Dawid Malan squandered yet another chance of getting to a century in his career as he was once again out in the eighties after having done all the hard work. The left-hander was disappointed to have missed out on what could have been a great away Ashes ton.
“We talk about getting 20 wickets or what have you, but in Australia, there are big runs to be had and big hundreds win you Test matches. In the last match, both Rooty and myself were in a position to score hundreds and we didn’t do it, and we were in the same position here and both times we’ve been found short as a batting unit compared to the Australian batting unit,” Malan said in a press conference after the end of third day’s play in the second Ashes Test going on in Adelaide.
In the last Test in Brisbane, both skipper Joe Root and Malan had a tremendous partnership of over 200 runs together in England’s second innings. When they were together at the crease, it seemed like England could at least try and challenge Australia, but it wasn’t to be after Root got out for 89 and Malan for 82 in the second session of the fourth day.
Similarly in this Test, having added 138 for the third wicket and having seen off the new ball threat and the entire afternoon session, both betters once again lost concentration, getting out within the first hour of play of the second session. This time around Root scored 62 while Malan made 80.
Addressing the issue of missing out on big scores, Malan said, “That’s something we must do better from this next innings onwards, that if someone gets in, to make sure that we get that big 100. We’ve only had three innings so far, a couple of the boys have had some scores, but it’s once we’re in, it’s about making the big scores.”
Much like the last Test, once the pairing of Malna and Root was disturbed, the entire team crumbled and from 150-2, England were all out at 236 in their first innings, giving Australia a lead of 237 runs. The Aussies have built upon it and were 45-1 at the end of the third day’s play, leading the English by 282 runs.