Ashes 2017-18, 3rd Test, Day 2 Review: Steve Smith drives Australia to control after an English collapse

After dominating Australia for the first time in the series on Day 1 at the WACA, England lost the advantage on Day 2 as they suffered a lower order collapse just ahead of the lunch to get bundled out for 403. The two unbeaten batsmen Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan started the day well and Bairstow, in particular, looked in fantastic touch.

The wicketkeeper batsman’s drives on the front foot was of high pedigree. He was going right forward to anything pitched up and was timing it from the meat of the blade. The 28-year-old raced away to his 4th Test hundred with a flurry of boundaries in the morning session and followed it up with a head-butt celebration to send a statement to the Aussies.

Malan, who although was not as fluent as Bairstow, was chipping away nicely too and it seemed the partnership would bat the Kangaroos out of the game, but then came the much-needed breakthrough courtesy a crafty piece of off-spin bowling by Nathan Lyon which changed the complexion of the game altogether.

Lyon provided the breakthrough

Lyon deceived Malan with flight as he came down the track to work the ball through the leg side. The left-hander didn’t reach the pitch of the ball and ended up closing the face of the bat early resulting in a leading edge safely held by the substitute fielder Peter Handscomb.

Once the partnership was broken, Australia were all over England like a rash as Steve Smith set attacking fields and the Aussie quicks bend their backs to generate some pace and bounce out of the surface. Moeen Ali nicked one to second slip, while Chris Woakes deposited his pull straight into the hands of Pat Cummins at long leg.

The centurion Bairstow was undone as an inswinger from Starc disturbed his furniture pretty similar to what happened in Adelaide. A little cameo from Broad got England past the score of 400, but they would not have been satisfied with that considering the position they were in with the Bairstow-Malan partnership.

England couldn’t make the new ball count

Making inroads with the new ball was important for England as batting was always going to get easy on the flat WACA surface with the ball losing its shine. James Anderson, however, couldn’t quite get the shape with the red cherry that he usually does and failed to pose any sort of challenge for the Aussie openers. Stuart Broad, from the other end, bowled a couple of jaffers, but he too was not able to get the new ball fizz through on a consistent basis.

Craig Overton, who bowled first change, was the pick of the bowlers for England as he made good use of his height and made the ball rise from good length consistently. The 27-year-old removed both the Australian openers to give England a sniff, but he wasn’t complemented well enough by the other bowlers.

The visitors needed the wicket of Steve Smith early to push Australia on the back foot, but Smith was presented some easy run scoring opportunities which helped him get away.

Steve Smith counter-punched England

Smith pounced on every loose ball coming his way and hit some authoritative horizontal bat shots on both sides of the wicket. He batted at a strike rate of around 80 right from the word go and continuously put pressure on English bowling which seemed to be lacking intensity.

Nobody other than Overton was willing to use the shoulders and hit the deck hard to generate something out of the ordinary. Broad and Anderson looked tired and lacklustre and were just going through the motions in their second and third spells.

Smith completed his 22nd half century in the third session and was close to his hundred at the end of the day’s play. The right-hander, who is at the top of the ICC Test ranking, was unbeaten at the score of 92 at stumps, while Shaun Marsh was at the other end not out on 7.

Brief Scores:

England: 403 all out in 115.1 overs (Dawid Malan 140, Jonny Bairstow 119, Mitchell Starc 91/4)

Australia: 203/3 in 62 overs (Steve Smith 92 not out, Usman Khawaja 50, Craig Overton 46/2)