Ashes 2021-22: Australia v England second Test, day one – live!

43rd over: Australia 87-1 (Warner 46, Labuschagne 27) Stokes to Labuschagne, with a silly mid-off and a short leg waiting in case he fends one of the many short balls being sent his way into the air. He doesn’t. Five more dots, another loud shout of “No run!” as the ball rolls gently to midwicket, which seems mainly of comic value, and then a single off the last.

42nd over: Australia 86-1 (Warner 46, Labuschagne 26) Woakes to Labuschagne, who gets one to leave the right-handed Labuschagne nicely, even if the batter isn’t that close to getting anything on it.

41st over: Australia 85-1 (Warner 46, Labuschagne 25) Hello everyone! During the drinks break Stuart Broad gives a little on-field interview, looking forward to the time twilight hits, “it starts moving and we can put the slips back in and take some wickets”. We’ll see about that. Warner, having taken on some fluids, converts it into liquid cricket and his Stokes for two boundaries, including a super back-foot hoist over cover, to reach his half-century off 108 balls!

40th over: Australia 77-1 (Warner 42, Labuschagne 25) Chris Woakes is back. Hasn’t looked like a great threat today. He isn’t helped by a misfield at point that lets Warner off strike, after Warner has just punched two.

Ian Walton has some questions about Buttler. “How many chances does he get as both wickey and bat? Pick the best keeper, can’t do much worse as a bat either and Ben Foakes can wield a decent willow. He’ll make up for any perceived weakness by being a proper wickey. Maybe I’m old-fashioned and want red ball players for red ball (and pink, ok!) and white players for pyjama cricket. Buttler only committed to the tour late anyway.”

I can’t disagree with much of that. Buttler in about 2017 looked like he could be transformative in Test cricket in the way he was in one-dayers. It hasn’t panned out though.

39th over: Australia 74-1 (Warner 39, Labuschagne 25) Here’s a hot stat: only once has Warner played a slower innings than this having faced over 100 balls. (Obviously this can change if he speeds up, but still.)

Labuschagne, similarly, sees off another Stokes over.

38th over: Australia 74-1 (Warner 39, Labuschagne 25) Warner opens up a bit against Root. First he goes over mid-off for a couple, Stokes chasing back and then asked to stay halfway back to the fence by Root. Warner goes again through cover, and there’s a rider on that rope to keep the scoring to one.

37th over: Australia 69-1 (Warner 36, Labuschagne 23) Stokes short, Labuschagne rides the bounce and glances fine for one. Three fielders out on the rope for Warner on the hook, plus three closer to the bat on the leg side, but he sways away from the bouncer. Pulls a slightly less short ball, trying to go in front of midwicket but can’t elude Broad there. Stokes bowls another proper bouncer that has Warner bailing out of the shot, then bluffs with a full ball that misses off stump.

36th over: Australia 68-1 (Warner 36, Labuschagne 22) Root to try to burn through some overs, but Warner fires him to the cover boundary instead. A couple of singles follow. That must be the biggest over Australia has had all day.

35th over: Australia 62-1 (Warner 31, Labuschagne 21) Ben Stokes with the short-ball barrage approach again, and it nearly works!

England drop another catch.

Oh, this team. Rory Burns in Brisbane, Jos Buttler in Adelaide. The ball is about ribcage height, tending towards leg. Labuschagne steps across and swivels to try to catch it up. Gets a fat chunk of glove on it. Buttler has to go high to his left, but not outrageously so in either aspect. That’s regulation for a keeper. He gets it in his left palm, then somehow it pops out again.

Marnus is nailed on for a big score now.

34th over: Australia 61-1 (Warner 30, Labuschagne 21) Another Anderson over for one run to Warner. The bowler taking a very leisurely approach to getting back to his mark.

“Any chance that England might try and bowl more than 26 overs in the last session, given that their entire test cricket strategy for the last three years has been built around exploiting the pink ball at Adelaide?”

I doubt it, Peter Salmon, I doubt it.

33rd over: Australia 60-1 (Warner 29, Labuschagne 21) Just over, this time! Marnus hooks Robinson just over square leg, who is up about 30 paces from the bat. Broad under the sunhat, who leaps up one-handed, back-handed, but it’s a metre too high for him.

