Test Match Special - The Ashes: Defiant Stokes, but England face mammoth task

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Daniel Norcross is joined by Jonathan Agnew, Glenn McGrath and former England batter Dawid Malan to review a challenging day in Adelaide with England facing a mammoth Test to keep the Ashes alive. There’s reaction from England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick and Australia spinner Nathan Lyon and a statistical round-up by Andy Zaltzman

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delivered every day. Listen to Football Daily on Spotify, to Football Daily on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the TMS podcast. from BBC Radio 5 Live. Cummins, runs in, bowls. Oh, he's caught behind.

Joe Root is out. Oh, look at his face, his expression as he walks off, pushing at that. I wonder if he needed to have played it. It's the end of the ashes for me that, I guess that's done, it's dusted, Australia, give him the earn. Right, so the second day of the third test match sees England with a deficit of 158 with just two wickets left in hand. Is this the day that finally their ashes hopes died?

We will be discussing that, trying to go through the weeds of what has been a very, very irksome day for England fans, but a brilliant day for Australia whose bowlers have dominated today. They've been absolutely nothing away. They've been superb. for England some precious few shining lights Ben Stokes the captain leading the way still there unbeaten at the close of play

a very lengthy vigil 151 balls he's faced with him Joffra Archer in an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 45 which you have to say there's probably been the brightest spot of the day and of course a fairly pugnacious knock from Harry Brooke

but also one in which he batted within himself before we go to David Milan who is with us and Glead McGraw. Agas, your sort of helicopter view of a day that's just felt flat for England, but brilliant for Australia. Yeah, started badly.

I thought England with the ball this morning were poor. They let Australia score 45 runs and those last two wickets. It will start cutting and sithing his way to another half century. England really should have come out hard. It took them a while to crank up again. I wish that Joffar Archer, Brydon Castle.

Look at Mitchell Stark. And he's out there, he's warming up. He bowls properly for at least an over. I mean, full tilt as a warm-up. And so, therefore, he comes in to bowl his first over. But actually, it's his second. He's warmed up, and he comes roaring, and he pulls at 90 miles an hour first ball.

You don't see that from England. And Archer's first ball today was 83. It's just getting out there and really getting stuck in from the word go. So that was disappointing from England's perspective that if they've gone bang, bang, knocked them over and gone out there, you just feel slightly different about the day that's ahead.

So that was a poor start. I think when you're looking at the way that England batted, you have to acknowledge that they have tried, they've really tried to bat in the way that people have been asking them to play. Whether that's been a good thing because of them, as what it's done to them, their mental state, and they're being tentative, perhaps. But they've largely fallen to good bowling.

And I think Australia's bowling today was outstanding. Crawley got a good ball for nine, duck it turned. Polly Pope, I feel really sad about that dismissal because I was talking it's at the end just now. He can bat, he can play. I've seen him score some wonderful hundreds. Why is he been reduced to that sort of shot play? Something's gone wrong somewhere with his development, with his coaching, with the environment, whatever it is. He's a better player than flicking Nathan Lyon just back in the side, straight to midwicket for three and walking off.

And then it just opens the doors, doesn't it? Because Duckett got one in the same over that turned a bit. You can't do that at number three You can't Unless he scores something remarkable In second innings I think that will be it Certainly for the wild

Rolly Pope They'll have to make a change And I don't know how good Jacob Bethel is No one does really Because he's hardly paid any cricket But he's here as a replacement And I just think that If England would lose here

They'd have to make a change And that's a real shame Root a good ball I really like the way that Harry Brooke batted Again you touched on it there But he played much more in a way That people have been asking him to play Yes, he played a wonderful stroke over extra cover for six off one of the Quicket bowlers.

But it wasn't the flailing, mad, swiping sort of a shot that we've seen in play up to now. This is a beautiful controlled shot because he's a great player. And he can bat. You know, he plays a shot like that. That was virtually chanceless the way that he played it, but incredibly skillful. More of that, please, Harry, going forwards, because you're giving yourself much more of a chance. 45 from 63 balls, that's a perfectly decent scoring rate. There we talk about Snicko, of course, but I think that's largely irrelevant.

I think today's main story is that Australia's bowling was outstanding, and England have just not being able to live up to that. That constant probing, and I said before, yesterday I have no idea how many times I use the word cut. And again this morning when England were bowling. I don't think I've said it once when Australia were bowling. That's the difference in the length that the two teams have bowled. Well, just to tidy up that. Australia added 45 runs there over like 326 and they did it with nine or 10 fours.

It was horrible to watch really. Archer's first over was pretty slothful and then cars started instead of Josh Tung, which none of us could understand. Archer it was who took the two wickets so to win with five for 53 and he did bowl splendidly throughout really apart from that first over today. Five for 53 of 20.2 overs. The standout bowler, the damage had really been done yesterday when Australia were allowed to get away. Those would have felt like bonus runs, perhaps, for Australia. But when England went out to bat, it's a real sense as that opening partnership got off to a good start, 37 in next to no time, that the pitch was flat, the day was boiling hot.

Dow and Milan is with us, and it felt like a beautiful day to bat. But it didn't turn out that way for England. Was it still a beautiful day to bat and a beautiful pitch? But just Australia were too good? I think it was. I think if you're batting on day two at Adelaide it tends to be a little bit of turn at Adelaide but generally later in the game

you have everything in your favour. Hot day, Pat Cummins just coming back from a long injury layoff so you have a lot going in your favour and I think England would be extremely disappointed to finish the day as they did. I mean England found, I say England they found a pretty good tempo up front

but then they lost those three wickets for five runs and you'd have to say it's not the driving on the up anymore it's not the cross-batted swish that Zach Crawley got out to when he was in the 70s at Brisbane it was really good bowling from Pat Cummins who's come back into the side he's not had any preparation he's not had any warm-up games but he hit his straps immediately

got one to nibble took Zach Crawley's outside edge but Ollie Pope got to ask you, Darren's just alluded it to it there is this the day the Pope died Is that it? Well, I think he's got an uphill battle there in front of him, Oli Pope. He's had a lot of chances.

He's been backed for a hell of a long time. And he has, in that time, played some exceptional innings. He has scored some phenomenal hundreds for England that everyone has looked at and gone, there is the play that you are. Unfortunately, he's not done it consistently enough in between. And I think if you look at the shot today, he'd be the most disappointed with that. It's a good wicket, as we said earlier, good day to bat. And he's just gifted Nathan Lyon, just the simplest of this.

missiles and when you're playing test cricket, you know, you're going to be facing the best bowlers. You're going to be under pressure and scrutiny and you're going to be getting good balls in your career. And the last thing you want to do is just to be gifting an offspinner, such a simple wicket as that. And especially in a crucial time in the game, we've just lost a wicket before and then suddenly you're giving momentum back to Australians. And as you said, Ben Duckett loses his wicket and that's over as well.

And suddenly you go from a really strong position to three down and you're facing the hardest battle you can. I mean, what was so sad about it, it seems to me, was that you could see his struggles. It wasn't just that ball in isolation. He played a very confused shot of a ball from Pat Cummins where the bat was just in no way. It wasn't in the right place to play the ball. Bottom hand had sort of scrunched his bat round at a weird angle, a bit like how he got out to start when he dragged on at Brisbane.

And after the first innings he played at Perth, when everything looked fine, He was still, his leaves were proper and controlled. You didn't got out LBW, and he seems to do this thing, David, where he fixates over the dismissal that he's had, and then sort of tries to play the, if you like, the battle before, thinking too much about how he got out before. I mean, how did you read it? It was a skittish, back to the skittish pope rather than the calm pope.

It was, and there's been a lot of criticism over the way he starts in the past, and it's justifiably so, you watch how he goes about it. It almost looks to me as if he's so desperate to score runs and he's trying so hard to get himself a start that he's just hanging. He's battered everything and he's too frantic in the way he wants to go about scoring. Batting is about finding your tempo. So not a temper that anyone else thinks you should be batting at, but you should find the temper that works for you, how your feet move, how you want to score, where you want to look to score, what your game plan is. And to me, it looks like he goes out every innings and it's just

I want to try and feel bad on ball and I'm going to try and get off to a good start. I'm going to 10 or 15 or 20, whatever his number is, and then sort of settle into my innings. But as you said, at Perth, he seemed composed, he left well. Since he's been, since he chopped on at Brisbane, he doesn't look like he's left well at all. It looks like he's trying to score off every ball, which is fine. The intent to score has to be there. You have to always look to score. But in Australia, if you leave really well, you have more chance of scoring runs.

