the second occasion since Labuschagne and Smith first forged their formidable roles in Australia's top-order (at Lord's in 2019) they have both been knocked over for less than 20 in the same innings, the other being the second innings of the 2019 MCG Test against New Zealand.

Australia went to lunch 54 runs in arrears with Harris (48no) and Travis Head (11no) the last specialist batters before England's cock-a-hoop bowlers were into the allrounders and tail-enders.

Harris with timely 76 in front of home fans

It was therefore surprising that Root opted to begin with left-arm spinner Leach immediately after the break as Harris celebrated the change in tempo with his first half-century in 17 Test innings stretching back almost three years.

The pair of left-handers also posted their 50-run partnership when Harris was granted another life, albeit a tough stumping chance as he advanced to Leach who spun a ball viciously past the opener's right hip which struck Buttler on the right wrist with Harris a meter or more out of his crease.

But a return to the all-seam attack restored England's bowling superiority and revived their hopes as a change of tactics removed both set batters.

Head was worked over by his Sussex teammate Robinson who abandoned his around-the-wicket ploy against the left-hander and instead pushed one across that Head pushed at lazily to provide Root with more catching practice.

Shortly after, Anderson pulled a counter-move by switching from over-the-wicket to attack Harris in the area outside off stump where he experienced most problems throughout his four-and-a-half-hour stay.

Having played and missed around a dozen times to that point, Harris finally got the nick and his dreams of a maiden Test hundred in his first Ashes outing at his adopted home ground disappeared into the unerring mitts of Root at slip.

Come tea, Australia had their noses in front by 15 runs but it had taken some serious graft especially against Anderson whose mastery of ball and conditions yielded him the figures of 3-24 from 19 overs heading into the final session.

It meant than in addition to the myriad other bowling benchmarks the 39-year-old holds, he could lay claim to the most economical innings of Ashes bowling at the MCG in his lifetime, and the best since off-spinner John Emburey's 3-20 from 21.2 (eight-ball) overs in December 1978.

Root returned to his own spin blueprint after tea when Leach again took up the cudgels and in his opening over of the session pinned Cameron Green in front of his stumps.

Having found some batting form in Australia's second innings at Adelaide, Green found himself back in strong headwinds as England's seamers relentlessly targeted his front pad so it was a hybrid of frustration and doubt that led the allrounder to unsuccessfully review his lbw decision against spin.

And when Carey became the sixth of Australia's top eight batters to edge a catch behind the wicket, the fast bowlers received a dose of their own medicine when England took the second new ball which brought the last two wickets at a cost of 31 runs.

Australia's lead of 82 was more than seemed likely soon after tea but less than most predicted at stumps yesterday when they had wheeled to 1-61 from 16 overs.

But as much as England were subjected to a searching examination in the hour prior to stumps, their most important test will be administered in the team hotel's medical room overnight.

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, 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: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena