England were left reeling at 17/2 at stumps on Day 2 of the second Ashes Test match after Australia declared on 473/9 in the first innings. Both openers – Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed – returned to the dressing room before several bolts of lightning lit up the night sky abandoned the day’s play 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled time.
England will resume 456 runs behind. They have eight wickets in hand, and their first objective will be to save the follow-on after another disastrous start. Joe Root and Dawid Malan, who added 162 in Brisbane, are still in the middle and will be hoping to forge a similar sort of partnership.
England have been heavily relying on Root for a while now. But now, he needs support from Malan, Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler to avoid a 0-2 deficit in the series against their arch rivals. They have to be disciplined against a comparatively inexperienced Australian bowling unit, which does not feature Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
Australia have dominated five of the six days so far in this series. Their bowlers were made to toil on Day 3 of the first Test match when Root and Malan dominated them, but apart from that, they seemed far better than England in all three departments.
In the absence of Cummins and Hazlewood, both Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson looked ominous with ball under lights. It will be a surprise if Australia fail to enforce England to follow-on this time.
Moreover, so far in the day/night Test matches, the team batting first has crossed 400 seven times in the first innings. On every occasion, they have won the match.
Betway Fantasy Tips
- Expect Australia's two available experienced bowlers Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon to step up.
- If England look to get close to Australia's total, Stokes and Buttler must play crucial roles.