Dominant Australia strike regularly to take control of Adelaide Test

Australia took a decisive step towards regaining the Ashes with a collective and dominant bowling performance that left England buried under a mountain of first-innings runs at the Adelaide Oval. At the end of the second day of this third Test, the visitors were 213 for 8, trailing Australia's total by 158.

In what's been a recurring theme of the eight days of this series so far, England's moments of apparent strength have evaporated in brutal fashion, flipping from control to chaos before Ben Stokes' side can register what's hit them. The visitors had every reason to feel ascendant after claiming eight wickets on Day 1 despite losing the toss on a friendly surface, only to watch Mitchell Starc orchestrate a tail wag that dragged Australia to 371 before their own batting crumbled under sustained pressure.

The latest collapse even rendered Jofra Archer's five-fer to footnote status. Following the overblown scrutiny of his battle with Steve Smith in Brisbane's dying moments, Archer delivered a fine bowling performance: bowling more overs (20.2), more maidens (5) and at a better economy (2.60) than any of his teammates under Adelaide's scorching sun, only to be summoned again before close to salvage the innings with bat in hand.

Essentially, Archer needs a series like Starc's, and even that might not suffice given the gulf in support. Starc, for the record, added no wickets to his series haul of 18 but scored back-to-back Test fifties for the first time in his career, more than doing his part. Perhaps the way he drove on the up in the day's opening overs lulled England into false security. But with Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon restored to the XI, Australia wielded a deeper, more accurate attack than the visitors could withstand.

England began well enough, relatively at least, denying Starc a first-over wicket and reaching the end of five overs unscathed while hitting four boundaries. Then Cummins proved why he remains one of the best in the business despite not sending down a ball competitively since July. He angled one on a seven-metre length into Zak Crawley, extracted just enough movement to find the edge, and broke the opening stand.

It was then the turn of another player who'd been stuck on 562 wickets for five months, having missed two of Australia's last three Tests, to leap back into the limelight. Lyon needed just six balls in Adelaide to surge past Glenn McGrath into second place and behind only Shane Warne on Australia's all-time list. First, he had the under-fire Ollie Pope chipping a simple catch to mid-wicket. To dismiss Duckett, he produced a peach that drifted in slightly, forced the left-hander to press forward in defence, then spun away to clip the top of off.

England were lucky not to be four down by Lunch when Joe Root edged Boland behind, but third umpire Chris Gaffney deemed the ball hadn't carried to Alex Carey in a 50-50 decision. Australia also lost a review despite the clear edge, having challenged Ahsan Raza's initial not-out call which was based on Root not hitting it.

But it didn't take long after the break for Australia to claim that fourth wicket. Cummins caught Root on the crease in defence and found the edge, dismissing the star England batter for the 12th time in Test cricket. Like he'd done in the second innings at the Gabba, Ben Stokes hunkered down, trying to force the Australians back for more spells under the searing heat. He was struck on the helmet by Starc and didn't score his first boundary for 36 balls but held his end while Harry Brook kept nibbling away at the deficit with little more proactiveness.

Australia's bowling depth came to the fore when the 56-run stand was eventually broken. Cameron Green struck gold when he got Brook to edge at a length ball and fall five short of a half-century in what was a more steady, by his standards, knock. Jamie Smith, however, stayed true to his style and cracked three fours and a six in a 26-ball innings before under-edging a pull to give Cummins his third wicket on return. However, his dismissal, and the event leading into it, supplied more fuel to the Snicko fire.

For the dismissal, the spike on the Snicko came a frame after the ball had passed bat. Before that, Smith appeared to have gloved a Cummins delivery to the 'keeper. Nitin Menon sent the decision upstairs to check if the ball had carried (without an Australian review). Despite a clear deflection and visible movement of the glove, the Snicko didn't line up and third umpire Gaffaney concluded the ball had deflected off Smith's helmet, prompting Menon to subject him to a concussion check, much to Australia's bemusement. Starc even made his feelings known via the stump mic when he called for Snicko's sacking.

All of that only momentarily distracted from England's capitulation. Scott Boland then joined the fun by dismissing Will Jacks and Brydon Carse, the former courtesy a terrific catch from Carey standing up to the stumps. Carey became the first 'keeper since Matt Prior in 2011 to score a century and take five catches in the same Ashes Test. When Boland cleaned up Carse with a nip-backer, England were still two runs adrift of avoiding the follow-on. But Archer and Stokes saved them the blushes for the moment with a defiant 45-run stand, seeing off 83 balls before close of play.

Brief scores:England 213/8 (Harry Brook 45, Ben Stokes 45*; Pat Cummins 3-54, Nathan Lyon 2-51) trail Australia 371 (Alex Carey 106, Usman Khawaja 82, Mitchell Starc 54; Archer 5-53) by 158 runs