On the second day of the Second Test, ASHES rivals England & Australia were forced into shelter when LIGHTNING flashed across the Adelaide Oval.
The umpires halted the match and England’s Joe Root, Dawid Malan and Australia’s fielders fled from the middle.
In the day/night clash, TV cameras captured footage showing forked lightning striking Adelaide Cathedral.
Fans online joked that Zeus, the Greek god of victory, had rescued England after they fell to 17/2 (456 runs behind)
ABC Sport, an Australian broadcaster, tweeted: “Zeus has saved England from further pain as lightning strikes have prevented play for the evening.”
“And they thought that (Mitchell Starc) Thunderbolts was scary!”
Michael Monaghan, a fan of Michael Neser, wrote: “Just Zeus celebrates (Michael’s) Neser 1st Test wicket.”
Martin Johnson also added: “Lightning striking a cathedral forcing the cricket to cease.” Proof God is a fan of England.”
England was in a dire situation on 17/2 after Australia declared on 473/9.
Rory Burns’ tour of despair continued when he was dismissed with the third ball in another day of misery and frustration for the visitors.
Burns’ quirky technique was once again exposed when he edged Mitchell Starc’s delivery straight into Steve Smith at second slip.
Burns’ scores for this series are now 0 (bowled with the First ball of the First test, remember), 13, and 4.
He also dropped a sitter catch during the First Test, and on the second day of the Second test, he conceded four overthrows by a wild shag at the stumps.
Burns, unless he makes some runs for England in the second innings of the match on Boxing Day in Melbourne, will be replaced by Zak Crawley from Kent.
Then Haseeb Haeed clipped debutant Michael Neser ‘s second delivery of Test cricket directly into the hands mid-on. What a soft dismissal.
England faces a huge task if they want to avoid being 2-0 down.
Australia’s total increased from 221-2 to 231-2 over night as Root’s team continued to make mistakes on the field.
Ollie Robinson caught Marnus Labuschagne behind with his first ball on day two, but the replays revealed that the bowler overstepped.
The second no-ball England has taken in this series was when Ben Stokes bowled David Warner in the first Test.
Labuschagne missed a second catch after he flashed an Stuart Broad hook shot past Robinson. It was not an easy catch, but it was a chance nonetheless.
Burns’ wild throwing and England’s sloppiness on the field led to four more runs.
It is hard to imagine that England has done much right on this tour.
The second day in a row, England did not bowl poorly. On a slow pitch, they lacked variety and penetration. They probably also lacked some luck.
Labuschagne was 95 at the start of the game and not out. He reached his century by edge-for-4 off Jimmy Anderson. He survived his no ball dismissal, and his third drop in his innings, before being finally lbw.
Root’s full toss bowled Travis Head who had scored a hundred in Brisbane at a rate faster than one run per ball. Cameron Green was dismissed for only two runs as Stokes switched from his usual short-ball attack to a more traditional pitching up of the ball.
Australia was 294-5, but any hope England had of regaining the lead were dashed when Steve Smith and Alex Carey shared 91 runs for the sixth wicket.
Smith, who was captaining Australia without Pat Cummins and forced to miss the game after a person in a restaurant Wednesday tested positive for Covid sat next to him, scored 93 before Anderson lbw’d him.
It was almost a fail by Smith’s standard of the two Ashes series.
Anderson’s second wicket came when Alex Carey, who had just scored a half-century of fluent play, drove in a catch at short extra cover.
The pain for England’s wicket-keepers was not yet over as Neser, Starc and 58 buccaneering batsmen for the eighth wicket.
Starc and Jhye Richson added another 25 runs before the declaration. England had eight fielders at the boundary, but still managed to score fours and sixes. Australia scored 83 in 10 overs following tea.
