England’s top-order was toppled once again as three quick wickets left their Ashes hopes hanging by a thread on day two in Adelaide.
Jofra Archer’s five-wicket haul finished Australia off for 371 in this must-win third Test, a moderate-looking total on a flat pitch, but England botched their chance to put pressure back on the hosts.
In baking hot conditions they had a real chance to sap Australia’s attack but instead crumbled to 59 for three as Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett all flopped in the space of 15 balls.
Pope, backed by the selectors after coming under severe scrutiny in the the build-up, looked dreadful in his short stay and gifted his wicket to Nathan Lyon with a limp flick to short midwicket. On present form it seems highly unlikely that he will avoid the chop next time.
Things almost got even worse for England when their number one batter Joe Root offered a caught behind chance off Scott Boland with just one to his name and was spared by a DRS review that could have gone either way.
TV umpire Chris Gaffaney would have been feeling the heat after the Snickometer controversy on day one – which resulted in batter Alex Carey, the system operators and the match referee Jeff Crowe all accepting an outside edge had been wrongly missed.
The nick was obvious on this occasion but Carey was at the centre of things once again, with question marks over whether the ball was grounded before it reached his gloves. After a handful of slow motion replays from different angles, Gaffaney ruled against the wicketkeeper and allowed England a brief moment of reprieve.
Crawley was first to fall for nine, caught behind trying to defend a fine delivery from returning captain Pat Cummins, with Pope last 10 awkward balls before being put out of his misery.
Duckett got a start, with five fours in his 29, but was foxed as Lyon got one to spin past his outside edge and into the top of off.
Earlier, England had leaked a further 45 runs finishing off the Australian tail. Archer got both wickets, bowling Mitchell Starc for 54 and getting Lyon lbw.
