Day 1 of the Third Test in Adelaide brought a mix of fortunes for both teams after Pat Cummins marked his return to the fray, and captaincy, to win the toss and elected to bat on a pitch bound to produce runs. Australia ended up scoring 326, losing 8 wickets in the process with Archer back to his best for England and finishing the day with 3-29 from 16 excellent overs in the searing heat, but it was Snickogate that stole the headlines.

Carey was on 72 and the Aussies 245-6 when he attempted a cut off the bowling of England’s Josh Tongue and the ball travelled through to the gloves of keeper Jamie Smith to loud appeals from the fielding team that didn’t impress umpire Raza. The subsequent review and Snicko sound showed there was contact between bat and ball but TV umpire Gaffaney ruled otherwise because he deemed that the ball was too far away from the bat despite the contact sound/image. Eh? Sorry? You what?

Well, it seems that the technology (that’s been in question a few times recently) is only as good as the operator and BBG Sports, the company that provides Snicko had this to say afterwards in the wake of Carey admitting he had hit the ball. “the only conclusion that can be drawn from this, is that the Snicko operator at the time must have selected the incorrect stump mic for audio processing. In light of this, BBG Sports takes full responsibility for the error.” Yes folks, it seems that the sound used for the review was taken from the stump mic at the bowler’s end, not one of the three that Carey was defending.

He went on to make a maiden Test century finishing with 106 leaving England now needing to mop up the tail quickly and give themselves as much use as possible of a flat pitch in temperatures expected to reach 40C. This will drain the bowlers and fielders more than the batsmen but it still won’t be easy for the visitors and, as I called for in my previous piece here, England will need to show a big change in attitude if they are to take full advantage of what needs to be at least 2 days of run accumulation to put any kind of pressure on Australia who only need a draw to retain the precious urn.

Fail in that exercise as the pitch deteriorates and favours spin in the last two days and they can kiss their Ashes hopes goodbye. The Aussies chose to bring back veteran Nathan Lyon, an off spinner with 562 Test wickets to his name and weave his magic on a track with which he is very familiar having begun his cricketing journey on the Adelaide Oval groundstaff. Compare that to England’s choice of part-time off spinner Will Jacks who has compiled a grand total of 9, made up almost entirely from his headline-making 6-161 on his debut against Pakistan in 2022. England’s quicks and seamers will probably have to get most of the job done but the pitch will help him in Australia’s 2nd innings after his 1st innings haul of 2 so far while going for 105 off 20.

Day 2 though will be a case of England’s batters having to show what they can really do under pressure while the pitch and conditions remain in their favour. See off Starc and Cummins, apply themselves, take sensible opportunities off the lesser seamers and pay respect to Lyon even on a flat track. They have the skills but application and discipline have never been more required in what has now become the three most important sessions in Bazball’s rollercoaster ride.

Come on England !!