Brisbane: Steve Smith took a brilliant reflex catch to swing momentum, got into a heated exchange with Jofra Archer and then slogged the winning runs Sunday as Australia beat England again to take a 2-0 Ashes lead.
Set a target of 65 for victory in the second test after dismissing England for 241 in the second innings, Australia raced to an eight-wicket win late on Day 4 as storms brewed in and around the stadium.
Archer was bowling around 150 kph (93 mph) under the lights and it only fired up Smith.
“The adrenaline was pumping at the end of the end, yeah. Jofra was bowling pretty quick,” Smith said. “It was a huge win. Great to go 2-nil up.”
There were some theatrics involving the Australia captain and England’s strike pace bowler, with Smith ducking under a short ball and then critiquing Archer for bowling “fast when there’s nothing going on, champion.” He then hit a four and a six to bring up 1,000 test runs at the Gabba.
With Australia at 63-2 and needing just two runs to win the day-nighter, Smith hit a six to seal it and finished unbeaten on 23 from nine deliveries.
“Not really too sure what he said, and not sure what I said,” Smith told a post-match news conference. “It’s not any of your business, either,” he added, laughing. “So we’ll leave it out there.”
Bazball shelved
Day 4 was a tale of two captains.
England skipper Stokes curbed his attacking instincts, dispensing with Bazball and pragmatically setting about reviving England’s Ashes prospects.
England had resumed Sunday at 134-6, and took an hour and 36 minutes — 18.2 overs — to erase the first-innings deficit.
The Australian attack bowled a tight line and length and mixed it up with some short-pitch deliveries in an attempt to entice the usually aggressive England batters to have a go.
Stokes (50) and Will Jacks (41) resisted the temptation for the entire first session, knowing that a wicket would expose the tailenders. It was a completely different approach to England’s usual attack-at-all costs mentality that has attracted wide criticism in the first two Ashes tests so far.
The seventh-wicket pair put on a 96-run stand to get England to the brink of the night session, but that ended when Smith — Australia’s stand-in captain — took a stunning one-hander diving to his left at slip off Michael Neser’s bowling to dismiss Jacks.
That was the momentum changer. The subsequent slide happened quickly, with England losing its last four wickets for 17 runs and Neser finishing with a five-wicket haul.
Stokes reached his 50 from 148 balls, the second-slowest half-century of his career. It was only four balls behind the 152 he took to make 50 at Headingley in 2019, where he scored an unbeaten 135 to guide England to one-wicket Ashes victory.
This time, he didn’t go on. The 34-year-old was incredibly caught behind by wicketkeeper Alex Carey standing up to the stumps to Neser (5-42).
Stokes twirled his bat in the air in disbelief before striding back to the pavilion. Smith took two more catches as England’s lower-order crumbled.
Australia won the series-opening test on Day 2. At least the second test went four.
“Very disappointing,” Stokes said. “A lot of it, to me, comes down to not being able to stand up to the pressure of this format when the game is on the line. In small passages we’ve been able to bring the game back into some kind of control, and then we’ve let it slip away.”
England has been criticized for its bowling attack failing to hit the right lengths consistently, for its dropped catches and for its top-order again throwing away wickets chasing fast and furious runs.
“We need to think a bit harder and a little bit deeper about those moments,” Stokes said, “and show a little bit more fight when it’s needed.”
Starc performance
Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc was voted player of the match for the second time in the series, following his 10-wicket haul in Perth with six wickets in England’s first innings in Brisbane and then scoring a team-high 77 as Australia took a 177-run first-innings lead.
He took another two wickets late on Day 3, increasing his series haul to 18.
The series continues
The third test starts Dec. 17 at the Adelaide Oval with England needing a win to have any chance of reclaiming the Ashes. The fourth test starts Boxing Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Sydney will host the fifth test from Jan. 4.
