Australia declared their first innings at 473/8 but not before their pacers tried their hands with the bat and demoralised England bowling attack by hitting them to all parts of the Adelaide Oval.
They would have expected some relief after getting Steve Smith and Alex Carey in quick succession after the 95-run stand between the duo but the trio of Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc and Jhye Richardson pummelled them for boundaries at will and carried Australia to a mammoth total.
Neser, batting for the first time at the Test level, hit a swashbuckling 24-ball 35 alongside Starc, who was more subdued of the two initially and hit a run a ball 39. Richardson, who was returning to Test cricket after a long gap of three years, tried to hit a big six on the very first ball he faced of Chris Woakes.
He failed to do so but did not fail in the second attempt and deposited the pacer over midwicket on the second ball he faced. He could not elongate the fun and edged to keeper Jos Buttler compelling the stand-in captain Steve Smith to declare the first innings.
England have more than one and half hour to deal with against the trio of Starc, Richardson and Neser and it won’t be an easy task especially for the opening pair of Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed.