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It was a tough second day of Test match cricket in Perth and while England showed the kind of grit that has been lacking in them all series, they will need to win at least two of the three sessions on the third day against Australia.
Join us for live scores and commentary of the third Ashes Test from 1.30pm AEDT.
England did what was expected out of them with the ball. After a poor first day, when their bowlers’ lengths were all over the place, bowling coach David Saker’s advice seemed well-taken on the second as they looked to pitch it right up to the batsmen.
The result was the quick-fire dismissals of both their overnight batsmen, Steven Smith and Mitchell Johnson, and while the lower-order hit out a few blows, Australia could only add 59 more runs to their overnight score.
Still, one would have thought a score of 385 would be a par-score on a pace-filled and bouncy WACA track.
England openers Michael Carberry and Alastair Cook did their bit at the top of the order with an 85-run partnership for the first wicket – their best in the series.
The trouble for England, however, in this series has often been two-fold.
Firstly, they tend to go into their shells at certain points in the game and this is usually followed by a cluster of wickets.
Something similar repeated on Saturday when England followed up a score of 0/68 in the first 17 overs with only 23 further runs in the next set of 17.
Invariably this brought two wickets for Australia, those of Michael Carberry and Joe Root.
Root was unfortunate to be given out caught behind, despite there being nothing to suggest there had been an edge through to the keeper, but such has been the implementation of the DRS it has often gone hand-in-hand with controversy.
What England did not allow to happen was for Mitchell Johnson to scythe through their middle and lower order as Cook and Kevin Pietersen battled out a testing spell of almost 18 overs without falling apart.
Both fell within 10 runs of each other, again thanks to the wonderful pressure applied by the Australian bowlers that resulted in further drying of the runs, but to England’s credit, they saw through the day’s play without further loss.
The Ian Bell-Ben Stokes partnership has yielded only 34 runs so far, but batted out 16.1 overs, an indication of how early they pulled their shutters down before the close of play.
Interestingly, Johnson was the only Australian bowler to not pick up a scalp on the day and that makes it 37.3 overs without having a wicket in the series.
The good news is he has bowled well enough, but England will be happy with the way they have played him.
The third day promises to be more of the same – high temperatures, batsmen trying to survive long and hard and the bowlers looking to knock their heads off if not the wickets.
The one thing that could change is the look of the pitch.
It was already cracking on the second day and the high temperatures of the second day and the following cooler nights could lead to the expansion of those crevices.
How much would that help the bowlers needs to be seen but it could, if at all, make the batsmen’s task stiffer.
Can England get as close as possible to Australia’s score, given they have to bat last in this game and wouldn’t want to chase too much?
Or will it be Australia who will run away with the game – and the series – on day three of the WACA Test?
Join us for the third day on Sunday and you can follow live scores of this third Ashes Test between Australia and England from 1.30pm AEDT and post your comments below.
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