The Ashes | Day-Night Test: Relentless Australia crush England's dream of revival, go 2-0 up

There was no way England were going for the chase of 468 runs and the best they could have hoped coming to the fifth and final day of the second Test was a draw which too seemed to be a distant target, especially, after the dismissal of their overworking skipper Joe Root late on the fourth day.

The target seemed a monumental one with Australia having gained the impetus on the fourth day and the form of batsmen left to bat on the final day. England had Ben Stokes, who looked scratchy at best in the first innings and the likes of Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes to follow, who can’t be relied upon heavily to bat with their head down.

The day started off on the worst possible note with Pope learning no lessons from Buttler’s faltering against Mitchell Starc and he played at an angled delivery that would have left him and missed the off stump by a big margin. He paid the price and perished in the process to leave England in a deeper slump and Australia in ecstasy.

Stokes was too eager to cover the stumps with his pads in order to not play inside of the line of Nathan Lyon’s delivery and backed himself to cover for any delivery coming back or straight on with the arm. However, Lyon is not a rookie spinner to be spooked by that tactic and he had in him to still faux the left-hander by straightening his line of attack. 

Stokes was backing himself to use his bat when balls were to come towards him but an act of natural variation when he expected the ball to turn more found him trapped in front of the stumps.

With Stokes gone, chances of England’s magical revival such as the one at Headingley in the second Test of the Ashes series in 2019 was all but buried. The task got more steeper for the duo of Buttler and Woakes, both of whom have had a terrible match until their union in the middle on the final day.

Buttler would not have survived to take the fight deeper and engrossing for the hosts had Alex Carey not left one edge of his bat for David Warner at first slip even before the wicketkeeper could get off the mark.

Buttler could not believe his luck but made the most of the return gifts from his Australian rivals. He batted with an uncharacteristic temperament and did not offer any shot even to wide half volleys to keep England in the reckoning till the final session of the day.

The duo formed a formidable wall to protect England from a collapse and batted with all their heart and defence to deny Australia an easy victory. Woakes was more aggressive of the two and played some crisp shots.

Their efforts led to some tiring legs in Australia and Smith needed the likes of Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser to step up and provide cover to Starc and Nathan Lyon. Richardson was up to the task and produced a jaffa that finally found a gap between Woakes’ pads and bat to lift the hosts.

Lyon took over from him and played the game of angles perfectly with Ollie Robinson to have him edging to Steve Smith at slip and Australia started to get the feel of a 2-0 lead. Buttler carried on and took away a further 86 balls from Australia’s hands to have a win.

However, his vigil had to come to an end in one of the most unlikely fashions as he ran onto his stumps while playing a fullish delivery from Richardson. Buttler made the most of his good luck when Carey dropped him at zero but a moment of extreme misfortune cost him his wicket and England a chance of rare escape. 

The last pair of James Anderson, who has a fair bit of experience to calm such storms for England and Stuart Broad, was at it again jumping and hopping against the short-pitched stuffs of Starc and Richardson. Broad was more enterprising than Anderson with the bat in a bizarre sequence of events when he was leaving his stumps to attempt drives. However, Anderson was the last man to go as he could not fend off too many balls away from the fielders and Cameron Green caught his edge and ended England’s dream of saving the game.

Australia have proved England an average Test side so far in the first two Tests of the series and the skipper Joe Root was not defensive of the fact that his boys have been outplayed by the hosts.

The admission was pretty apt but he would need his players to stand up to yet another Australian juggernaut and it won’t be easy at the MCG when the whole of Australia will burst at the venue on the occasion of the Boxing Day Test.