The other part of this is, and I'm slightly baffled about the way England then batted afterwards. I say baffled. I want to ask you how easy it would be for the players to change their approach because Stokes made it very clear didn't he in that second innings at Brisbane that he wanted people to dig in he and Jacks just put up

some fight and he did it again today almost by setting by example and Harry Brooke I thought found that right tempo didn't he he got it just as Igas said in 45 or 63 it's that's absolutely fine but at the same time he was

raiding himself in a touch, he wasn't scoring boundaries in the way he normally would. Do you think that it's quite difficult for a side to take a different approach from the one that they've been really, you know, harking on about for the last three years and then put it into practice in a pressure situation when all of the ashes is on the line?

I think it's incredibly tricky. I think this whole team has been built around being positive, being taking a game on, being pushing the limits. I think we've been fed that by them. I think we've all been sucked in by it. we've all enjoyed watching it. That's why we've been so positive about them coming here, that they're going to come and play a different brand of cricket

than they've been playing in the previous England teams. They've got pace, their batterers are going to take the game on, they're going to put Australia under pressure, as they did in the last Asher series in England, where they managed to get two wins at the end and put Australia under a hell of a lot of pressure towards the end. So I think the disappointing thing from that point of view is that they changed the way they wanted to go about it,

which I agree to some extent that you have to look to play the conditions. You have to look to learn from your mistakes. But if you've practiced something for three years to suddenly turn around and say, actually, do you know what, let's just chuckle that away. Let's just chuck the players that we've picked to play that way and ask them to play a different way. I think that becomes incredibly hard. So that should have been a discussion that they've had before they came to Australia, that they wanted to play a tougher brand of cricket, that they were going to probably knuckle down a little bit more, that they were going to leave better. they were going to make Australia bowl more rovers

which in turn in Australia makes batting a lot easier the later you bat so to answer your question yes I think it makes incredibly difficult to change the way you're doing in the game especially with the type of play that they've picked and is it hard

to do that without actually playing a game to change it I mean do you think that the batsman should be batting more in games of cricket not just test cricket but in actual games to talk about a game plan there hard to develop a game plan in the next, isn't it? Yeah, it is, but it's a tricky one as well, as a modern player

to find the time to keep playing warm-up games and practice games as well as all the tours that you have and all the franchise tournaments. So it is incredibly difficult to find that. I would question, and there's been a lot of talk, I'd question why a lot of the players went to New Zealand for the Whiteball series. I would have said they probably should have come out to Australia and sort of parked that Whiteball series to some extent, and given that as a second string English-England team,

because there's so much depth in whiteball cricket in England that they could have taken a team out there and brought all those whiteball players to Australia and given them more time and probably had more time to prepare against the proper opposition if they were able to get that. And I know that's been the argument as well

is there's Sheffel Chill games and Australia A and what have you, who they're actually going to play against. So if they can get that scheduling right in future, I think it's going to be worth it. But the modern player does find it hard to play what is it, 15 test matches a year plus ODIs, plus T-20s,

plus franchise cricket, plus your domestic stuff when you have to play. I think they play the hundred majority of them as well now. So to then add another two warm-up games makes that schedule incredibly hard and means that you're away for longer periods of time and you're probably under a lot more pressure mentally to perform leading up to that.

David, we appreciate we've got to let you go. Thank you so much for joining us on today's podcast. And we just have to hope for some kind of a miracle tomorrow. It is, David. No way. Right, so let's go back to the way England bat is And look, I felt that they kind of got the tempo sort of right up to a point But then Australia, Glenn, bowled so much better than England

So we were thinking that this was a pitch, there was a good one, and that was run soaked And yesterday was a bit of a false dawn for England Because Australia gifted quite a lot of wickets. England didn't gift many wickets. We've talked about Oli Pope, he did. We will talk about Jamie Smith. He did. But for the most part, there was diligence in England's approach,

but there was brilliance from Australia's bowlers. Yeah, you're right there, Dan. And the way England bowled yesterday, you look at the pinch maps. It wasn't consistent bowling, making Australia play good deliveries, ball after ball after ball. Some of the shots that Australia played,

you look at that one from Manus Lubas Shane, first ball after lunch. That changed, you know, the whole tempo of their innings as well. So, yeah, you know, and then the way Australia bowed today, they just don't give you anything. You know, Mitchell Stark's been, he didn't pick up any wickets here today, but from first ball, ready to go, just balls such great areas. You know, Pat Cummins, we weren't sure how he was going to go, but just come back in the zone.

