Yet again, England’s cricketers are up against it.
Having lost the opening Ashes Test in Brisbane, the chances of them pulling level in Adelaide are already looking incredibly slim.
Despite losing Peter Handscomb with just the third ball of day two, Australia dominated, eventually declaring with a score of 442-8. Shaun Marsh top scored, remaining unbeaten on 126.
Marsh could (and should) have been out having just made his century. A bouncer from Chris Woakes caught him by surprise, and as it looped up off his bat it seemed a certain catch.
It was not to be…
Dropping between Alastair Cook and James Vince, both went for the catch and collided with each other. Although Cook got both hands to the ball, it was knocked out of his grasp by Vince and trickled away from the pair. An incident which summed up England’s day.
🙃🙃🙃
If there's one clip to sum up England's day so far…#Ashes pic.twitter.com/rYdYD7yhxW
— Cricket on TNT Sports (@cricketontnt) December 3, 2017
England didn’t make the best of starts to their own first innings, either – Mark Stoneman going for lbw from Mitch Starc.
Fortunately, the rain – possibly the best thing to happen from an English point of view all day – stopped play in the ninth over. At that point, England were 29-1.
