Australia stormed to an eight-wicket victory in the second Ashes test on Sunday to take a 2-0 series lead as England succumbed on day four to a pace blitz from unlikely hero Michael Neser.<\/p>\n
Helped by the catching magic of home captain Steve Smith, 35-year-old Neser finished with 5-42 in his first test in three years, leaving the hosts needing 65 runs to win the day-night match at the Gabba.<\/p>\n
While Gus Atkinson grabbed two wickets, opener Jake Weatherald (17 not out) and number four batter Smith (23 not out) mowed down the target after the dinner-break, condemning England to a 15th defeat in their last 17 tests in Australia.<\/p>\n
England seamer Jofra Archer had a heated exchange with Smith in the middle but ended up getting smashed for two fours and a six by the fired-up skipper.<\/p>\n
Smith sealed the win in style, thumping Atkinson for six over deep square to trigger a huge roar from home fans in the crowd of 27,888.<\/p>\n
\u201cArcher was obviously bowling pretty quick and there was a short boundary behind me,\u201d said Smith. \u201cI thought I would try to get hold of a few, particularly as I heard there was a storm coming so I wanted to get things done.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I said to Archer stays on the field. It was good banter. He is a good competitor and comes hard at you.\u201d<\/p>\n
England skipper Ben Stokes described the test as \u201cvery disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot comes down to not being able to stand up to the pressure of this game,\u201d said Stokes. \u201c(We) need to think harder mentally, and show more fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Adelaide to come and three matches left in the series, Stokes will refuse to concede that the urn is lost after battling hard in a 152-ball 50.<\/p>\n
But it would take something extraordinary to win it from here.<\/p>\n
Only one team has ever come back from 2-0 down to win a series in nearly 150 years of test cricket – Don Bradman\u2019s Australia in the home Ashes of 1936\/37.<\/p>\n
In Brisbane, Stokes\u2019s England showed their fans little to suggest a Bradman-esque effort is within them this tour.<\/p>\n
Australia, meanwhile, may only get stronger.<\/p>\n
Their Brisbane attack was third-string at best, with the dogged but unexceptional trio of Scott Boland, Neser and Brendan Doggett supporting the outstanding Starc.<\/p>\n
Champion quick Pat Cummins and elite spinner Nathan Lyon will likely return at Adelaide Oval from injury and non-selection, respectively.<\/p>\n
As it was, the duo were hardly needed.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s pacers did their work late on day three, leaving England needing another 44 runs to make the hosts bat again when they resumed on 134 for six.<\/p>\n
Stokes and all-rounder Will Jacks deserved credit for batting through the entire first session and pushing England past 200.<\/p>\n
But as the overs wore on, the Gabba wicket showed more uneven bounce, and Stokes was doubled over in agony when a Neser delivery caught an edge and cannoned into his groin.<\/p>\n
He got up to cut a single off Doggett and raise his fifty, bringing England fans to their feet to applaud.<\/p>\n
It took Smith to turn the match back in Australia\u2019s favour with a stunning slips catch to dismiss Jacks for 41 and trigger an England batting collapse.<\/p>\n
Smith leapt to his left to take a one-handed screamer above the grass when the England number eight nicked Neser behind, ending a 96-run stand with his Stokes.<\/p>\n
England duly crumbled, losing 4-17 to be all out for 241.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia stormed to an eight-wicket victory in the second Ashes test on Sunday to take a 2-0 series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-332998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}