And then Scotty Bowling, you know, if there's anything in the pitch, he just finds it. And, yeah, so you're always facing good deliveries, and you've got to work out ways of how to score and get off strike and ticking the scoreboard over. and you can be positive by getting, you know, three, four, five singles each over. So you've got to know your scoring areas. And, you know, nowhere, okay, they're trying to get me out here. This is the danger point.

But, you know, occasionally I can come down and, you know, like Brooke did and hit one over the top. That's his game. Yeah, when you've got someone like Kerry coming up to the stumps, then you've got to be a little bit smarter. So, yeah, I think England, they're in that zone where they're not 100% St. Shaw what to do. You know, the plan they had when they came here to be ultra-aggressive hasn't worked on the pitches they've played on

and then they've been crucified in the media because of it. This pitch here doesn't have the same demons that they, you know, so I think their approach probably would have worked better on this pitch than Perth and Brisbane, but you've got to give credit to Australian bowlers. They know the conditions. They know where to bowl. And, yeah, so unfortunately for England, they've uh it's been another bad day for but there are different ways of putting pressure on bowlers they're simply smacking them for four aren't there i mean you've got cummins back after a huge long layoff lion still back and angry having been dropped and obviously he's two away from your your record and all that sort of stuff so you don't gift the wickets you keep in coming in case you keep running in mate you haven't bowler you haven't played since july yeah have a few hours out there see how you get on nathan lion i'm not going to chip a catch to midwicket you'll be searching for these wickets put some pressure on you that way it's not

all about smacking them for fours and sixes it's getting into those bowler's heads as well that is how Pope got out but actually the way Crawley got out was a lovely bit of ball a lovely bit of bowling the way Brooke got out is a lovely bit of bowling so how is it that an Australian can come into the side

three months after playing his last game and look as if he has been well prepared and has played four or five games he's a good bowler because he's six well this is my point because he's a world class bowling Australia might just dare we say it just be better I mean, you look at the number of wickets that are out there.

But this is the point about the first two tests. You know, without Cummins, Hazelwood is also a world-class bowler. Lyon at Brisbane, you know, these are the opportunities that have been missed. Mitch Stark is a world-class bowler, and he's been head and shoulders above everybody up until, actually, this are things,

but I thought out-bowled him, despite having not played for a while, but Cummins is special. So, you know, that's why we go back to the missed opportunities of those first two tests. And then the other thing on top of that, the way Nathan Lion bowled. He bowled it tight.

He knows this ground really, really well. He bowled good areas, and he held up one end and allowed the fast bowlers from the other end to bowl in short, sharp burst. They were ready to go from ball one. So that was Australia's game plan. And unfortunately, for England, again, they couldn't get them away from that.

They didn't really take Lion on to hit him out of the attack to make the fast bowlers ball more from this end. So, yeah, it's just about adapting, being match aware and yeah just different things like that I mean it's also having fabulous skills all round

isn't it because let's face it the wicked of Will Jax he's almost blameless on Will Jax he's done very little wrongs to that ball he's got a seam bowler who's come in and bowled a baller's jagged back he's got a big inside edge

he can't be LVW it's bounced off his inner thigh but unbelievably Alex Carey is standing up to the medium fast bowler and with brilliant reflexes and game awareness he dies forward and takes a catch that 99 times out of 100

Will Jacks has actually got enough bat on that to save himself. You can bet your life there's probably only one other wicket-keeper in the world who could have been standing up at that stage and that's, yeah. Ben Foote's. Yes. It's Smith's senior partner, as it were,

because they wouldn't be standing up. No one else would be standing up. Care is brilliant. Just the gameplay of that is, and to have Bowlin nagging away, and the keeper standing up behind it, chumtering away, that's, yeah, that's all part of the game. But no, I think Jack can consider himself very unlikely. He really didn't do a lot wrong.

