NEEDING to bat out 134 overs in their final innings to save the match, England managed to knock off 113.1 on the final day of the Day-Night Test in Adelaide but couldn’t prevent Australia from taking a 2-0 lead.

Leading the resolute resistance was Jos Buttler, who blocked his way for 207 balls before being dismissed in a dramatic fashion. Keen on defending, Buttler went too far back to tread onto his stumps giving Australia a big boost in the final session. Jhye Richardson finished with a five-wicket haul eventually as he had last man James Anderson fending to gully and giving Australia a 275-run win, after a lengthy rearguard action by England’s lower order.

Buttler was involved in a 190-ball association with Chris Woakes first before Ollie Robinson gave him support for 87 balls. Through both, Buttler had a single-minded devotion towards seeing the bowling off. Woakes, however, took a few more scoring opportunities, getting to 44 in his 97-ball stay.

Australia bowled as many as eight bowlers over the course of the innings and rushed through overs with their part-timers before the second new ball became available. But Buttler and Woakes remained largely untroubled even then before the latter finally fell when Jhye Richardson managed to beat his defence with sharp movement in.

Buttler, in the company of Robinson, then began to farm the strike against the pacers. Robinson managed to keep Nathan Lyon at bay for a large part of his 39-ball stay. However, Lyon broke through with a change of angle to round the wicket and having Robinson caught at slip.

Stuart Broad then survived with the help of the review twice against Lyon. First Australia went up with Broad shouldering arms to an arm ball, but he was saved by the extra bounce according to the ball-tracker.

He was given out LBW in Lyon’s next over but replays showed a thick inside edge, and it allowed England to go into Tea with 26 overs still remaining. And Buttler unbeaten for 195 balls, fighting his way back after Australia had threatened to run through the game earlier in the day.

England began the day, 386 runs adrift, and with the intention of trying to save the game. Ollie Pope got going with a flicked boundary but Mitchell Starc broke through early with a change of angle. Having operated from round the wicket, he struck first ball after making the switch to over the wicket. Pope hung his bat out at a delivery angled across and got a thick edge to second slip. Starc could have had one more with the same angle when Buttler got an outside edge but ‘keeper Alex Carey stayed put misjudging that first slip would take it.

Australia operated with a spin and pace mixture right through and Lyon had a 54-ball battle with Ben Stokes. The left-hander, with a tweaked shuffle, got across outside his offstump, and predominantly on the crease to tackle Lyon. However, that came to an end when Lyon managed to beat him for the angle eventually and hit him on the front pad. A review that went in favour of Lyon ended Stokes’ 77-ball vigil.

Thereafter Woakes joined Buttler to kickstart the lower order’s resistance which stretched Australia but wasn’t enough.

(Cricbuzz)

AUSTRALIA 1ST Innings 473
England 1st Innings 236
Australia 2nd innings
David Warner Run Out Stuart Broad 13
Marcus Harris c Jos Buttler b Stuart Broad 23
Michael Neser b James Anderson 3
Marnus Labuschagne c Ben Stokes b Dawid Malan 51
Steven Smith c Jos Buttler b Ollie Robinson 6
Travis Head c Ben Stokes b Ollie Robinson 51
Cameron Green Not Out 33
Alex Carey b Joe Root 6
Mitchell Starc c Ollie Pope b Joe Root 19
Jhye Richardson c Jos Buttler b Dawid Malan 8
Extras 3b 8lb 5nb 0pen 1w 17
Total (61.0 overs) 230 decl
Fall of Wickets : 1-41 Warner, 2-48 Neser, 3-48 Harris, 4-55 Smith, 5-144 Head, 6-173 Labuschagne, 7-180 Carey, 8-216 Starc, 9-230 Richardson
Did Not Bat : Lyon
Bowling : James Anderson 10 – 6 – 8 – 1, Stuart Broad 10 – 3 – 27- 1,
Ollie Robinson 15 – 2 – 54 – 2 (2nb), Chris Woakes 12 – 3 – 46 – 0,
Joe Root 6 – 1 – 27 – 2, Ben Stokes 2 – 0 – 24 – 0 (1w 3nb),
Dawid Malan 6 – 0 – 33 – 2.

ENGLAND 2nd innings
Rory Burns c Steven Smith b Jhye Richardson 34
Haseeb Hameed c Alex Carey b Jhye Richardson 0
Dawid Malan lbw Michael Neser 20
Joe Root c Alex Carey b Mitchell Starc 24
Ben Stokes lbw Nathan Lyon 12
Ollie Pope c Steven Smith b Mitchell Starc 4
Jos Buttler Hit Wicket b Jhye Richardson 26
Chris Woakes b Jhye Richardson 44
Ollie Robinson c Steven Smith b Nathan Lyon 8
Stuart Broad Not Out 9
James Anderson c Cameron Green b Jhye Richardson 2
Extras 2b 3lb 4nb 0pen 0w 9
Total (113.1 overs) 192 all out
Fall of Wickets : 1-4 Hameed, 2-48 Malan, 3-70 Burns, 4-82 Root, 5-86 Pope, 6-105 Stokes, 7-166 Woakes, 8-178 Robinson, 9-182 Buttler, 10-192 Anderson
Bowling : Mitchell Starc 27 – 10 – 43 – 2 (1nb),Jhye Richardson 19.1 – 9 42 – 5 ( 2nb), Nathan Lyon 39 – 16 – 55 – 2, Michael Neser 13 – 5- 28 – 1, Cameron Green 9 – 5 – 9 – 0 (1nb).