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At the end of Day 2, there wasn’t much to choose between Australia and England. The hosts trailing by 138 runs and had six wickets in hand. On expected lines, England’s ‘Bazball’ approach meant that they got their 278 runs on Day 2 in just 61 overs. Skipper Ben Stokes and Harry Brook batted till stumps and their 56-run partnership would have given England hopes of a first-innings lead.

However, their hopes were dented on the second ball of Day 3 as Mitchell Starc dismissed the England captain, who closed the bat face a bit too early to a delivery angling in, and the leading edge was taken sharply by the towering Cameron Green. This opened the floodgates as England lost one wicket after another, thanks to some indifferent shot-making.

Australia also peppered their opposition with a relentless barrage of short deliveries and the English batters struggled to come up with answers. To make matters worse for the home side, Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad threw their wickets away in the same over to the part-time off-spin of Travis Head. They eventually got bowled out for 325, handing Australia a healthy lead of 91 runs. The last six English wickets fell for just 47 runs.

David Warner and Usman Khawaja batted out six overs before Lunch as England were in desperate need of wickets. In the second session, James Anderson dropped Khawaja when the in-form batter was on 19. England continued their search for wickets, and eventually, they got one in the form of Warner, who was dismissed LBW by Josh Tongue for 25. This wasn’t before the opening duo had put on 63 runs for the first wicket.

Marnus Labuschagne and Khawaja stretched Australia’s lead further by adding a 60-run partnership before the former was dismissed for 30 by James Anderson. Centurion from the first innings, Steve Smith, joined Khawaja and both men remained not out on 6 and 58, respectively, as Australia ended the day at 130/2, with a lead of 221.