It was just the brilliance of Kerry that got him out. I mean, not many of them did do a lot wrong. And I'm afraid this is the moment when we're going to have to go into Snicko world, because Snicko really tally head again. I don't want to talk too much about it because we did it yesterday. The top line is Snicko is a mess. One of the Australian players said that it needed to be sacked. It was the worst technology ever.

this was Australians being upset right when there was a thoroughly confusing passenger play when Jamie Smith punched the ball it seemed but it was decided that it actually hit his helmet because Snicko got it all wrong all the time was McGuadja hadn't taken a clean catch anyway so it was totally unnecessary for us to go through it so that was a farce

and then he plays look at it's a poor shot one of the few really poor shots played today Jamie Smith having hit a six and a four over deep midwicket gets a short one does a bit of a crawley at Brisbane swishes across a waist-high ball he thinks he's missed it

Snicko shows the edge sometime different from where we see the ball and the bat At least we thought it was it we think it shows an edge I mean the big difference Dan

is that the ones that we're used to at home and in ICC cricket which is supplied by Hawkeye give you a proper jack bang bang there is no doubt that that is an edge part of the problem here is you get a sort of a smudge sometimes other times you get a jag, the one that Cummins got too, into his thigh pad.

Nice big jag, thanks very much indeed. So therefore if there's a jag for that time, why isn't it a big jaggedy one for the other times? Instead of a mush, there's something wrong with it. My own thought is that the ICC makes an absolute fortune out of all sorts of aspects of the game. It should be supplying the best quality DRS. It insists on DRS,

because the problem is, like here and like everywhere, it's the host television company that provide the system. Now, the host television company has probably paid millions and millions of dollars anyway just for the rights to broadcast it. They're going to look for, to cut a few corners somewhere. They're going to maybe not, you know, you get two quotes to supply the DRS and you think, well, they're charging so much, but they're charging 20% more. Well, we'll probably go for the cheaper system, save some money.

And that's, I'm not saying that is what has happened here, but they've ended up with an inferior product. which is a domestic product and therefore probably cheaper than the one that have come in internationally. Probably, but you never know. No, you don't know. They might have spent more on an inferior product.

You just don't know. Let's get some reaction, though, from the England Camp Assistant coach, Marcus Drosthik. We've been speaking. Well done. He's been speaking to Henry Moran. What do you make of what we've seen today? Yeah, another tough day.

Obviously, in the heat here. Obviously, some of the guys fought really well. Obviously, Ben's innings, sort of re-digging in and sort of lasting out of the day and sort of survive as long as you could. Obviously, struggling a little bit of crap because of the heat. But again, we're behind the game a little bit. Obviously, Australia bowed well and put us under pressure. And, you know, we've got a bit of work to do tomorrow to try and find a way to, you know,

get into a total that we're happy with or feel like we can then compete in the second innings and then work out the game from there. There are many that say, how does this happen? This is an England team that were expected to come to a second. Australia really compete and despite the different methods, different plans, the different ways of trying to get into matches, the same failings time and again. Yeah, you know, I know we've talked about it before as the fact that we haven't been good enough or long enough potentially in certain games and certain periods.

I thought, you know, Australia's bowling on that pitch today was, you know, was pretty good and I thought the way they went about it, obviously, Nathan Lyme, was into the game early and got a couple of early wickets. And we just, you know, we're working at it. and we're trying to do and find solutions and work at ways of doing it. We've just got to be better for longer and keep sustaining our approach and our attitude to what we're trying to do. And what is that approach and attitude? Well, I think you can see in different ways.

We've tried to adjust and read situations. We're always trying to be positive. We're always trying to apply pressure back into the game and get ahead of games and put games in, put ourselves in the front seat. And sometimes you have to adapt and you can see the world. and you can see the way that Ben has played today and obviously he's decided to play in that fashion and dug in it, dug in and tried to sort of scrap through. Other times we're aggressive and we try and put our position on the back foot. Ollie Polk's dismissal looked like a man devoid of confidence. Where's his game at at the moment?

