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Mitchell Marsh once again holds Australia’s innings, and the Ashes series, in his hands, the in-form all-rounder at the centre of a necessary rebuild after the visitors’ top order fell to a mixture of inspired England bowling and some disastrous shot selection.
Earning a first-innings lead of 26 thanks to six wickets from captain Pat Cummins, despite yet more Ben Stokes fireworks to prevent an even greater deficit, David Warner’s early departure, falling to Stuart Broad for the seventeenth time in Tests, heaps yet more pressure on the veteran opener.
But it was the fall of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith to the previously unthreatening off-spin of Moeen Ali, the latter his 200th Test wicket and one of his most priceless, that truly turned a Test that had been safely heading the tourists’ way back into uncertain waters.
4/116 at stumps, with Marsh and Travis Head at the crease and a lead of 142, Australia may still have their noses in front, with the Headingley pitch still providing enough pace and bounce to make batting treacherous.
But given England’s imperious chasing record in the last 12 months – and the threat of Stokes looming large after another magical six-laden 80 helped the home side recover from 7/142 to whittle the deficit into insignificance – yet more Marsh heroics to follow his first innings century may be required for Australia to secure an insurmountable 3-0 series lead.
Stuart Broad celebrates dismissing David Warner. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Heavy rain is forecast for at least the next two days in Leeds, which could for the first time all series leave a Test at the mercy of the elements.
But with 24 wickets falling already, both Australia and England have plenty of time to push for victory – and in England’s case, a foothold back in a series that has ebbed and flowed with almost every passing session.
With England resuming on 3/68 after a dramatic opening day, it took just two deliveries for Day 2’s action to get going.
Cummins, as he had done to remove Ben Duckett and Harry Brook the previous night, found seam and sharp life to catch the big fish, Joe Root prodding an edge into the safe hands of Warner low down at first slip.
One of the three middle-order lynchpins down still left the matter of Bairstow and Stokes to attend to, with the former in particular keen to show the aggression that has epitomised the England of the last 12 months.
A crunching cut off Cummins and a textbook square drive off Boland saw him into double figures with authority, prompting Piers Morgan to describe the Yorkshireman’s mood as ‘determined, vengeful and run-hungry’.
The controversial presenter’s confidence would soon prove misplaced, Bairstow managing just two more runs before flashing at a wide tempter from Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith latching on in the cordon to leave England in a sticky situation.
With Stokes surviving a line-ball LBW shout off Scott Boland – the Australian review finding umpire’s call on impact to spare the rival captain – he and Moeen steadied the ship with circumspect batting; the sight of Stokes on 19 off his first 56 balls a remarkable contrast to the brutal hitting that would follow.
The more expansive of the pair, Moeen took to anything wide from the Aussie seamers, reaching 21 before being done in by the short ball: Cummins picking up his fourth of the innings as a top edge carried comfortably to Smith at fine leg.
Woakes’ stay was even briefer, featuring one clobbered six off Cummins before a sharper bouncer from Starc produced a faint edge through to Carey, the 34-year old taking a review with him on the way back to the pavilion.
With England reeling at 7/142 at lunch, still 121 in arrears, it was Australia’s morning by far. But having dictated terms with the ball on Day 1, the second session would have its mood changed entirely by Wood.
With Starc again going short at the tail, the paceman pounced: hooking his first ball over mid-wicket for an imperious six, a dashing cut behind point and another clubbed maximum behind square left Wood on 16 from his first three balls.
When Cummins too went short, Wood went again, top-edging another hook to clear the stands once more and bring a previously muted Headingley crowd to life.
Two balls later, the cameo ended as another expansive shot was skied with no distance, Marsh’s safe hands at mid-wicket doing the rest to earn Cummins a five-wicket haul; but Wood’s eight-ball 24 had, for the first time all day, arrested the Australian momentum.
With Broad again for company, Stokes was inspired: on 27 from 67 balls at lunch, he’d lay into Starc with three consecutive boundaries to send the left-armer careening out of the attack.
Another sharp cut brought the first sign of Australian nerves, Cummins’ follow-up sprayed down the leg side and past a diving Carey for five wides.
55 runs had been added in just 23 balls following the break, the change of mood summed up when a pair of drops off Todd Murphy, the first Starc at long-off and then the spinner himself in his follow-through, gave Stokes a pair of lives.
Broad’s threat, having withstood the short-ball barrage for two admirable hours at Lord’s, was at least short-lived, sensationally caught by Smith on the deep backward square boundary for Cummins’ sixth.
But with only a wounded Ollie Robinson, having suffered back spasms on the first afternoon, remaining for company, Stokes lifted another gear.