This is a weird old innings from Labuschagne. Gets four for another streaky shot, in between impersonating a traffic island.

32nd over: Australia 56-1 (Warner 29, Labuschagne 17) An edge from Labuschagne! That’s the most eventful thing we’ve seen in a while. Anderson draws the nick but Marnus has soft hands and the edge dies in front of the cordon. He pushes a single to point next ball.

31st over: Australia 55-1 (Warner 29, Labuschagne 16) Robinson gets back in the channel for this over, settling in at Warner and doing it nicely. Slips too short once and is cut, but saved at point. Otherwise, it’s another quiet one.

The sun is getting lower, the shadows of the billowing roof of the stand are reaching across the field, and it’s still very warm out there.

30th over: Australia 55-1 (Warner 29, Labuschagne 16) This is a real bunker innings from Labuschagne. Gets beaten once by Anderson, past the edge again, while defending the rest. No attempt to score. Recognising that this is good bowling and all he has to do is wait it out.

29th over: Australia 55-1 (Warner 29, Labuschagne 16) The discipline has been good from England’s seamers, so Robinson is the one who has been noticeable having strayed too straight a few times. Not often, but here and there. Labuschagne gets a leg bye to one of these balls, and the change in target makes Robinson stray wide outside Warner’s off stump, cut behind point for four.

28th over: Australia 50-1 (Warner 25, Labuschagne 16) Warner kicks away! He has a few looks at Anderson, shouldering arms when he doesn’t like the length of the delivery. But when Anderson gets fuller, even though the line is tight around off stump, Warner drives with a flourish through cover point for four. Open blade, swishing.

At long last, Australia reach the first milestone score.

27th over: Australia 46-1 (Warner 21, Labuschagne 16) Ollie Robinson from the Cathedral End, seeing Warner get off strike first ball with a clip that is half stopped at mid-on. Once again Labuschagne drops anchor.

26th over: Australia 45-1 (Warner 20, Labuschagne 16) James Anderson to commence proceedings, as expected. His weary walk to the top of his mark. His economical run in. Labuschagne is happy to camp on the front foot and send everything back down the pitch.

We’re back. After a particularly dour first session and an extremely confusing meal break. There are people eating hot dinners around me. It all feels wrong.

If you want something to do during lunch, here is yesterday’s Final Word podcast, in which Adam and I absolutely did not anticipate Cummins being isolated out of the match, but we did get some good insight from Ali Martin about some of England’s broader problems.

Audio here.

Here’s Sarah Jane Bacon, “from balmy west London”, by her account.

“Upon learning that Our Dear Leader, Pat Cummins, has to self-isolate for the Test, I couldn’t *not* get up at stupid-o-clock to see the ramifications (and get the BT Sport’s pundits’ reactions to the news). Suffice to say: Cook et al are frothing with joy. I know Adelaide is a different prospect to the Gabbatoir, but I do hope there are some surprises in store for everyone.”

Not much yet, aside from the scoring rate. I don’t think we’re going to see this ball start to swerve once the sun dips.

David Shepherd (not the Reverend) writes in. “Look, I’d be as happy as anyone if Marcus found his range, but as of now he’s had 1.5 Marshes worth of chances with far less to show for it. I’m sure Usman is very sorry for whatever he’s done, so can we let him have a bat soon?”

Some would call that an absorbing session, but bear in mind that toilet paper can also be absorbing. A strange exercise of the two teams testing one another out. All dance.

Honours probably to Australia, having just killed the most shiny and lacquered part of the ball’s lifespan, but the data analysts say there was no swing at all on offer out there. England haven’t given away runs, so if they manage to find a wicket after the break then they could still take ascendancy quickly. The bowling approach though seemed to be that they had to use everyone they had picked, because they had picked them.

I can’t recall Warner ever batting a session for such a low score, but jog my memory if that’s wrong.

25th over: Australia 45-1 (Warner 20, Labuschagne 16) Stokes bowls another over of short stuff, and that is lunch. Or effectively lunch. They will call it dinner even thought it’s 4:30pm local time.

