Ashes 2021-22: Australia v England second Test, day three – live!

17th over: England 55-2 (Malan 27, Root 15) Starc enjoys a maiden over against Root to wipe away his tears after his opening horror show. To be fair they are not fantastic conditions for him – there’s not much movement happening out there.

Meanwhile, reader Mac Millings clearly still has his head in England’s fielding problems and has selected his all-time Dropped Catch XI:

Spill AtheyFumble
Mohammad AshSNAFU
Stuart Floor
In-and-outzamam-ul-Haq
Basil “Dolly” D’Oliveira
Jimmy Neeshambles
Miss Lewis
Jos Buttlerfingers
Gimme Anderson
Can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t Phil DeFreitas

Can someone please come up with a more original Jos Buttler pun? Please.

16th over: England 55-2 (Malan 27, Root 15) Malan is up and about and on the front foot to drive Richardson to deep extra-cover and make two runs for his troubles. The next delivery, though, is full, and catches his outside edge before pinging away towards Smith at second slip. It bounces just in front of him before he gets low and to the left to stop the ball in its tracks.

15th over: England 51-2 (Malan 24, Root 14) Starc is in the middle for a spell and doesn’t start too well as Malan pumps him for consecutive fours off his first two balls. They are short deliveries, both outside the off stump, and the batter simply lies in wait until he’s ready to cut it away. No run, no run, three (3) runs – a drive wide of mid-off. Very positive signs for England as they bring up the partnership half-century.

14th over: England 40-2 (Malan 13, Root 14) There is a soft appeal from Australia as Richardson hits Malan on the pads – via his bat – that turns into a decidedly loud appeal once Marnus Labuschagne pipes up at third slip. No dice. But Malan is struggling ever so slightly to give himself enough room but oh! As soon as I type this he has leaned in beautifully for a drive that transfers the momentum off Richardson’s full delivery and past mid-off for a four.

13th over: England 35-2 (Malan 8, Root 14) Neser, bowling fuller than England have been, almost grabs a maiden but for one run that Malan glances to long leg. The next half-hour to an hour will be key for these batters, you’d think. Australia will want to strike the top order sooner rather than later or otherwise allow the tourists to settle in and get comfy.

Robert Wilson has written in.

“Greetings from late-night Paris. The Barney Ronay piece is a good one. But it’s a mistake to think he’s not feeling positive. Since yesterday’s play hit that note of tremulous haplessness that England fans know so well, they’ve been feeling absolutely tremendous, like a six year-old on Christmas morning. Their blood-pressure is down, their heart-rates are calming and they’re settling into that usual fug of rueful dismay that they find as cosy and familiar as a pair of old slippers. A score of under 80 is a warm bath to them, an innings defeat a glass of claret. It’s not that they cope well with losing. They evidently preferit.

“Adelaide in 2010 made them fretful and feverish. They liked Mark Ramprakash a lot more than Robin Smith. Look at the BTL comments on today’s reports. Their delight is palpable, a steady drizzle of mulish acceptance, with the odd comfortless and icy joke. And it’s not even a dreary Boycottian Things Were Better In My Day nostalgia. Indeed the only energy the old timers seem to show is to debate whether it was more depressing to be an England fan in the 80s, or 90s, or early 2000s (a couple of haunted veterans still having flashbacks of watching Chris Tavaré or Martin McCague waxed quite heated).
2005 was an outlier (I think they were all drunk). England fans are ****ing loving this.”

12th over: England 34-2 (Malan 7, Root 14) Lovely shot from Root, who opens the face of his bat, stands tall, and slips his shot away through backward point. Richardson’s delivery didn’t move away quite as much as he may have anticipated and Lyon can’t stop it hitting the ropes. He really is a lovely technician, Joe Root.

11th over: England 28-2 (Malan 6, Root 9) Root is showing his class here with a full-faced drive as Neser goes for his leg stump. Malan, facing Nesser, catches the inside edge again and appears as if he can’t quite pick up his feet. He’s lucky again, and makes one run, which is more than he managed from his previous two deliveries. Root is up now and ouch, the delivery rises sharply and kisses his hip.

10th over: England 23-2 (Malan 5, Root 6) To update, there will be 95 overs remaining today. Including this one which starts with Root facing Richardson, who bowls a no ball in his second delivery and is hit for a single by the England captain to cover. And hey, there’s a four to Malan. He got a bit lucky there as Richardson drew an inside edge but got it away.

9th over: England 17-2 (Malan 1, Root 5) Nesser gets us away with Malan in strike. Good length just outside the off stump. Another to round out this over has Malan on the defence.

We are getting close to the start of play now, which has been brought forward by 20 minutes to make up for yesterday’s lost time. The warm-ups are done, which included some keepy uppies, and the players are out in the middle.

Meanwhile, Barney Ronay is back in Blighty and has been feeling a little less positive about England’s performance.

“Detailed analysis shows Australia have been better in three key areas so far: batting, bowling and fielding. Otherwise things have been pretty even. It was at best a flicker of a false dawn. But there was something else here too, a sniff of a more competent timeline; of the series, as they used to say on Bullseye, that you could have had.

These Ashes feel doomed already after a day in which England were reduced to 17 for two, 456 behind. And yet, with all due respect to Australia’s good batting and excellent seam bowling, this has been a case of self-dooming. And self-dooming on two fronts, most obviously the muddled internal management of Chris Silverwood and Joe Root.”

Full article here:

The considered Geoff Lemon had some thoughts on the considered Steve Smith.

“In 2017, Steve Smith began what can now be mapped as his highest batting peak. Three centuries in four Tests while leading a tour of India, a feat no visiting captain has bettered, while holding his team in the series until a final defeat 2-1. Then home for an Ashes series that he opened with a match-winning hundred at Brisbane, followed with a double in Perth, and sealed with a hundred in Sydney, winning 4-0 with 687 runs at an average of over 137. Three months later came the Cape Town sandpaper affair, and his year-long ban ended up being an absence from Test cricket of 16 months.

What has happened since has been the waste of Smith, the squandering by Cricket Australia of their most extraordinary batting talent since Don Bradman.”

Full article here:

If you are still catching up on Friday’s happenings, Ali Martin was at the ground and has your back: