#Australia #England #Ashes #Test #day #live #Ashes
Key events
5th over: Australia 14-0 (Head 2, Weatherald 8) After 14 balls without a run, Travis Head finally gets off the mark, working Archer off his pads for a quick two runs. Archer has his pace up to 143kph but hasn’t quite nailed the line yet. Now he strays down leg and Head gets his hip on it, to send it skidding away to the fine leg boundary for leg byes. Fifth ball is a beauty, sizzling past the edge and making Head jump.
4th over: Australia 8-0 (Head 0, Weatherald 8) Runs at last! Atkinson is short on the second ball and Weatherald seizes on it, late cutting sweetly to the third man rope. Nice shot and a nerve settler for the 31-year-old in his second Test. Yowzer! Atkinson digs the final ball in even shorter and Weatherald takes it on, top-edging high over the slips. Roots and Smith give chase but it bounces once and goes over for FOUR.
3rd over: Australia 0-0 (Head 0, Weatherald 0) Twelve balls and no runs so far and it’s Archer v Head again. The England firebrand has drawn hints of swing from this day two pitch and is moving the ball across Head at 140kph+ looking to feed his three slips a snick. Head stays circumspect to the first four but steps down to the fifth but flays it straight to square leg. Another dot ball on the last. Three maidens!
2nd over: Australia 0-0 (Head 0, Weatherald 0) Now it’s Jake Weatherald’s turn. He has Gus Atkinson steaming in at him. And straight away the big quick is online, thundering the first delivery into Weatherald’s pads at 137kph and sending the second whistling past off stump. The tattooed Tasmanian had a ixed bag debut. He fell second-ball in the first dig at Perth but showed good signs in the second innings. With Head at the other end, he attacked England’s bowlers and swaggered to 28 while Head plundered his way to a famous century. Second over is another maiden.
1st over: Australia 0-0 (Head 0, Weatherald 0) Head takes strike as he did in the first Test, shielding his junior partner and throwing down the gauntlet to England’s bowlers. Archer sprays the first three wide of off-stump and puts the fourth down leg. Head doesn’t waft at any of them. Instead he watches and waits. Finally he gets a straight ball he has to defend. A dot ball follows. Archer delivers a maiden first-up.
Here comes Travis Head with Jake Weatherald to open Australia’s innings. Jofra Archer has the fresh pink ball in his hands at the Vulture Street end. What a duel this will be… here we go, folks.
First innings: England all out 334
That looked a little ominous for Australia as Joe Root and Jofra Archer came out swinging and seized on some sloppy bowling from young Australian fast-bowler Brendan Doggett. But thanks to a magnificent bit of out-fielding by Labuschange, Australia has spared itself further embarrassment and will start their chase early in the day. Joe Root walks off with a wonderful unbeaten 138 from 206 balls and that tenth wicket stand with Archer (38 from 36) spanned 70 runs.
How crucial will that wagging English tail be?
WICKET! Archer c Labuschagne b Doggett 38 (England 334)
Archer launches, looking for a six. The ball was back of a length and the big quick spun on his hip and sent it high into the vast outfield of the Gabba. Brisbane boy Marnus Labuschagne saw it coming early and sprinted to meet it, jumping full-length to his right and plucking the catch. Superb grab! England are ALL OUT!
76th over: England 333-9 (Root 137, Archer 38) Mitchell Starc enters the attack. Can he continue his remarkable run of dismissals in the first over of a spell? Archer attacks from the get-go, stepping out to a full delivery and driving handsomely to the rope. Great shot! Starc hangs the next one wider and it wobbles past Archer’s flashing blade. Starc reclaims his line on the next three and Archer is happy to bank his boundary and watch them sail by.
75th over: England 329-9 (Root 137, Archer 34) In his second Test, Doggett was ineffective yesterday, finishing with 0-74. He starts today with a short ball. Root pulls it but finds a fielder. He steers the second one behind square for a single. Jofra Archer adds another run to his highest Test score, swatting another short one. The easy runs for England continue as Root swipes to fine leg. Archer does likewise, ducking and hooking. Four singles, zero threat.
Here we go. Brendan Doggett will open the attack for Australia and he’ll be bowling to Joe Root on 135.
We have sunny skies in Brisbane and the mercury is currently at its highest level – a toasty 28 degrees. Conditions will start cooling off after the 6.32pm AEST sunset as we enter the “witching hour” of pink ball Tests. Presuming Australia snatch this tenth wicket quickly, where will the home side be by then?
Here come the players onto the field…
Mitchell Starc might’ve had Ben Duckett’s measure yesterday but his opening partner Zak Crawley did much better. With Joe Root in company, Crawley stood tall for England to pile on a 117-run stand and drag his side out of the abyss of 5 for 2 and stroke them into a position of superiority at 122 for 3.
Crawley had carved 76 from 93 balls with 11 fours in 138 minutes before he became Michael Neser’s sole victim. Simon Burnton enjoyed the big man’s bounce-back from his double-duck disaster in the first Test in Perth.
Mitchell Starc continued his incredible record of striking in the first over yesterday, sending Ben Duckett on his way from the sixth ball of the Test.
It is the 26th time Starc has struck in the first over of a Test innings. England’s Jimmy Anderson is next (19), Kemar Roach (10) and Stuart Broad (nine) follow and New Zealanders Tim Southee (nine) and Trent Boult (nine) are also first-over demolition experts.
Starc also got some high praise overnight from the man whose 414 Test wickets he surpassed yesterday. Wasim Akram got his 414 from 104 Tests at 23.62 while Starc has his from 103 Tests at a higher average but a superior strike-rate.
Super Starc! Proud of you, mate. Your incredible hard work sets you apart, and it was only a matter of time before you crossed my tally of wickets . I am pleased to give this to you! Go well, and keep soaring to new heights in your stellar career . 🙏🙏@mstarc56
— Wasim Akram (@wasimakramlive) December 4, 2025
England’s fans found some villains of their own, with no less than four of their side – Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith and Brydon Carse – failing to trouble the scorer. Of those donut kings, Max Rushden reserved special scorn for one English batter…
It’s impossible to write this without saying the F word repeatedly. Just leave it outside the off stump. Surely there’s been some self-reflection since Perth. Surely. IT ISN’T THERE TO BE HIT. The whole Ashes is disappearing before our eyes.
But if you’re English, Joe Root was the rolled gold star of the opening day. Having closely followed Root’s rise and 13,551 runs since his Test debut in 2012, Barney Ronay was happy to rhapsodise about the Yorkie terrier’s rescue job in Brisbane.
Follow the story, the craft, the jags in the road, the pieces this thing takes out of you along the way. And at the end of it you have one of those great self-contained sporting moments, the sense of emotional connection through all the surrounding hoopla, the way Test cricket in particular can make you feel you know someone intimately just by watching them move and work and fail and come back.
If you’re a hometown supporter, Australia’s selectors were the villains of day one, leaving an “absolutely filthy” Nathan Lyon our of the side to play Gabba specialist Michael Neser, and Mitchell Starc was again the conquering hero.
Geoff Lemon paid fitting tribute to the big quick from Penrith who saved his side’s blushes (again) and whose sterling six-for swept him past the 414 dismissals of the great Wasim Akram to make Starc the most prolific left-arm quick of all.
In a series supposed to be defined by Australia’s fast-bowling Big Three, he has done the work as the sole member to make the starting line. With one English wicket left to fall and his tally on six for 46, he was on the brink of the remarkable feat of recording career-best figures for the fourth time in less than 12 months.
For those who came in late… here’s our blow-by-blow, over-by-over coverage of day one.
Preamble
Angus Fontaine
Hello cricket fans! Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage for day two of the second Test between Australia and England at the Gabba for the 2025-26 Ashes.
This match is beautifully poised, with both combatants seizing momentum then letting it slide throughout a gripping opening day. England won the toss and chose to bat but it was Australia who drew first blood, Mitchell Starc working his magic with the rapid-fire dismissals of Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope to have the visitors two wickets down for five runs.
Joe Root strode out in the fifth over with a serious salvage mission on his hands. His team were one-nil down in the series, back at Australia’s happiest hunting ground of the “Gabbatoir” and still raw from their drubbing in Perth. But at stumps, Root’s resilience had carved a new legend to lead his side to an improbable 325 for nine.
The 34-year-old Yorkshireman had also got the gorilla off his back at last with a maiden century in Australia to join the 39 others he’s amassed around the world across 159 Tests over 13 years.And with the help of Zak Crawley (76 from 93) and Jofra Archer (a dervish 32 from 26 late in the day), Root had hauled his team into ascendancy with an unbeaten 135 from 202.
Despite selectors bizarrely benching Nathan Lyon to play a fifth seamer in Michael Neser, Australia entered the final hour of play with their tails up. Starc had another six-for, having seen off Duckett, Pope, Jamie Smith and Brydon Carse for ducks, and Josh Inglis had embarrassed Ben Stokes with a brilliant run-out.
But at 264-9, England sucker-punched them, Root and Archer swinging the axe, seeking fast runs or a late-evening lash at the Australian top-order. They got the former, piling on a fifty-run partnership that will continue this morning to salt the wound of Lyon’s non-selection and his largely-ineffectual substitutions.
So settle in and buckle up. Play begins at 2pm AEST in Brisbane, 3pm AEDT, 4am GMT.
Recent Comments