A few correspondents have enquired about my earlier comments regarding Marcus Harris. I will say this. There are 274 players in men’s Test cricket who have made more runs than Harris opening the batting. There are seven of those who have done so at a worse average.

Currently he’s at 22.15 after 22 innings.

24th over: Australia 44-1 (Warner 20, Labuschagne 15) England supporters, it is 23 overs into a Test match and Joe Root is bowling. Not too badly, because he’s not too bad at it, but… this doesn’t feel like something that happens when things are going right. He does beat the top edge of a Warner cut, and gets a leading edge to lob into the off side. Maybe he was the secret weapon all along.

23rd over: Australia 42-1 (Warner 19, Labuschagne 14) At last a shot from Labuschagne, who has been quiet: he backs away from Stokes and ramps his short ball over slip for four. Streaky shot, Root thinks he’s in the game but there’s too much height and it’s a bit square of him.

22nd over: Australia 38-1 (Warner 19, Labuschagne 10) Warner takes on Broad! First ball of the over, whack, over the leg side. Pulling a short ball. Settles down for the rest of the over, defending and leaving.

21st over: Australia 34-1 (Warner 15, Labuschagne 10) Deep square leg in for Warner, who pulls there for a single. Stokes in going to try the short strategy then. A big change in the field for Labuschagne, going leg theory. Mid-on, midwicket, deep forward square, regulation backward square, and long leg.

On the other side, two staggered slips, point, mid-off.

Stokes bowls over his head, called wide. Gets him another shot at Labuschagne. Plus another with a no-ball – the technology is working in this match, and it picks up the front foot this time. Jon Lewis gets an automated pay cut.

Around the wicket, Stokes. Another no-ball. A foreclosure sign is hammered to the door of the Lewis residence. Stokes in the end gets eight short balls to Labuschagne after one at Warner.

None of them look very effective, and it’s a strange use of an outswing bowler with a ball that doesn’t age, after 20 overs on day one.

20th over: Australia 30-1 (Warner 14, Labuschagne 10) A boundary for Warner from Broad! Pitches full, Warner leans over his front leg and times it beautifully through wide long-on.

We’ve heard a lot about Broad’s dominance of Warner in 2019. In the Ashes before that, in Australia, Broad didn’t get Warner out once while Warner averaged 66.

Swings, roundabouts.

19th over: Australia 25-1 (Warner 9, Labuschagne 10) Bingo, full set, we’ve cycled through all five England seamers. Ben Stokes on for his first over. Bowling from the Cathedral End, loping in.

I saw him doing a lot of work on landing his front foot in the nets yesterday. After each delivery, bowling coach Jon Lewis would move the marker for Stokes’ run-up. Meaning the bowler randomly started at different spots and had to land on the front line.

One run for Warner behind point.

18th over: Australia 24-1 (Warner 8, Labuschagne 10) Broad returns. Warner facing. Immediately something happens again: Warner lashes wide with a cut shot, hitting on the bounce straight to point. He’s tucked up and defending the next on leg stump. Then Broad has it tailing into leg stump, letting Warner drive through mid-on, that long chase down Adelaide Oval that has them thinking of a fourth run, deciding against it due to Stokes being the fielder with the throw.

Broad looks good against Labuschagne, too. Tests his outside edge a couple of times.

Warm day in Adelaide, lovely afternoon. Very full in all of the western stands, empty tranches on the eastern side.

17th over: Australia 20-1 (Warner 5, Labuschagne 10) Robinson to Labuschagne, who also bats out the set. Australia very happy to wait out the even vaguely newish ball.

16th over: Australia 20-1 (Warner 5, Labuschagne 10) Another maiden from Woakes to Warner, who is now 5 from 44. Broad has only bowled four overs, and is the one to have made things happen.

“I sympathise with that review process taking so long, although it’s infuriating,” writes Robert Speed. “The ICC want a clear protocol for how LBW reviews are undertaken, only going to ball tracking once its is established there was no bat involved. Unfortunately it cost us 5 minutes of nothing happening, but I can understand the protocol.”

