The ball may be pink and the meal breaks off-kilter, but for so much of the second day in this pivotal day-night Test match, the atmosphere inside the Gabba was an all-too-familiar one for England’s supporters.
Gone was the triumphalism that met Joe Root’s first Test century on these shores 24 hours earlier and in its place a creeping sense of dread. The bottom line is: England’s bowlers spent most of the day sending down so many long hops and half-volleys as to make Jackson Pollock look positively precise.
Then there was the catching. Five chances went to grass over the course of three sessions, with Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith guilty for a couple apiece to follow their ducks on day one. It is hard enough to take 20 Australian wickets in their backyard at the best of times, doubly so when hands turn into feet under pressure.
Yet by stumps, even with two of the reprieved in Alex Carey and Michael Neser having delivered a late flurry of runs, Ben Stokes and his men were, somehow, still in the contest. Australia had been ominously positioned at 291 for three earlier in the evening session, only to close on 378 for six. Their lead of 44 is healthy, no question, just not yet fully decisive.
Stokes will have been telling his men as such overnight, even if his radar was as haywire as the rest of them. Not that he can ever be discounted, evidenced by seeing Josh Inglis handed a life by Duckett on 23 and then detonating out the right-hander’s middle stump two balls later.
This was day-night cricket at its wildest, with the pink Kookaburra ball coming out to play after dark and events taking on a life of their own. Summing up the chaos was Brydon Carse. He shipped 113 runs from 17 overs, removed two set men in Cameron Green (45) and Steve Smith (61), and yet still bungled a simple chance off Neser before the close.
Overall, England also got a dose of the medicine they thought was theirs to dispense before this tour, with Australia rattling along at a tick over five runs per over. The difference was that every time a wicket fell, the incoming batter picked up where their predecessor left off. Green aside, bowled by Carse trying to carve a yorker off his stumps, wickets had to be earned. Another contrast has been the fortunes of the two wicketkeepers. Alex Carey put on a clinic behind the stumps on day one. And though dropped by Duckett at gully first ball in between Carse’s late strikes, the left-hander then delivered a busy unbeaten 46 with the bat that stemmed the bleeding. Overnight, Australia could not have been more grateful for his experience.
Jamie Smith is a rookie in comparison, of course, this his first Ashes series and one England will pray sees an upturn sharpish. The 25-year-old dropped a simple chance off Travis Head (33) on three as Australia, driven by Jake Weatherald’s sprightly 72, raced to 130 for one by the end of the first session. He didn’t even move on when Carey offered a chance on 25 later on, the ball flying past Root’s hopeful effort to his right at first slip.
7.23 runs per over 205 for two (28.2 overs), second Test, Perth, 2025-26
5.38 runs per over 158 for three (29.2 overs), shird Test, Trent Bridge, 2001
5.18 runs per over 254 for two declared (49 overs), second Test, Lord’s, 2015
5.17 runs per over 378 for six (73 overs), second Test, Brisbane, 2025-26
5.11 runs per over 168 for four (32.5 overs), second Test, Adelaide, 2006-07
Minimum: 10 overs
All bar Brisbane 2025-26 were in the second innings
Yet despite all the howlers, two of the catches actually held on the day were truly extraordinary. Marnus Labuschagne made 65 to confirm his resurgent form but teammates will probably hear more about his diving effort in the deep first thing. It removed Jofra Archer for 38, shut down England for 334 all out, and left Root marooned on an unbeaten 138.
Will Jacks probably topped it for the bottle of Moët, however, with the all-rounder swooping round from backward square during Carse’s two-wicket surge, clinging on at full stretch to remove Steve Smith. Having sent down one exploratory and wayward over of off-breaks before the first interval, Jacks at least had something to show for his day in the field.
Jofra Archer will doubtless wish that hands had been so adhesive off his bowling, with the drops off Head and Neser meaning figures of one for 74 from 20 overs of work barely told the story of his day. Perhaps the most mystifying aspect of it was a seven-over spell to start the second session, meaning he was gassed out when the tricky twilight period came along.
Still, Archer had claimed the wicket of Weatherald lbw and an important one it was too. The opener had been the catalyst for Australia’s initial surge up top, ramping uppercuts and driving the inevitable over-corrections that followed. Comparisons with Eoin Morgan stop at the crouching stance, however, Weatherald having recently called franchise cricket “shit”.
Held up against this second day at the Gabba – one that saw huge momentum swings, agony and ecstasy in abundance, and closed with the match still very much in the balance – Weatherald makes a fair point.
