Tired England under fire in Adelaide

Cricket365
December 6, 2013

England reached stumps on day two of the second Ashes Test on 35 for one, barely surviving a pace barrage from Australia's fast bowlers in their chase of 571, after the hosts declared after tea.

Centuries from Michael Clarke (148) and Brad Haddin (118), and a brisk not out fifty from Ryan Harris, saw the Aussies post 570 for nine declared. England then lost Alastair Cook as Mitchell Johnson bowled at nearly 160kph.

The hosts started the day on 273 for five, with Clarke and Haddin in the middle. The players wore black armbands and stood for a minute's silence in honour of former South African president Nelson Mandela, who passed away late on Thursday night.

When the cricket resumed, the skipper was close to a half century and soon reached that mark, while Haddin slowly progressed towards that milestone too. Australia batted at four to the over for much of the day.

There was a bit of drama when the umpires had to separate Haddin and England debutant Ben Stokes as they had a few words and drew handbags at dawn, but the batsmen continued and pushed the score past 400 in the afternoon.

The 200-run stand was finally broken when Stokes claimed Clarke's wicket, his first in Test cricket, with the skipper on 148. James Anderson took the catch diving forward and celebrations were somewhat muted for everyone other than Stokes.

Johnson and Peter Siddle fell cheaply soon afterwards, to Graeme Swann and Stokes respectively, before Haddin and Ryan Harris continued to add the runs. Haddin's century came just before tea, off 160 deliveries.

The evening session saw Haddin add just 10 more to his tea score before he was caught behind off Stuart Broad. He'd struck five sixes and 11 fours in his knock. This left Harris and Nathan Lyon to add 41 runs before the declaration.

England's chase got off to a dire start as Cook (3) found his stumps demolished by Johnson, whose moustache seemed to be giving him extra pace powers as he regularly hit the 95mph mark.

Michael Carberry and Joe Root were thus left to see out the rest of the day, with Johnson beating the bat more than once. Carberry was lucky to end the day unbeaten, as an LBW shout went unreviewed, but would have been out if DRS had been called upon.