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Key events
That said, it rather illustrates that such a feat is not common.
Timothy Sanders and Andrew Goudie both answered my call to find a Test where a side came in six down and batted all day. It’s one of my faves actually, I should have remembered this one: 1955, when the beautifully named partnership of Denis Atkinson and Clairmonte Depeiaza both made big slow tons for West Indies against Australia to draw the undrawable in Bridgetown. I believe they still hold the record for the seventh wicket.
Lunch – England 193 for 6, lead by 16 runs
Where is your spinner, Australia? Where is he? I’ll tell you, he’s in a vest running drinks.
England stay alive. The only wicketless session in the series so far, and Stokes and Jacks are five balls away from the longest partnership in the series, which is currently still the one of Starc and Boland yesterday.
Only 59 runs added in the session, and who cares? Because they’ve done the main task, getting through the first spells from the fast bowlers, and now can look to build some sort of lead in the second session. It’s probably futile, it’s probably doomed, but there is real value in these two showing their teammates that it can be done.
Imagine if a couple of the other top-six types had been able to survive last night and be here today.
We’ll be back after the snags and the sangas.
59th over: England 193-6 (Stokes 36, Jacks 25) Labuschagne from the Vulture Street End, and where Crawley or Duckett or Pope would surely be thinking that they have to lay into this joker, Jacks flicks a couple of runs square, carefully defends a length ball, then runs a single to point. Stokes defends with straight bat, on the crabwalk. And again, and again, and England survive wicketless to the break!
58th over: England 190-6 (Stokes 36, Jacks 22) Sadly, nothing very funny happened in Head’s over. Jacks took a single. But all is redeemed, because now Marnus Labuschagne is going to bowl seam up.
57th over: England 189-6 (Stokes 36, Jacks 21) A single for Jacks, angling Green down to deep third, then Stokes is again twitchy against the tall bowler, carefully defending a blockhole ball. Gets a single to cover late in the over, then Green’s bounder is ruled a wide, allowing Jacks to flick a run behind square. So, Jacks the more comfortable against Green at the moment. One over, maybe just two, before the break, but Australia are dawdling with the helmet coming on for Carey… oh right, because Head is going to bowl, so we should get two overs.
56th over: England 185-6 (Stokes 35, Jacks 19) Oh, edged over gully! If it clears Green it’s clearing anyone, and Stokes gets lucky as Boland gets a ball to leap in the way that he can, the edge flashing over the cordon for four. Stokes wasn’t even going at that ball, just desperately trying to keep it out. England’s captain has suddenly looked squeaky in the last few overs, has to find a way through these last 12 minutes to the break. Gets off strike with a cover push, but Jacks hands it back with a leg-side dink. Stokes survives the final ball.
England lead by 8.
55th over: England 179-6 (Stokes 30, Jacks 18) The fifty stand, and England are ahead by one run, as Jacks pulls in dicey fashion to midwicket for one. Stokes flashes and misses! Don’t be doing that now. Green tempted him. He blocks and leaves the next couple, then deflects a run behind point.
England level scores, meaning Australia will bat again
54th over: England 177-6 (Stokes 29, Jacks 17) Boland gets tapped away to point, Jacks takes the run, and scores are level. It’s taken England 96 minutes to scrub away those 43 runs that they were in deficit.
That should please Tony Hughes in Cincinnati, who an hour ago emailed “England goals should start with making Australia bat again. Then they should attempt to bat through the session. Then lead by 100. Then bat through the day. No reason, other than a slavish adherence to Bazball, that England cannot do that.”
I agree with the sentiment, Tony, though I would say that not many teams resuming a day at six down are still batting at the end of it, so that is in fact a reason they can’t. If anyone can find an example in Test cricket, send me the scorecard. Hell, even first-class cricket. But with enough application they’re certainly capable of building something here.
53rd over: England 176-6 (Stokes 29, Jacks 16) A break for Doggett, a turn for Green, all two metres of him, looking like Rick Moranis’ toddler with the convertible in his top pocket. Two slips, staggered, with cover and mid off, mid on, midwicket, with deep point plus two out leg side for the hook. Green falls over while delivering one ball, managing to still release the ball that Stokes wobbles his bat at and nearly nicks. Then Stokes has to jam down on one and keep it out. No run from the over, good start for the all-rounder.