Yeah, I don't think it's quite at that point where he's devoid of confidence. I think, you know, he's obviously really disappointed, didn't get the runs he wanted to get and found it tough, but it kind of goes. It kind of goes like that. If you get a couple of low scores, obviously the pressure sort of comes on and we appreciate that's what it's like. But, you know, he'll still work hard overnight or we'll come back tomorrow, kind of come with a game plan of thinking about the second innings, and then try and put that in the place and try and get some runs there. Again, the technology has been a big discussion point. What have you made of it? Well, interesting, of course. I think there's many things that have happened over the couple of days. We're kind of in the position of like, we are where we are with it.

not something that we can really dwell on. Of course it's not been ideal. You're never really quite sure what's going on. But at the end of the day, you've got to try to put your trust and your faith in what the umpires decide and the match referees decide. And then if that's wrong or if it's different that we're unhappy with it, then the powers of be behind the scenes can obviously make that decision. But it's not ideal. You know, the one in the first and is with Alex Carey is what it is.

what it is and these unfortunate things do arise in different series along the way but we're trying to just remain as focus as we can on the boys trying to keep them in the right frame of mind with the job that we've got to do and let the rest of it sort of look after itself is it good enough for a major series like this I think you always want consistency with whatever that technology is you know there's so many people talk about well we should have this type of technology or this technology we should use this company I don't think we're We're really attuned to know what's the right way to do it.

You know, we're cricket coaches, cricket players. And at the end of day, like I say, we just want consistency in whatever that is. And if we get that right, then the game is going to be better for it. Many people said this was the defining game of this era of English cricket in test matches. At the moment, it's not going England's way. I mean, what's the feeling in that dressing room? Of course, you know, we understand that we're behind the game again, you know, understandably that you know you feel disappointed but you know we're still in the

game and we're still fighting for as long as we can and Ben has played well joffers played really nicely there the ball's soft well they got another 10 11 overs I think with this ball before we get the second new ball so you know we'll keep working we're still fighting it's not dead and buried just yet just finally there's a lot of England fans that have paid a lot of money made long journey shown a lot of commitment to this England side for this Ashes series what's your message to them because there'll be some very disappointed fans I'm sure and And it's never easy, obviously, you know,

obviously watching us lose and, you know, we feel it as much as anybody else. But my feeling is still the same. You know, we're really appreciative of the support we get from everybody that come over here and watch it. It's a wonderful place. And the series have been brilliant with all the crowds and everybody's sort of spectator.

Of course, we're disappointed as everybody else is that we've not quite hit the mark that we wanted to. Hopefully we can still do our best and still keep working at that to try and put smiles on their faces. Marcus, thanks for your time. Cheers. The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible.

Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a weighting depth of 900 millimeters and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at landrover.ca. This month in football, everything is up for grabs. The Premier League battles intensify, the Champions League reaches its crucial turning point, and the World Cup draw sets the stage for the biggest tournament on earth. Football Daily from the BBC brings you sharp analysis, instant reaction, expert insight, and the stories driving the game on and off the pitch.

Your essential football podcast delivered every day. Listen to Football Daily on Spotify, to Football Daily on BBC.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're still fighting, we're still in the game. We're not dead and buried, Agers. Well, well, as we say, I mean, it's a horrible situation again, isn't it where a coach gets wheeled out, you know, to just to try and just satisfy the media, really, and keep the needles twitching for a while,

but it's an impossible job, isn't it? I mean, he knows. Yes, England are still in the game, but it's going to need a Stokes 100, you'd think, or something near close to that, to get the lead down to something remotely manageable, you know, 70 or 80. The double figures generally?

Just gives them a sniff, does it? Well, I mean, it gives you a sniff if they come out, you know, and really get amongst the wickets. But these bowlers have had no rest again. I mean, they're bowling today. And they're out there again tomorrow. This is another failing of the way that England have played in recent years. Their bowlers have no rest.

They have no respite. They can't recharge battery. before they know it they're out there bowling again I mean Joffra I think it worked out was he was off the field for six hours was it from walking off having bowled to when he's batting again and if it had gone bang bang and he'd lost the last two weeks he'd been out bowling again tonight and that's just unacceptable

you know it is not it is not sensible it is it is it's just not well thought through is it's bad planning to give your bowlers that little opportunity to refresh and come back and yes save the game again, pull the rabbit out of the hat. The last word on England before we move on. Stokes

didn't though, did he? Stokes obviously sees the benefit, the need of staying out there. 45 of 151 balls, I dare say before we go off air Andy's odds would be able to tell us where that stands in the attritional nature. The only thing I'd say about that is that

yes, I understand that, but Stokes does have the luxury of doing it later on. You know, they've set this tone of the bouncement to come out. there and be positive and smack it about. It is not the first time by a long chalk that that has failed and Stokes has gone out there and played this very defensive sort of innings. Now, would he do that if he was batting at number three, say?

