Pat Cummins conquered Joe Root in their individual battle and has all but ensured Australia will finish the Ashes with a 4-0 margin over England after the hosts dominated the second night of the first Test in Hobart.
Cummins ended Root’s innings with a superb off-cutter and added three more wickets as Australia bowled the tourists out for 188 and despite losing three wickets before stumps, they still hold a 152-run lead when day three gets underway on Sunday afternoon.
On a bowler-friendly wicket, any victory target of more than 250 will likely be too much for England’s brittle batting line-up based on their poor returns throughout the series.
A late declaration in the fourth Test at the SCG helped England salvage a draw to give Cummins the first blemish on his record in his first series as Test skipper. But the NSW paceman took it upon himself at Blundstone Arena to lead from the front with the ball, taking 4-45 in 13.4 overs after Australia’s tail wagged to stretch their first-innings total to 303.
Australia made it hard for themselves in the field, failing to appeal or review a couple of early caught-behind opportunities and then dropped a pair of catches in the slips.
The home side’s second innings started similar to their first dig with wickets tumbling.
David Warner perished for a duck, giving him the second pair of his career after Manchester in 2019, when he slashed Stuart Broad to point at the start of the second innings before Marnus Labuschagne surrendered his wicket meekly when his glance off Chris Woakes gave new keeper Sam Billings his first catch in the Test arena.
Usman Khawaja (11) copped a rip-snorter of a bouncer from Mark Wood as the hosts were reduced to 3-37 before Steve Smith (17) and nightwatchman Scott Boland (three) managed to negotiate the rest of the tricky evening session despite a few anxious moments as the ball swung in the air and off the seam.
England’s innings got off to what has been a trademark terrible start when Rory Burns, recalled after two Tests in the wilderness, was run out for a duck.
Replays indicated Burns had nicked Mitchell Starc in the first over but the Australians didn’t appeal but they found their voice when a Marnus Labuschagne direct hit caught the opener short by a minute margin after he hesitated at the non-striker’s end when called through by Zak Crawley.
The tourists slumped to 2-29 in the eighth over when Crawley inside-edged Cummins to Travis Head at short leg with the first-innings centurion juggling the catch then celebrating with a “bin-lid” dance.
Dawid Malan, who also had a reprieve when he nicked Starc but Australia opted not to review the decision, departed for 25, one shy of a 50-run stand with Root, when he got a tickle down leg side from Cummins.
He then removed his opposing skipper three runs later when he darted the ball back off the seam to rip off his front pad.
Root didn’t even bother to ask for a video review as he trudged off for 34 to leave his team in peril at 4-81.
And it only got worse when Ben Stokes came and went for just four when he slashed Starc to a diving Nathan Lyon at point, bringing Billings to the crease in his debut at 5-85.
Ollie Pope nicked off to Boland for 14 and the Victorian should have been on a hat-trick but Woakes’ first-ball edge was grassed by Warner at first slip.
Khawaja compounded the error when he spilt a more difficult chance at third slip, also from Woakes, also from Boland’s bowling.
Cameron Green had Billings out hooking for 29 when Boland at fine leg showed his teammates how to hold onto a chance before Woakes’ luck finally ran out when he nicked off to Starc down leg side for 36.
Broad put in another embarrassing batting effort to be bowled by Starc for a duck before Mark Wood went down swinging to Cummins for 16.
After a Jekyll and Hyde day-one performance from Australia, they did the same with the bat on the second afternoon.
Starc (three) and Cummins (two) were bounced out quickly by Mark Wood as the hosts went from 6-241 overnight to 8-252 before Nathan Lyon stepped up with the counterattack.
Lyon hoisted Wood over the square leg boundary for three sixes, two of them in succession, including one which sailed out of Blundstone Arena.
Alex Carey played Woakes onto his stumps for 24 before Lyon (31) and Boland added 23 for the last wicket to push their total to 303, higher than any innings England have achieved on this tour.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Prior to this Test, Australia hadn't done too bad seeing off the new ball, with only 1 wicket falling inside 15 overs every innings (night watchmen excluded). Warner was dismissed first 4 times and Harris dismissed first 2 times. Warner (over #) 48, 65, 14, 15, 21, 6 Harris 6, 8, 20, 25, 40, 19
DTM
Roar Rookie
"Re those averages, for me it’s also about how many balls faced before dismissal and exposing the next batsmen in." That's a really good point. Probably only fair to compare Aus vs Aus player as the bowling attack has a bit to do with it. Warner has faced 538 balls in the series and been out 8 times - so an average of 67.25 balls per innings. Harris has faced 480 balls and been out 6 times - so 80 balls per innings. Khawaja 64 balls from 2 innings - 32 balls per innings average. Maybe Adelaide was a bit easier than Hobart as Harris faced 94 balls there but of course, Jimmy played in Adelaide. Probably over annalysing things but we didn't gain anything by changing from Harris to Khawaja.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Replay didn’t indicate clearly that Burns nicked Starc. There was a sound on Snicko but looked to be a sizeable gap between bat and ball. We never got to see hotspot. There are often sounds on Snicko when people play shots. To say it was definitely out as Warne and others were carrying on was way over the top. The slips appeal for everything so maybe there was a reason they didnt hear anything. Boland looks to have one of the better forward defences going around. Doesn’t push the bat in front of the pad, has soft hands and a dead bat, and once or twice deflected balls downwards nicely that were moving away a bit. Ollie Pope could take a lesson – which is strange as he averages more than anyone else in county cricket over the last 4 seasons – fantastic average of 69 in 32 games – against lots of Boland-type bowlers (not as good maybe, but similar paced seamers) on seaming wickets.
