Any evanescent thoughts of an innings victory soon melted in the fierce sunlight. Stokes and Jacks had come to fight it out, and before the break defied seven bowlers. The closest Australia came to breaking the partnership was a spitting cobra from Boland which took the edge of Stokes’ bat and flew agonisingly just above Green’s Go Gadget arms in the cordon. Aside from that the largely somnolent pitch, and Nathan Lyon’s impassive stare in the pavilion, told their contrasting tales. England drifted into the lead, and eventually Labuschagne tried an over of liquorice allsorts. All to no avail. Stokes was going to bat, and bat, and bat; and see if Australia’s bowlers could be worn down. In that event, after dark his plan would be to go berserk and attempt to conjure an impossible victory.

In the afternoon shadows Head dropped a hot chance from Jacks at short leg: a place where they either stick or they don’t. This one didn’t. Stokes reached a sedate fifty, and Australia sought inspiration. They found it when Neser induced a sharp edge from Jacks, taken just off the grass by Smith’s bootlaces. A miraculous catch for anyone else. Probably routine for him. He has well over 200 Test catches. This was one of the better ones. The longed-for incision then came when Stokes edged Neser behind to Carey, who was standing up to the stumps and treating the bearded Queenslander like a medium-fast spinner. Then Atkinson pulled Doggett straight to mid-wicket. This time Smith did not have to bend, and he tossed it away with a grin. Back at a fine slip to the energetic Neser, he pouched another to dismiss Carse and it was all over. 65 to win, and no-one imagined that Head and Wetherald would be dawdling on the way to the finish line.

Nor did they. In the five overs before the break half the runs were peeled off. Archer sent down a few thunderbolts, and Head hoicked Atkinson all over the greensward. No-one knows why the dinner-break was taken. Common sense might have suggested that a break after five overs was surplus to requirements. Perchance it was a contractual obligation to the caterers. After the break Atkinson bowled beautifully, inducing a play-on from Head and a snorting lifter outside off to remove Labuschagne. All too late, alas. We don’t know what was in the refreshments served, but Smith came out in his black war-paint breathing fire and brimstone. Beaten by an Archer fireball, he suggested that the man try bowling faster. Archer obliged, and was whacked for a four and a six over fine leg.

For a dreadful moment lightning crackled between the two men. Then Archer smiled and turned away, realising that he had been deceived; and the moment passed. Smith finished the match with another six, and embraced his colleague, having scored an unbeaten 23 from nine balls. It was another eight-wicket victory. At least England put up a better fight this time. But it is apparent that their laid-back preparation has betrayed them. In Adelaide Captain Pat will return, and Lyon, and possibly also Hazlewood. With the series all but gone, England has some soul-searching to do. Josh Tongue must be given his chance. Probably also Bashir. Jacks might keep his place instead of Pope. Or else Jacob Bethel: a better-credentialled number three. They have been comprehensively outplayed by a weakened eleven. Stokes cannot do it all by himself. And his captaincy left a great deal to be desired.

There was a curiously tentative attitude from England this afternoon. Matters began well for them when Neser wafted outside off and was caught behind. It was a poor stroke unworthy of a capable batsman. Carey and Starc survived until the new ball; but Atkinson received a belated reward when Carey also flashed outside off. At eight down the end appeared to be nigh. And yet. We all sensed that something different was in the air. When Mitchell Starc plays with an upright front elbow he means business. The Australian plan was self-evident. Keep them out in the broiling sunshine for as long as we possibly can. We want to be bowling with a shiny hard new ball tonight. Preferably not with a soggy tomato. Stasis suits us just fine. The longer we keep you out here the happier we shall be.

The curious incident was that England seemed to be in no hurry to wrap up the innings. Carey was happy to take every run on offer, trusting in Starc to survive anything cast at him. When Boland came out at number ten Starc began to farm the strike. And once Starc reached twenty-odd the field went out to the boundaries. Starc gave his customary saturnine smile and applied himself to the team plan. Boland’s adhesive nature is well-known locally. Like Australia’s last First Nations seamer Jason Gillespie, Boland loves being the nightwatchman. Given free range to block as much as he pleases, he did just that. Eventually he even played a shot or two. And little by little, Starc allowed him to take more of the bowling.

England’s plan appeared to be that of Vladimir and Estragon. They were waiting for some extraneous happening which might give meaning to their endless struggle. Yes, Neser and Carey had got themselves out. What to do when neither of the incumbents show the slightest sign of batting suicide? There did not appear to be a Plan B. England largely wasted the second new ball, either over-pitching, or under. Every now and then a delivery would come along pitched on a perfect length, seaming either way, at a good pace, and beating the bat with ease. And spectators might well applaud and say Great bowling mate! Why don’t you do it more often?

For 27 overs numbers nine and ten defied everything thrown at them. Yes, Starc has exceptional talent as a lower-order bat. Boland has great endurance and spirit. But there was no urgency. A spread field often merely encourages the batting side. So you don’t want to get us out? Well OK then. We’ll settle in for the summer. Their stand was worth 75 before Starc finally lost patience. Like many a bowler before him, reaching seventy-odd not out has the same effect as high-altitude mountaineering. By the time Doggett succumbed to Jacks Australia had reached 511. It was a notable scorecard, in which all eleven players reached double figures. Yet Starc’s 77 was the top score.

A bare six overs remained until the dinner break. Crawley and Duckett made the most of them, clubbing 45 useful runs. Thereafter, as the shades of evening fell, so too did the English batting. Neser picked up both Crawley and Pope caught-and-bowled. England has not yet fathomed his subtle changes of pace. Boland began to seam the ball around off a fullish length, and despatched both Duckett and Brook. The latter’s dismissal was an awful lapse in judgement. Surely some coach back in Yorkshire must have told him that playing either forward or back was desirable. Being caught on the crease is asking for trouble.