52nd over: England 176-6 (Stokes 29, Jacks 16) Not far away! It may be hot, the deck may be gentle, the ball may be flat, but Solo at the Bowlo is always a chance. Boland gets a ball to nibble ever so slightly, beating Jacks into Carey’s gloves, the bowler with one arm raised in an appeal that never quite emerges into full flower from the bud. No run from the over.
51st over: England 176-6 (Stokes 29, Jacks 16) Bouncer plan continues from Doggett, Stokes pulls a run, down on the ball to control it. Jacks manages to knock away another run. Stokes up on his toes now, over the top of the ball again, short-arm jab to deep point. Jacks another run. The scores are almost square…
“Just look how busy the Aussies are fielding, chatting, throwing the ball about, running here and there, chirping,” writes Rich. “Beside Stokes and Root, no one has been doing much like it. There’s not been enough energy about the tourist squad. Observing the goings on from Okinawa where the humidity having finally broken allows a person to do the annual tree management jobs required for the next typhoon season.”
Thank goodness, I was worried about the Japanese arborists. One does.
50th over: England 172-6 (Stokes 27, Jacks 14) Scotty B returns, errs in line, and Stokes picks off a boundary with the leg glance. The game is drifting along. You know what might be handy here? A spin bowler, perhaps. One with 500 Test wickets, if such a thing were possible. Ah well, we are but dreamers and we can but dream. Stokes off strike next ball, Jacks leaves alone the Boland line outside off, then drives gently to cover. England trail by 5.
49th over: England 167-6 (Stokes 22, Jacks 14) Right after drinks, a medical delay as Jacks gets clonked on the lid and needs a medico to wave some fingers at him and a runner to replace his helmet. That’ll be reason enough for the match ref to wave away the 70 overs in a day that both these teams have bowled so far. Gets off strike via the ricochet, and now Stokes is getting the short stuff as well. Deep square leg, regulation square leg, long leg, fine leg, deep third, deep point, so a slip and a mid on are the only normal fielding positions. Hoping for Stokes to hook one and stick it up in the air. Instead Doggett bowls on a length and Stokes nearly nicks it! Tries to yank the bat inside the line and only just manages it, very awkwardly played. Last ball of the over Stokes goes the forehand smash down the ground, gets a piece of it and breaks his bat in the process. Waving it at the bench as he completes the first of three runs, it does look disturbingly like he’s celebrating his milestone of … 2o. “A twentchury!” says Rory Dollard nearby in the press box.
Drinks: England trail by 15 runs as Stokes and Jacks show fight
48th over: England 162-6 (Stokes 19, Jacks 13) Neser to Stokes is still pitching it up with a regulation field, three slips and a backward point more than a gully. Seams the ball back in from around the wicket and Stokes prods, misses, Carey up to the stumps can’t glove it. Maiden, Neser’s first. Drinks, and sorely needed.
47th over: England 162-6 (Stokes 19, Jacks 13) Doggett to continue… oh, man. We’re going to the bouncer field. Smith has decided that it’s time to play bumper cars. This is really quite tiresome cricket, and Doggett was picked as a pitch-up bowler who uses his wrist to get skid off the pitch and threaten the bat from that length. But since being in the team he’s being used as a carthorse pulling a trebuchet. It nearly works though, to be fair: after a couple of singles, Jacks aims a pull and nearly gloves it. Australia don’t review.
England 15 runs behind.
46th over: England 160-6 (Stokes 18, Jacks 12) Neser in from the Stanley Street end, gets. a short ball fended very close to Travis Head at short leg. The crowd is interested. Jacks plays a similar shot finer and gets a run. Stokes 18, Jacks 12, now for the overture.
On the sweepstake (keep those coming in, I’m already out under the honour system) Kev McMahon offers, “I’m at the Gabba, and it’s $#@&ing hot, so I’m seeking a balance between a match long enough to be worth coming in for and dropping dead of heat exhaustion.”
Can concur, Kev, it is exactly that hot, even on the way to the ground today. England have the chance to hurt the Aussies just by staying where they are now.
45th over: England 159-6 (Stokes 18, Jacks 11) Doggett, tall and lean and looking about 12 years old from the grandstand, with a beaky nose and a boyish haircut, lobs one past the nose of Stokes. He’s getting decent bounce, discomfited Jacks before that with one that jumped and deflected for a single. Works away in the channel to end the over against Stokes, but English discipline holds. In truth, often in the last few years Stokes has been the least Bazball of his troupe.
“Has there ever been a tie in an Ashes test?” No, Chris Bowden. Two ties in history, Australia West Indies at this ground in 1960/61, and Madras, later Chennai, India Australia in 1986. And I refer you to the earlier point that England are still 18 runs behind.
