Ashes 2nd Test, hosts Australia go 2-0 up

As the second Test of the Ashes came to an end, England were condemned to another punishing defeat at Adelaide after failing to climb a mountain in the fourth innings.

Despite a decent start to the Test match where Stuart Broad claimed Marcus Harris early in the game, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne grinded in unison to stave off the English firestorm and see Australia off to safety.

The duo stitched together a painstaking stand of 172 runs before Warner once again fell short of another blistering ton. Smith joined the party late and started belting out his signature strokes to steer Australia clear of any immediate ordeal and from there it was smooth sailing for the hosts.

The all-impressive batting trident stitched together 291 runs before Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc and Michael Neser rocked a lackluster English bowling to pile a monumental 473 in the opening innings.

The English openers continued with their debilitating fiasco as the duo departed for single-digit scores. The fighters for England in the second innings of the first Test came to the fore as Dawid Malan and Joe Root grinded together to post a 138-run stand that also heralded the last mark of English resistance.

Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon came together to rip England, as the duo plundered seven wickets between them. Despite fragmented displays of brilliance from Labuschagne, Travis Head and Cameron Green in the second innings, the English bowlers were quick on their heels to sting the hosts as they were reduced to 230 for 9 before the declaration came.

Despite a decent display of persistence from the English bowlers, the lead was seismic and England had to put up a colossal resistance to even contemplate a draw.

However, even before the visitors could realize what was unravelling around them, Mitchell Starc and Jhye Richardson had set England ablaze with a conflagration that saw their batters falling one after the other. Jos Butler and Chris Woakes fought tooth and nail to stave away an impending decimation but the journey was mammoth to reach the finishing line.

Jhye Richardson scorched England with a fifer in the second innings to propel Australia to their second victory of the latest edition of the Ashes. Jos Butler fought for an incredible 207 balls to salvage anything that he could but the others were simply off their elements that helped Australia to forge miles ahead in the road to claiming the Ashes.

Joe Root, the captain of England said, “I am fine. It was rough day (yesterday), feel a bit better today (smiles). When we look at ball in hand, I don't think we bowled the right lengths, we needed to bowl fuller. As soon as we did that in the second innings, we made it harder for them. It’s disappointing because we made the same mistakes that we made four years ago. We could have bowled better and should have batted better. We have to be (confident) about turning things around. I’m confident that we have all that we need to win here. Just need to stop repeating the same mistakes. We have to get through that first 20 minutes and then go greedy, need to leave better as well."

"Need to also manage certain passages of play better. Certainly capable of it. Yes, that's the attitude (Buttler's defiance) we needed to harness through the whole game. I feel we competed in patches, but we need to fight the whole game. That’s what is needed to win here. The attitude today was brilliant. We just need to do more of it. I expect us to have that mentality for the rest of the series.”

Australian skipper, Steven Smith said, “I wasn’t nervous. I think Jos (Buttler) played very well, and played over 200 balls, so it was good resistance along with Woakes and Robbo (Robinson). We wanted to stay calm because it would take a couple of good balls and a couple of wickets to get the win. I did enjoy captaincy and the guys played well and controlled the game after the first day. Davey (Warner) and Marnus's partnership set it up, so we could control the game. A special mention to Starc, who has bowled as well as he's bowled in a long time, and he's led the attack really well. I think he summed it up quickly that it wasn't swinging and he was just hitting a good length and attacking the batsmen."

"The guys in there said Cam Green shouldn't bowl at all today, because his workload needs to be managed. Ideally, he shouldn't have bowled today, but we needed him to bowl because of how good he has been. I have no idea about Josh Hazlewood (availability for the next game), but Harris is batting well in the nets, so he needs to not overthink it and trust the process and he can turn it around. The COVID protocols are level 4 or 3 right now, and thankfully we've been able to entertain people with cricket in this difficult period. We'll go about our business as well as we can.”

Marnus Labuschagne, the man of the match for the Test match added, “We really stuck it out there, and Davey batted very well and put the pressure on the bowlers. I tried to absorb the pressure and if you have a combination like that out there, it hands us the advantage. I do a bit of self-talk, especially when I congratulated myself on playing the bouncer by Stokes, as opposed to the one before that I played poorly."

"We played well this Test match and didn't take our foot off the peddle. Getting my first Ashes ton was terrific and I was disappointed that I didn't make it a big one despite a few chances. I have played with Neser and played with Jhye in Shield cricket only weeks ago, and they have a unique set of skills - like Neser hits the stumps, for instance. It was great to have two bowlers out and still be able to dominate this Test match," he signed off.