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Ashes Timeline - 1st Test, day 2: Australia establish 196-run lead at the Gabba

Travis Head struck a rapid century as Australia established a huge lead over England on day two in Brisbane

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Sam Morshead | 09/12/2021 at 07:30

Australia reached 343 for 7 at the close on day two of the first Ashes Test at the Gabba, having dismissed England for 147 on day one.

Here is how the day unfolded...

9.27am local (11.27pm GMT): Right then, here we go. After the heavy rainstorms of last night comes the tranquil calm and glorious blue skies of today.

England must be looking at the heavens and quietly swearing. Or loudly, that would be understandable too.

David Warner and Marcus Harris jog to the wicket and, back in England, a lot of people will be thinking very dark thoughts. 

9.31am: (0.1 overs, Australia 1-0) Zoooooom. David Warner is off the mark with a rapid single from his first delivery.

He knocks the ball into the covers off the back foot and takes off like a 100-yard sprinter out of the blocks.

Ben Stokes chucks the ball into his back for good measure and he’s not bothered at all. 

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David Warner in action for Australia (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

9.38am: (2.0 overs, Australia 4-0) Ollie Robinson’s first over in Ashes cricket is a maiden, and England fans should at least take some encouragement from the fact the Sussex seamer drew Harris into several false shots, moving the ball off the seam rather than in the air. 

9.52am: WICKET (5.2 overs, Australia 10-1) Robinson is widely viewed as the closest thing England have to Josh Hazlewood and, though down on speed, he has largely lived up to that reputation this morning. Now, he has his first Ashes wicket.

It’s a good length, tempting Harris to push forward and catching the outside edge. Dawid Malan takes a tumbling catch at third slip. England probably need at least two more in this session to keep themselves in the game, but you could not have asked more of Robinson so far this morning.

10.29am: (12.2 overs, Australia 30-1) Ben Stokes is into the action, following on from Mark Wood who has just delivered an absolutely rapid spell.

And with his third delivery, Stokes very nearly has a wicket. It’s a similar delivery to that which dismissed Harris, with Warner having a prod at a ball just outside his off stump which lifts a little, catches the outside edge and spills wide of Malan in the slips. So close.

10.32am: (12.3 overs, Australia 31-1) Oh no. Stokes has knocked over Warner’s middle stump in his first over, the ball jagging off the Gabba surface and breaching the opener’s defences, but he has over-stepped by a couple of inches.

It’s a no ball, and Stokes knew it.

That’s not the first time Warner has experienced such a reprieve in an Ashes Test - remember the Boxing Day match at the MCG in 2017 and Tom Curran? And, remarkably, it is the sixth time he has been dismissed off a no ball in Tests.

Instinctively, as Englishmen, we all know what comes next, don’t we? Nailed on century.

The replays show the three deliveries prior to that no ball were also oversteps, but no call from either standing umpire Rod Tucker or TV ump Paul Wilson.

Ricky Ponting describes it as “pathetic officiating” on Channel 7 in Australia, while former ICC elite panel umpire Simon Taufel says he “can’t explain why they weren’t called”.

11.16am: (21.2 overs, Australia 47-1) So close but yet so far once more for England. The tourists have bowled well, their plans have been well defined, but nothing is quite carrying or sticking.

This time, Labuschagne pulls at Stokes and Ollie Pope - positioned in an unusual short fine leg - tumbles to his right but the ball drops just in front of him.

Nothing going for England, Australia are just 100 runs shy of their guests’ first-innings score. 

11.33am: (23.6 overs, Australia 66-1) Jack Leach is into the attack after Australia suddenly find a flow of runs, and Warner immediately looks to take the attack to the left-arm spinner.

Obvious intent from the Aussie opener, not allowing Leach - who does not have a lot of cricket under his belt over the past 18 months - to settle.

11.41am: (26.1overs, Australia 83-1) Warner has deposited Leach down the ground for two sixes in three balls, the first a check drive, the second a smooth swing at the end of a quick shimmy down the pitch. Ominous. 

11.53am: (28.5 overs, Australia 105-1) Uh oh. Stokes chases after a straight drive from Labuschagne off Leach but appears to pull up a little and hobbles back to his place in the field. That would be quite the end to the session for England.

11.55am: FIFTY FOR LABUSCHAGNE (29.1 overs, Australia 109-1) Labuschagne leans back and chops Woakes for four through backward point to go to a 71-ball half-century. He and Warner have been like runaway trains over the past half-hour or so. It is Labuschagne's 11th half-century in Tests, he also has five hundreds. 

Midday: (31 overs, Australia 113-1) That'll be lunch, it is will be a very happy one for Australia. England were excellent for the first two hours of this extra-long session but lost their way somewhat in the final half-hour, and that has allowed Warner and Labuschagne to settle in. 

This Kookaburra ball will only get easier to face from now on in, and despite all the half-chances they create, there is not a lot for England to look forward to after the break.

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Marnus Labuschagne in action at the Gabba (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

12.43pm: (31.5 overs, Australia 115-1) Oh dear. England get their chance straight after lunch and make an absolute hash of it.

Robinson catches the outside edge of Warner’s bat and it flies through to Rory Burns at second slip at a perfectly catchable height. But Burns doesn’t really get anywhere near taking it cleanly and it goes to ground.

It’s been a Test to forget for the Surrey batsman so far. That’s two lives for Warner.

12.50pm: FIFTY FOR WARNER (32.6 overs, Australia 118-1) It has been far from his most fluent innings but Warner has his 31st Test fifty to go with 24 hundreds. It’s been littered with half-chances and those two big lives - bowled off a Stokes no ball and dropped by Burns - but he is still there and, for as long as he is, England will be driven further into the Gabba dirt.