Ace
Roar Rookie
Hi . Why have you written off Pucovski? If he remains fit from his shoulder etc is he not a chance? I always liked Renshaw. Like Green he has the reach to combat a lot of balls without over stretching or wafting outside the off. Why are we not looking at the other young Queensland opener. Some say he is too slow. Is that a problem really if he he is staying in and blunting the new ball?
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I was expecting Usman would go that way early in those conditions in the 1st innings. Reminded me so much of the conditions with seam in the UK 2019 when Usman was repeatedly dismissed early playing at the ball. The 1st innings was a good ball - well an expected ball - but a tighter defence early on would have served better. As it was, it ended up a nice thick edge. But that's not how plays; which makes him a good expansive stroke player in the middle order, which is probably why he's been flourishing the last few years. - Agree re the expectation to make 40-50 nearly every time. I often have a chuckle at the Australian fan obsession of playing the game of "who's out of the team next?" - Re those averages, for me it's also about how many balls faced before dismissal and exposing the next batsmen in.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Can’t blame Usman or Warner for first innings dismissals. Balls that anyone could have got out to.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
That’s because there has been a huge amount of seam movement this summer, way more than previous years.
Once Upon a Time on the Roar
Roar Guru
Yeah don’t really know Jeff, it’s a real dilemma for sure. The way he batted this test must surely ensure he is zero chance for England in 18 months. I guess, the sooner they start trying out not just individual openers, but also combinations the better. Usman’s not a long term solution either, and he’s nothing crash hot in England either. A real bugger Pucovski not gonna amount to anything. It’s criminal that Renshaw’s not opening for qld. Not saying he’s the solution, but a better prospect than either Burns or Street.
DTM
Roar Rookie
However, whilst opening, Uzzie didn't get to face England's best bowler. If we are going to make excuses for one player, you need to make excuses for them all. At 35 years, Uzzie is not the answer to our opening problem - either now or for the next 5 years.
DTM
Roar Rookie
Not just that the bowling attacks were inferior but the pitches in 19/20 were roads compared to the ones prepared this summer. So no real comparison. The pitch preparation was affected by the wetter than normal conditions but I also think that the curators have deliberately made the wickets more conducive to seam bowling (and that's a good thing).
DTM
Roar Rookie
Interesting discussions about the opening role. I have been arguing against Khawaja opening for a while and, in my view, the outcome was predictable. With one innings to play, the openers have done it tough in this series but the numbers are interesting: Warner 273 at 34.12 Harris 179 at 29.83 Crawley 130 at 26 Burns 51 at 10.2 Hameed 80 at 10 Carey 9 at 9 Khawaja 17 at 8.5 It has been a pace bowlers series so batting averages are expected to be down and Warner's 34 looks pretty good when taken in context. The problem is, we expect 40-50 average from all our batsmen and anyone who fails to reach that mark is immediately under scrutiny. As a former opening batsman (with almost zero talent), I enjoy seeing opener's flourish and score big. However, test cricket is at it's best when the ball is moving around and opening is tough.
Steele
Roar Rookie
Hunt, Street, Pucovski. The middle order depth looks thinner.
HR
Roar Rookie
Conversely, Warner averaged 60 in the live tests in the series, and has the fourth-most runs in the series (though this is likely to change by the conclusion of the match). That's the thing about statistics, you can use them to argue most any case you want.
Ernesr
Guest
Interestingly, Joe Burns lasted 7 tests before being dropped for the final time and averaged 29 per innings. David Warner in his last seven tests (after the opening partnership with Burns was broken up) has averaged 28.33 per innings. Does that now mean that David Warner’s Test career will also now be over? I don’t think so, but it is close. He will not make it to 100 test matches for Australia.
Ernest
Guest
Also in that Australian summer of 2019/2020, the Burns/Warner opening partnership averaged 65.37 per innings; be it against inferior bowling attacks compared to those of the last two summers.
Rossi
Roar Rookie
Did I see night-watchman referred to as a Nightwatcher here?
Rossi
Roar Rookie
In all fairness that Wood bouncer that got UK out was a ripper, was worth going with him as we know Harris isn't test quality
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
Faced 25 balls of the 29 in that partnership. For him to see it out and protect Head; but also only expose Smith to just 4 balls. Just hope the fingers are okay.
Ernest
Guest
Average opening stand for Australia this summer was 21.55. Last summer for Australia it was 26.87. Over that period there have been 17 innings for no century stands and 4 fifty plus stands. Two summers ago was the last century opening stand for Australia which was the second innings verse New Zealand at the SCG. Burns and Warner 107, which was the last time that they batted together.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
So do we need a specialist opener, or a non-opener and just work with what we get re performances? Acknowledging that in challenging opening conditions, we accept exposure of the middle order early?