I'm not saying he should bat at number three, but I'm just saying that the bats when he go in before it are expected and have been expected to go out there and seize the game by the scuffling, go out and attack the bowling. And when it's gone wrong, then Stokes has played like this. Well, that's nice for him to be able to do that. some of those up ahead of him have not been able to do that it was a bit of a reverse when dear old geoffrey was playing it'd block it for hours and those lower down the order

he and both of them go would have to go out there and smack it about to try and get up the run rate and so on and that's what ian both would say anyway so yeah i mean i admire the way that he's played he's shown a lot of discipline and a little determination but is that the message that the other players could have gone out there with at the start of the innings

and now a landmark was reached today by an Australian cricketer he became the second leading wicket taker for Australia Nathan Lyon and he did it in his first day he came on on 562 wickets and a man sitting next to me at 563

still has 563 but within seven minutes Nathan Lyon had leapfrogged you up to 564 just just give us a bit of a tribute to Nathan Lyon because a 560 wickets, he's colossal. That's what the fifth leading wicket taker of all time. Yeah, so he's unbelievable bowler.

Six, I beg his boss. Yeah. So, you know, he deserves to be in that number two posse. He's been an amazing bowler for Australia for a long, long time. He's been out there, what is it, 141 test matches? Absolutely incredible. And he gets better every year. You know, he knows his craft so well.

He bowls well in Australian conditions. He's liked the newer ball to get that bounce. he's found ways to take wickets. So, yeah, he's had to wait a little while, but when it came, it came in one over. And, you know, he's now at 564 wickets. And, yeah, very, very deserved. He'll be remembered as one of the greats.

You know, easily the greatest off-spin bowl Australia's seen. You know, it's hard to go past Warnie. He was something pretty special. But Nathan Lyon is pretty special in this team and for him to get that 564th wicket today. I think is very special and, you know, I'm really happy for him. He deserves it. Great bowler, great cricketer for Australia.

Leads the team song. So he's a massive part of this team. And we saw when he got left out in Brisbane, he was, he wasn't? He was filthy. So, yeah, to come out and get those wickets early. And, you know, it's probably been in the back of his mind. Now he can just focus on going out there and playing. And, yeah, no, I'm really happy for him.

Well, I'm pretty sure he wasn't filthy when he gave his show. his thoughts on the day. It's been a pretty tough day. Nice and hot out there, but yeah, it's nice to contribute and finally get into the series. What was the key for you? I just bow my best ball and keep doing the basics really well. There's no secret behind what I do.

So it's just about doing the basics for long periods of time and hopefully carry a bit of pressure. Must have enjoyed that one to Benducket. Yeah, that was a nice one. Searing hot conditions. How was it out there for the rest of the boys? I'm pretty proud about the way the guys are gone about it. Pat's been phenomenal as captain as always

but the effort from our fast bowlers to get them 8 for 213 off 60 overs it's a pretty big effort so rest up recover and we have another crack in the morning We're in a great position are you on for ice baths? Oh I'm going to need to

All the best Thanks Nathan and well done once again Well if Nathan needs an ice bath Do you think the fast bowlers That need them as well wouldn't you Glenn And especially Pat Cummins So just a quick thought on Cummins before we go to Zoltz because

I said earlier it's all about preparations coming in not being undercooked he looked he looked absolutely perfect and just bashed out of length yeah so I was curious to see how he how we go because the first test

against England last year I thought our bowlers were a little bit underdone and it showed in that first test and Australia lost that one over in Perth but Pat Cummins I think he to be honest I think he would have been ready to go in Brisbane so he's been ready to go for a while

he's been, you know, bowling a fair few overs in the nets, but that is never the same as out in the middle. And, yeah, he's got good control. He knows the game well. The last thing Australia wanted to do was to be complacent. So he wanted to hit the ground running and got the balls in the right area. And I think that early wicket of Crawley was not a bad delivery. That just helps you relax and get into your innings.