1.11pm: (36.6 overs, Australia 128-1) Huge chance again for England to get rid of Warner, who tucks the ball of his toes into the legside where it is scooped up at the second attempt by Haseeb Hameed at short leg.

Warner, who has set off for a single. As the Aussie tries to about-face, he loses his balance and his grip on his bat. Stranded, prostrate on a good length, he can only watch as Hameed misses the stumps from three metres away. Warner has now enjoyed reprieves on 17, 48 and 60.

England are conspiring to make a difficult experience much worse than it needed to be.

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Haseeb Hameed misses a run out chance against Warner (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

1.48pm: AUSTRALIA LEAD (44.1 over, Australia 148-1) Warner picks off Woakes to long leg for two and the hosts move past England’s meagre first-innings total with nine wickets in hand, under clear skies and with two world-class batsmen set. It’s the stuff of dreams… if you’re Aussie.

2.02pm: 150 PARTNERSHIP (47 overs, Australia 160-1) Warner and Labuschagne have lived very different lives in this innings - one somewhat by the seat of his pants at times, the other with a carefree ease of a man utterly in control of the opposition - but the combined effect has been devastating. 

2.04pm: WICKET (47.2 overs, Australia 166-2) Remember what was just said about Marnus Labuschagne - utterly in control of the opposition and all - yeah… scrap that. He’s out.

Going hard against Leach, moments after carting the spinner down the ground for six, he attempts to cut but only chips to Hameed at point.

England might have been excited for a moment, but then they will have caught sight of a certain Mr Smith walking towards them. 

2.20pm: (50.2 overs, Australia 183-2) Wood is adamant he has Smith trapped lbw, playing back on the crease.

The ball strikes Smith above the kneeroll and not out is the decision on the field. It looks really quite marginal but Root sends it upstairs for review, where DRS shows the impact took place outside off stump. Review lost. 

2.22pm: (50.3 overs, Australia 184-2) Another chance for England. Smith pushes Wood into the legside and sets off for a single only to find himself running straight at Wood. His sidestep to evade the England quick leaves him well shy of his ground and a direct hit from Malan would have seen him gone.

He’s still there, though, and that’s all you need to know.

2.34pm: WICKET (52.6 overs, Australia 189-3) Wood has the big wicket of Smith. The Australia No.4 plays an unusually tentative shot, nudging at a short ball, and a thin edge carries through to Buttler. This is just reward for Wood, who has been charging in all day and regularly topping 90mph. 

A much needed boost for England before tea.

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Steve Smith walks off after being dismissed by Mark Wood (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

3.05pm: WICKET (55.2 overs, Australia 195-4) Well now. England continue to wrestle their way back into the contest. The ball stops a little in the deck, possibly striking an indentation on the surface, and Warner is through his shot so early he got there yesterday. Stokes takes a tumbling catch at cover and Warner hauls himself off with a glare at the pitch, six shy of a 25th Test ton. 

3.08pm: WICKET (55.3 overs, Australia 195-5) Here’s to you, Ollie Robinson. Is 10 past five and they’re going nuts back home. A-woh-oh-oh. Robinson gets two in two, this excellent delivery nipping in slightly off the seam and kissing the top of off stump as Cameron Green tries to let it pass through to Buttler. Now that’s the breakfast TV we’re talking about. 

3.52pm: WICKET (64.4 overs Australia 236-6) Travis Head and Alex Carey had been steadily taking the game out of England’s reach but the tourists’ fingernails are still scratching around for something to hold on to. Chris Woakes picks up his first wicket of the series, as Carey tries to pull but catches the ball on the toe of the bat and finds a leaping Pope at midwicket.

4.21pm: FIFTY FOR HEAD (70.1 overs, Australia 261-6) This is a really important knock in the context of the game as a whole. Head looked quite jittery early on but has grown into his innings, has scored at a good rate, and has now taken Australia into a position from which something truly spectacular would have to happen - either on the pitch or in the atmospheric conditions - to prevent the home side going 1-0 up. 

4.36pm: (72.3 overs, Australia 275-6) It’s all gone Pete Tong for England. Head has started accelerating, Leach is going at eights, Stokes already looks knackered having banged his knee in the field earlier, and now Robinson has left the field after his speed dropped to 72mph in his most recent over. For all England’s grind today, it could end up being a fairly miserable end to the final session.

4.49pm: WICKET (75.6 overs, Australia 306-7) Pat Cummins has been playing the supporting role to Head while he engages in active warfare with England’s bowlers, but his stay is over after the Aussie skipper guided Joe Root’s part-time off-spin to Haseeb Hameed at leg slip. That partnership was worth 70 in 11 overs and two balls. Cummins made 12 of them.

5.08pm: HUNDRED FOR HEAD (80.2 overs, Australia 324-7) What a remarkable innings this has been from Travis Head.

He looked all over the place in the early stages of it, but it has evolved into a counter-punching thrashabout. He preyed on Jack Leach, went hard at Ben Stokes, and has got to three figures in just 85 balls. In doing so, he has run England into the ground. 

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Travis Head celebrates his century (Dan Peled/AFP via Getty Images)

5.29pm: (83.3 overs, Australia 343-7) This is a seriously tough chance, but it's a chance nonetheless. Wood steams in once again, Starc goes on the drive and the inside edge flies to Buttler's right. The England keeper reaches but can't hold on. It would have been a memorable grab if he'd made it. 

5.30pm: And that's us done for the day. 

Our coverage of the Ashes is brought to you in association with Cricket 22

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