- Second Test, day three: Australia 473-9 dec & 45-1; England 236
- Root and Malan’s hard work comes undone again in Adelaide
When the England brains trust held Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad back at the Gabba under a belief they might work their magic under lights in Adelaide, it is fair to assume – although perhaps we cannot be certain – the scenario envisaged was not the pair trying to eke their team past the follow-on mark with the bat.
Yet here they were, England’s two most decorated seamers united out in the middle and Mitchell Starc bounding in with a hard, new, pink Kookaburra ball in hand. The specialist batsmen above them had earlier produced their latest heinous collapse, the crowd was up, the famous Edwardian scoreboard on the grass hill read 220 for nine and the deficit was 253 runs. The gulf felt greater to be honest.
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