44th over: England 157-6 (Stokes 17, Jacks 10) Neser, a couple of singles under the beating sun.
“No, I’m not getting too far ahead of myself (or alarmingly delusional), but just as a matter of idle curiosity… What would you think might be enough of a lead to make Australia’s batters just a little bit uncomfortable? Given the way Will Jacks spun a few yesterday, I reckon 180 or more could be extremely interesting.”
Christ, Gervase! Even with the caveats, we could still have an innings defeat on our hands here. I think 180 could get Travis Headbutted. They’d need closer to 300. It still looks good for batting out there. Let’s get past the 20-run deficit first.
43rd over: England 155-6 (Stokes 16, Jacks 9) Brendan Doggett to replace Starc, and he has Stokes oohing very quickly, a ball that nips away and beats the off stump by very little. Stokes puts that out of mind though, gets forward to the next ball, and drills the cover drive. Down by 22 runs.
42nd over: England 151-6 (Stokes 12, Jacks 9) Neser is here for his first spell of the day, and immediately gets the ball to yelp. Serious deviation away from Stokes’ bat, misses the edge by a millimetre, and thuds into Carey’s chest. Carey is up to the stumps again, he’s pinging up and back like Pat Rafter to the net.
41st over: England 149-6 (Stokes 11, Jacks 8) Another over from Starc negotiated, just… he jags one ball away from Stokes that isn’t far from the edge. This particular battle is a very interesting one, and will be across the series, Starc with a hold over the other skipper. England get three singles from the over though, that’s a win at this stage. The deficit is down to 28.
40th over: England 146-6 (Stokes 10, Jacks 6) Boland might be more the danger than Starc this morning. He’s getting Stokes tangled up a couple of times, trying to defend with the bat coming across the pad, getting squared up, then getting a rising ball on the gloves trying to play it down. Three slips in for the England captain, deep backward point for a carve, cover, mid off, mid on, square leg, fine leg. Boland goes from around the wicket to over, for the left-hander. Stokes on his toes to defend. Then back around the wicket, Boland errs in line! Down the leg-side and it zips past Carey for four byes. Carey came up to the stumps again for that last ball. Were they looking for a stumping?
39th over: England 142-6 (Stokes 10, Jacks 6) Doing a job so far, is Jacks. Not entirely smooth in defending a few Starc balls, but tucks away a run eventually. Stokes runs another single off the face. See? Not that hard.
38th over: England 140-6 (Stokes 9, Jacks 5) Boland continues, with Carey up to the stumps to stop Jacks going for a walk. Gloving them superbly, it’s not like Boland is slow. After three balls though, Carey goes back and swaps the helmet for the hat. Jacks bats out the over, no run until the final ball, which he nudges fine for one.
37th over: England 139-6 (Stokes 9, Jacks 4) Here comes Mitchell Starc, from the Vulture Street End, and per Mark Seymour, those big black birds are circling in the skies. Not this over though, Starc is a bit stiff and rusty through overuse perhaps, and bowls too short and at times too wide, before getting full enough that Stokes can flick him delightfully through midwicket off the front foot.
36th over: England 135-6 (Stokes 5, Jacks 4) The tourists in the crowd get through Jerusalem without further damage, unlike Adelaide 2017 when Josh Hazlewood got Joe Root and Chris Woakes in the first over of the morning. Stokes awkwardly stabs away a single into the leg side first ball of the day, before Boland sends down a typically accurate five balls at Will Jacks, who defends stoutly from the crease. Miralo, chicos, it can be done.
Play begins
We are about to get started. The Queensland sun is shining bright and hard today, it’s the hottest of the days yet, at least by my internal thermometer. Hmm, sounds uncomfortable. Let’s cricket.
“As I reach the end of another working week, I am once again reminded of the cruelty of cricketing disappointment. It’s hard enough being an Englishman living in Brisbane at the moment, but no cricket on my weekend seems excessively cruelty…”
There’s cricket on today, Phil Withington. It might not last very long, that’s all.
“Hi from Sweden, Geoff,” writes Julian Menz. I can only assume ”James Wallace (later)” is an example of that cheeky Aussie humour. He’s already down the pub mate!”
In defence of Jim’s professional honour, I can attest that he’s two seats down from me in the press box, by all appearances transcribing an interview with some marginal figure from a long-ago Ashes defeat. Bless him, he’s made the trip out here for his first Aus visit and had to pick two Tests of the five, so he’s had six days of cricket for his trouble.