And he did that today. I thought he bowled well. Yeah, Mitchell Stark still bowed well, but there wasn't as much movement in the air and what have you. So, yeah, Pat Cummins, he's a class player, and he hit the ground running. And he also took the wicket of Joe Root. We're going to let you go, Glenn, because I think Andy Zaltzman, as we do a little stat round up, Cummins getting Root,

is something that's happened quite a bit, isn't it? Yes, that was the 12th time Cummins has dismissed Joe Root in test for a total of 292 runs. A route averages 24 against Cummins. which is, well, obviously, less than half of his overall career average of 51. Ollie Pope out to Nathan Lyon for the fourth time in tests for just 37 runs. I think it's right

three for five against Lyon in Australia. Jamie Pope now 15 innings against Australia yet to reach 50. Only one other England top order specialist batter has ever had as many innings at the start of his Ashes career without reaching 50 and that was MJK Smith.

back in the 1960s. Jamie Smith's form since he reached a thousand runs in just his 21st innings, the joint fastest of wicketkeeper ever reached a thousand test runs. He was averaging 58 at that point. He's got 101 runs in his next

nine innings. You mentioned the different style of England batting today. He lost six wickets to defensive shots out of the eight to fall. Over the course of the Basball era, they've lost around one in four wickets to defensive. shots so that's well above average and if they lose two to defensive shots tomorrow it will set

a basball record for most wickets to defensive shots in innings they've had a couple of innings where they lost seven one of them in uh in uh um vizika patnam in india the other against india old trafford last uh last summer so yes it's not gone particularly well ben stokes is 451 unbeaten so far England scores in the last 10 years of innings scores after 150 balls that's the joint fifth lowest score by an England player in the last 10 years at the 150 ballmark and the joint second lowest

in the first innings of a test more positive for England Joffre Archer 5 for 53 the rest of the bowlers between them five for more than 300 this third five wicket hall against Australia had two in his debut series in 2019 just his seventh test against Australia The last England bowler who had three fifers in the first seven tests of his Ashes career

was Ken Farms in the 1930s Essex Fast Bowler. So not a lot of good stats for England, better for Australia. Let's focus on Nathan Lyon. 564 wickets now past Glenn McGraw in that dramatic first over. Only the seventh time since 1904 in Ashes cricket a bowler has taken two wickets in his first over. of an innings. The difference between him and Will Jaxx, we've got Nathan Lyon, as Glenn was saying,

one of the all-time great exponents of off-spin, Will Jackson novice, who's taken his 50th first-class wicket during the course of this series. Jack's, about one in six of his balls yesterday, was dropped short, and what the Crip Biz data defines is short for a spinner. Lion, just under 4%,

so it was one in 25 of his balls, rather than one in six. Four times as... Yeah, he also bowled straighter, got quite considerably more drift and a bit more turn as well, but we're not really comparing like with like here. So you have Jacks, I think, did credibly

in the circumstances. And Alex Carey 100 yesterday, five catches today, only the 10th wicket keeper in test history to have a century and an innings with five catches in it in the same game. only the second in Ashes cricket often mapped prior at the SCG

in the 2010-11 series Absolutely brilliant Well there we go That was a stat attack Wouldn't it be great if tomorrow We get another stat attack Highest ninth-ficket partnership For England at Adelaide

Because there is an unbroken Nine-Ficket Partnership ongoing A partnership of 45 Between Joffra Archer Who has unbeaten on 30 And Ben Stokes Who has 45 and has dug in As the captain

England are going to need to find Well at least 50 or 60 more runs absolute minimum tomorrow you would think and then they're going to have to bowl very, very well and it's due to be hot again tomorrow but not as hot as today which may be these are small crumbs

of comfort. Thanks Andy you can watch clips of the action on the BBC Sport website and app with our full highlights show on BBC IPlayer every day of the series from 5pm the TMS Ashes debrief with Alex Hartley is on BBC IPlay with Michael Vaughn and Glenn McGr

and we're back on air tonight from 11 p.m. for the third day from here in Adelaide. This is the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. This month in football, everything is up for grabs. The Premier League battles intensify, the Champions League reaches its crucial turning point, and the World Cup draw sets the stage for the biggest tournament on earth. Football Daily from the BBC brings you sharp analysis,

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