For a better part of the second Test of the Ashes at the Adelaide Oval, Australia would have been the happier side, yet going into the 5th day with less than 200 runs to get and 6 wickets remaining and key man Root unbeaten, one would have thought that England gave themselves a slight chance in the match on the final day of the test to level the series. But Australia’s pacer Josh Hazlewood removed both the overnight batsmen without them scoring any run on the fifth day and with that destroying the distant dream of glory that England had. Especially, the wicket of Joe Root was the key.
At the end of it all though, Mitch Starc finished with impressive figures of 5 for 88 and Australia have managed to win the Test with a good enough margin of 120 runs and with it have gone 2-0 up in the series with 3 Tests to go. Although England managed to put up a fight and take the game into the 5th day with some sort of hope, essentially England had lost the match in the first 2 days itself, when after winning the toss and electing to bowl first, England saw the Aussies bat for more than 5 sessions and setting up a huge score, thanks to the efforts of eventual player of the match Shaun Marsh (126*) and Tim Paine (57), to which England couldn’t find a fitting reply and managed only 227 in the first innings and 233 in the second, the difference was clearly someone batting through the innings.
England needed their all-time highest successful chase to win the match and on the final day morning it looked quite probable with Root still there. 17 deliveries later, Root edges the ball to Paine and only formalities remain for Australia to wrap up the match. Australia maintain their unbeaten pink ball test record at the Adelaide Oval, in fact winning all three of them that have been played there.
Both teams meet at Perth’s WACA next, Australia one win away from Ashes title yet again, England one win away from regaining their momentum going into the final 2 tests.
Action begins 14th December, 2017 8:00 AM (IST).
