The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 3: Batsmen let England down once again as Australia strengthen grip

There was a sense of inevitability about where this match was heading as soon as Steve Smith and company notched up a big first inning score. Although the duo of Dawid Malan and Joe Root provided yet another resistance against their march, England were too brittle to stand up for longer periods of time and challenge the hosts on the third day of the Day-Night Test in Adelaide.

Root and Malan were on a roll in the first session of the day and punished indisciplined Australian bowlers who got desperate in search of wicket-taking deliveries. They cashed in on full deliveries and carried England to the 150-run mark and went past individual fifties to show some sort of spark, just the same way they did in the second innings of the first Test. 

However, the script afterwards turned out to be similar to what transpired on the fourth morning at the Gabba and as soon as they were dismissed in quick succession, there was no one to rescue England. Root could not convert yet another brilliant start into a three-figure mark and when Malan too suffered a similar fate, Australia knew they had the game in their control.

Cameron Green turned out to be the point of difference once again as he worked over the England captain, who was going through a rather comfortable stay at the crease. He was threatening him around his off stump and got him out on two occasions on three balls before getting him nicked off to his counterpart in slips. Malan perished chasing an expansive shot of Mitchell Starc.

England needed a clam head to balance the momentum shift but neither Jos Buttler nor Ollie Pope could stand up to the pressure that was being created from both ends by the experienced pair of Nathan Lyon and Starc. Lyon faux Pope while the right-hander was not looking too comfortable defending him on the front foot and eagerness to reach to the pitch of the ball and Lyon’s guile saw him going back to the pavilion for another disappointing score. 

Buttler has been hailed for batting with positive intent and taking the attack to the opposition but this time the rub of the green did not go his way and Starc found the outside edge of his bat to David Warner in slip.

England slipped from a rather comfortable position of 150/2 to 236 all out in the span of a session went on to ratify the saying that an England collapse always lurking around the corner.

Having gained a substantial lead of 237 runs, Australia did not go for the jugular and chose to wait for further deterioration of the pitch before asking England to bat once again. Australia doesn’t appear to be in hurry to force the result and level of assistance to both Lyon and Root suggest that the surface at Adelaide Oval has a lot in it to offer on the fourth and fifth day of the game.

England needed a proper heroic performance with the ball to strike the hosts out of their comfortable position in the game but an in-form Warner and even a struggling Marcus Harris found their way to survive the last hour of the day. Warner could not end the day unbeaten although it was the failure of his own and partner's making than English bowlers inducing a mistake out of them.

The hosts are way ahead in the game with a lead of 282 runs and as many as nine wickets including their stand-in skipper Smith and charismatic Marnus Labuschagne sitting idle in the dressing room to inflict more body flows on an already down and out England.