With Cummins bravely choosing to stick with Murphy, Stokes found the short straight boundary to his liking, launching a pair of imperious sixes over the young spinner’s head, the first bringing up a half-century, both making the previous over’s pair of drops seem even more costly.
Two more sixes followed in Murphy’s next over, one again down the ground and the other slog-swept with authority over fine leg, the Victorian’s last resort bowling full, flat and wide of off stump to at least prevent the England talisman rotating the strike.
Robinson, though, defied his injury to deposit Cummins over mid-wicket for four; when Stokes, back on strike, hammered Murphy for a fifth six in just 14 balls, England, remarkably, were just 26 in arrears.
Murphy would exact some revenge as Stokes finally miscued one ball later, heaving down the ground but poorly timing it at last to Smith in the deep, a fifth catch for the innings setting a new non-wicketkeeper Ashes record.
Stokes’ magnificent 80, though, had helped add 95 for the final three wickets, and rescued another innings from the brink. And soon English fans had even more reason to smile.
Where it had taken Broad just five deliveries to remove Warner for the 16th time in Tests on the first morning, the second innings would take him substantially longer to make it 17 over his bunny.
Eight balls, to be exact, before the left-hander again fell in a manner so thoroughly repetitive as to border on self-parody: a length ball from over the wicket with a hint of movement away, Warner obligingly sending a thick edge to Crawley once again.
Only able to smile ruefully, Warner’s 1 marked a return to his nightmarish 2019 series; having fallen just once to Broad and looking close to his best across the first two Tests, here at last was the sequel the veteran must have hoped would never arrive.
Where removing Warner was child’s play, finding a second wicket proved more challenging for England. 1/29 at tea with Khawaja having moved serenely to 20, a match-deciding lead was still well and truly within reach for the tourists.
Labuschagne, having looked to leave with authority from his first ball, managed just 14 runs from his first 47 balls, his only two boundaries edges with soft hands through the cordon, before a picturesque cover drive off a loose Broad offering broke the shackles.
With Moeen accurate but unthreatening and Wood beginning to flag at last, another Bairstow drop, a tough one-handed chance down the leg side with Labuschagne on 33, could have been the fatal blow: Australia were, at that stage, 1/67 and leading by 93, with England one bowler down due to Robinson’s absence.
Just two balls later, though, Labuschagne would err again, his desire to take on Moeen manifesting in a top-edged sweep carrying to Harry Brook low down at deep mid-wicket.
Labuschagne’s disbelief was palpable as he sank to his knees, yet another start squandered to continue his frustrating series.
Moeen’s next over, though, would reel in an even more sizeable catch.
On the ground where he last missed a Test in 2019, Smith would provide England perhaps the biggest gift their chief tormentor has ever doled out; yet again intent to take the fight to Moeen, he strode authoritatively to the ball, and as if to provide catching practice, flicked a simple chance to Ben Duckett at mid-wicket.
In the space of 11 balls, the much-maligned off-spinner had removed Australia’s two premier batters, the latter for just two, in scenes reminiscent of Australia’s implosion to Moeen in gifting a swathe of vital wickets in the first innings of the 2015 Ashes series’ first Test.
Smith’s fury at having handed his wicket away manifested in a brief but fiery exchange with Bairstow, who had greeted the champion’s dismissal with a cheery ‘See ya, Smudge!’
As he had been at Edgbaston, Khawaja held firm while body blows rained down at the other end, continuing to patiently accumulate and rotate the strike.
But on 43, his concentration would waver: from over the wicket, Woakes landed the exact line that has proved Khawaja’s kryptonite: angling across him, the opener’s tentative poke would catch the outside edge, Bairstow gleefully pouching the chance.
With Australia 4/90, the scoreboard read nearly identical to how it had looked on Day 1 when Marsh strode to the middle; just five extra runs, a first-innings lead of 26 more, the visitors again on the ropes.
A near mix-up that left the all-rounder briefly stranded mid-pitch had the Australian dressing room on tenterhooks, but as it had been on Day 1, the calmest man in the stadium was Marsh.
Defusing the tension with a bludgeoned cover drive to bring the team total past 100, then following up with an uppish but well enough directed late cut past backward point, Marsh was once again away.
With Head again being peppered by the short ball, Wood in particular defying fatigue with another lionhearted high-pace spell, the Western Australian was less explosive than on the first afternoon, circumspect in particular to Moeen’s off breaks, perhaps sensing the enormity of the moment and the importance of his wicket.
One last Wood over was safely negotiated before stumps, Australia 4/116 with a lead of 47 – and for the second time in two days, the innings, and the match, rests on the broad shoulders of the once-maligned Mitchell Marsh.
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