I see where you’re coming from – the protocol was largely so that umpires didn’t forget anything and audiences knew what was happening. But I’ve been in the truck where the tech guys are, and they know almost everything simultaneously. Aside from sometimes a processing delay for 20 seconds or so with ball-tracking.

There is someone running the audio waveform, someone on Hot Spot, someone on ball-tracking, all separately.

As it stands, they get no input to the third umpire, who sits upstairs and goes over each thing in order. But it seems absurd that one point of the process that would obviate the need for the rest can’t be put in front of the adjudicator.

15th over: Australia 20-1 (Warner 5, Labuschagne 10) This would have been a much better story had England batted first, the new Australians pushed immediately into the spotlight. This way around it gives the home team time to settle without feeling the loss of a captain.

Robinson is testing out Labuschagne, who is doing Tony Hawk Pro Skater moves while leaving the ball outside off stump. Do a 720, dude.

14th over: Australia 20-1 (Warner 5, Labuschagne 10) Warner hits a four! Finally, after 13 overs of largely suffocating bowling, Woakes dishes him up a short wide one and Warner has both feet off the ground as he makes contact with the cut shot, slamming it through cover. Emphatic.

Woakes follows with a genuine wide, called by the umpire.

13th over: Australia 15-1 (Warner 1, Labuschagne 10) Drinks break after 12 overs, which augurs well for England’s run rate. Wonder if they’ll be playing for free again, after losing 100% of their match fee in Brisbane? And yes, if you’re wondering, they did lose a review for that last effort, so they have one left for the innings and Australia three.

Robinson resumes to Labuschagne, who keeps him out.

12th over: Australia 15-1 (Warner 1, Labuschagne 10) Another review down. Ok, this one will cause some consternation. Woakes, over the wicket to Warner. Pitched up, swing into the lefty. Hits him in line, but he’s pushing forward at the ball at the same time. Not 100% sure it was going on to hit, might have gone over, he’s a fair way down the wicket. But all of the DRS analysis is on the inside edge. Like Kohli the other week, it’s bat and pad at the same time. But not really. I’m pretty sure that’s pad first. The leg is pushed forward, the bat is angled back. But the third umpire says he can’t tell what was first, thus the review is void.

Wait. Aaaaah ha ha! It was pitching outside leg. By a fraction. So the umpire just rock-and-rolled the inside edge for about six minutes, instead of looking at the pitch map for 0.04 seconds.

Cricket, you are a foolish sport.

11th over: Australia 15-1 (Warner 1, Labuschagne 10) Young Marnus is in serious touch. Scoring from the get go. He’s helped by Robinson starting rustily, two straight balls that Labuschagne can tuck away for two runs apiece.

10th over: Australia 11-1 (Warner 1, Labuschagne 6) Broad goes off the field for a minute, then back. Chris Woakes gets a bowl for the first time today, the specialist No8 in this side. He’s right-arm over, angling across the left-hander, so Warner is pretty happy to leave him alone.

9th over: Australia 11-1 (Warner 1, Labuschagne 6) How often would David Warner have got into the 9th over of a match without scoring? Anyone want to work that out for me? He finally gets moving here with a driven single, after Labuschagne eases another drive from Anderson through mid-off.

8th over: Australia 7-1 (Warner 0, Labuschagne 3) You can’t say that the early wicket of Harris is exactly a surprise, given his entire Test career has been comprised of the early wicket of Harris, but at least it means the match can start for real. Marnus Labuschagne gets going immediately with a push for three runs past the bowler. Bringing Warner on strike, who is immediately prompting an England review after walking at a ball and fencing as it cut back in off the seam. England’s players all think or hope there was an inside edge, but no, and it’s clearing the stumps on ball-tracking. Review lost. Broad one wicket for four runs from four overs.

That one can’t be overturned! Not a great ball from Broad, short and angled across the left-hander from around the wicket but Harris hooks, gets nothing but glove on it, and Buttler side-steps before completing a very fine diving catch down the leg side. Broad is away.

7th over: Australia 4-0 (Harris 3, Warner 0) Three runs off the bat in 42 balls thus far, the opening bats taking their task of survival seriously as Warner defends Anderson.