He’ll be on with blazing fingertips later if Stokes and co. manage to build a redoubt.
Sweepstake
Let’s run a sweep for the time that this match will finish, on the clock, in Brisbane local. That’s one hour behind Melbourne and Sydney, 10 hours ahead of London, and the rest of you can work it out on your own.
Email your finish time in 24-hour format to geoff.lemon@theguardian.com. I won’t necessarily be publishing these, but I’ll find the winner when it comes. Closest to the pin without going over.
Alrighty then. For England to stay in the game today, it will require another Ben Stokes miracle. He has not, the last couple of days, looked like a man with a miracle in him. He’s been outplayed as a captain and nowhere with the bat. Can he dredge up something from the Big Famous Innings depths today?
For the McSweeney freaks out there, AAP have been chatting to him about his brief time (so far) as a national player.
Nathan McSweeney believes he is a better player for having had a brief Test stint, after smashing his highest first-class score in a timely reminder to Australian selectors.
The 26-year-old produced the best knock of his career on Saturday, blasting an unbeaten 226 for Australia A against the England Lions at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.
His eighth first-class century dwarfed his previous best of 127 not out.
It was McSweeney’s second century of the summer, bouncing back after being dropped following three Tests against India last year when he averaged only 14.4.“Playing Test cricket exposes a few opportunities to learn,” McSweeney said.
“I definitely like to think that I’ve learned from those experiences, and I can continue to try and grow my game. I feel like I’m in a good spot at the moment. It’s a game, we’re probably never going to finish the puzzle, but really content with how it’s shaping. Hopefully I can continue to learn and hopefully score some runs.”
McSweeney is a natural No.3 or No.4, but was given the chance to open for Australia with Usman Khawaja. However, the pair were worked over by the world’s best Test bowler, Jasprit Bumrah.
Khawaja is hopeful of being fit for the third Ashes Test in Adelaide on December 17, but it remains to be seen whether the 38-year-old is picked.
Travis Head and Jake Weatherald are averaging 76 after two innings opening together in the absence of Khawaja.But if selectors believe Head should go back to No.5 when batting in Australian conditions, McSweeney could be up for an opening spot.
McSweeney’s improvement against spin has him ideally placed to be in contention to tour India for a blockbuster series in early 2027.The South Australia captain obliterated England spinner Shoaib Bashir, who was dropped for the start of the Ashes.
“Over the last 12 months, I’ve really tried to focus on trying to put the spinner under a little bit more pressure,” McSweeney said. “I was able to be sharp on my feet and try to expose their lengths as best I could.”
As for me, the Days Without Having to Write About Mitchell Starc counter has been rewound to zero, because he became the central figure of the day again yesterday, but this time with the bat. Then turned it on with the ball right at the end of the night. Unputdownable.
Meanwhile, Simon’s piece from the ground examines the TV pictures of England’s bowling spearhead arriving yesterday with bedding in hand, and what that might or might not imply. Perhaps it’s just because the nights get so late! Though at six wickets down he was probably about to be woken up to get his pads on.
Here’s Simon Burnton with the quotes, for which England predictably put up one of the assistant coaching ranks rather than a player or Brendon McCullum. Normal Bad News Day protocol.
Let’s start with the recaps. Ali Martin is one of our several reporters at the ground, and he’s responsible for the wrap of the day’s play.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Good morrow, gentlefolk. It is afternoon in Brisbane and who knows what time anywhere else. More importantly, it is crunch time for England. Let us be honest: the show is almost over. Resuming 43 runs behind with four wickets in hand, England lost the Test in that dramatic final hour last night, ending up at six wickets down.
“They haven’t lost yet!” Ah, you are correct, my apple-cheeked young interlocutor. Your belief in the impossible will stand you in good stead. So let’s consider, what must England do to turn this around? First, let’s have Ben Stokes and Will Jacks put on a double century partnership. Done. Then, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse whack 40 each, and Jofra Archer finishes it off to round the late-order contributions up to a hundred.
So that’s 300 in front, meaning 250 to defend, and then the same bowlers who’ve done all the batting will turn around and bowl out Australia.
Either that or England lose four in the first half hour and get this thing over and done with.
I may not be painting the rosiest picture, it’s true, but that’s out of annoyance at the lack of a contest through most of this series. Let’s see how this bit pans out, and if Stokes with the bat still has a streak of resistance still in him.