And Starc? His opening salvo was erratic, as one might have expected from a man who’d batted two-and-a-half hours in the baking sun. After a short refresh he was back to his menacing and ebullient best, and had both Root and Smith caught behind by Carey. England will resume tomorrow with six wickets down, and still with 43 runs to make the home side bat again. Stokes has pulled off many a miracle in his time. If he can get England out of this one, it will be the greatest escape since Harry Houdini.

England’s innings wrapped up early. Nevertheless, that tenth-wicket stand of 70 showed three things. One: when he applies himself, Joe Root is a master batsman. Australia never even looked like getting him out. Two: Jofra Archer has rare talent for a number 11. He has underachieved thus far with the bat in his chequered life, but the all-rounder’s mantle was always a possibility. His 38 was a fine knock. And three: this is a largely docile wicket. Yes, there are cracks. The odd ball flies off a length. But the pink ball gets soft quickly, and it might be a long day in the sun for England.

Contrary to all expectations, Head and Wetherald began with three maidens. Thereafter they began to open out. Truth to tell, Head was not himself. It may be that opening is not his best place after all. He was dropped on three: a high catch which Smith muffed, and first slip was unable to drag in. When Carse held one back a trifle Head whacked it skyward for the easiest of catches. Nevertheless his 33, from an opening stand of 77, was a decent effort.

But the star of the afternoon was Wetherald. His stance at the crease makes it appear he is understudying Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Yet this is not necessarily a design flaw. Was not Gilbert Jessop known as The Croucher? He, Head, and Labuschagne made hay while the sun shone. At the tea-break the score was 1/130. From 21 overs, if you please. Bazball? Not in the least. The awful truth is that, Archer aside, the bowlers sprayed the ball everywhere and were pitilessly punished. Hi-tech bats, shorter boundaries, and venturesome batting have transformed Test cricket. Why: yesterday Rachin Ravindra made a run-a-ball 176 at Hagley Oval. As a knowledgeable spectator once remarked at Bridgetown: If you short or full today, you going to get paint.’ England were both, and paint, or a version thereof, they got.

After the break England tidied up their line and length to an extent, although Carse was still bleeding runs at a terrifying rate. Stokes’ damage report was barely better. Archer’s second spell was exemplary, if down a little in pace. There was nothing whatever wrong with the swinging yorker which pinned Wetherald in front for an excellent 72. Smith emerged, endlessly fidgeting as is how wont, and managing to appear to be in diabolical trouble without ever in fact being so. Labuschagne continued to hit the ball high, wide and handsome until he fanned at a wide one from Stokes and nicked behind. Green came out and played punishingly through the off whenever England overpitched. By the adjournment the home side was was 3/228, with still a great deal of work to do. For the third time in the match a session produced 2/98, which you would generally classify as a tied contest. Someone will have to go on with it.

With the shades of evening descending the much-dreaded night-time session began. Australia would have been happy to have two set batsmen in the 20s. But Stokes was in something of a dilemma. His spearhead Archer had already bowled twelve overs. He would need to be held back for later. Stokes himself had bowled eleven. The initial assault would have to come from the frugal Atkinson. And Jacks? His single over had cost thirteen. Yet he was picked at least partly for his bowling, and would surely have to be entrusted with a few more overs.

As it happened, Stokes went with Archer first up. And again later on. For someone whose match fitness has been so often questioned, Jofra strove with might and main for twenty overs in the heat and humidity. England could have asked no more of him. Yet Green and Smith did as they pleased, putting on 91 in 19 overs without unduly exerting themselves. Then Stokes threw the ball to Carse and told him to bowl Bodyline with deep catchers out. His first over cost 17 runs. Yet Green outsmarted himself by backing well away from the stumps to a fast yorker. Bodyline bowling is the last word in ugly cricket. Yet as long as it keeps working England will keep trying it on. Immediately Smith glanced in the air whereupon Jacks took a fine diving catch. Suddenly Carse had three wickets. His figures at stumps read 17/1/113/3. Readers may decide for themselves whether this constitutes success or otherwise.

Inglis went on with the job, coming in unfashionably late at No.7. He made a brisk 23 and lost his stumps to Stokes. Wth the home side six down England was storming back into the contest. Yet their four-man pace attack was all but exhausted. So were the fielders. Four of the five catches that went down were late in the day. Some were easy, some very difficult. Fatigue, and difficulty picking up the pink ball in the gloom, doubtless played their part. And England were faced with Carey at his most belligerent, and Michael Neser in front of his home crowd. They put on 49 at a fast clip, and are still together at stumps. Australia’s lead is 44. They will want a good deal more yet. The pitch is a little up-and-down already. By and large, it was Australia’s day.

More than any other arena on earth, The Gabba is where illusions are pitilessly exposed. Michael Kasprowicz was once asked, after a two-day Shield victory, how much he enjoyed bowling there. You think it’s easy? he asked, with mounting incredulity. The pitch is fast and true, with minimal seam movement. If you can’t really play, then it is here that you will be found out. Australia made what seemed to be a strategic error in team selection, once it became clear that the captain was not quite ready and ought not to be risked as yet. And so they picked an all-seam attack. It is far from clear that five seamers can do what four cannot. Michael Neser was chosen, on grounds of local knowledge. This was more or less justified when he picked up Crawley to an awful off-side hoick. For the most part Neser bowled with Carey up to the stumps, at a brisk fast-medium. This was probably not what England expected. And they did not seem unduly fussed about it either.

Brendan Doggett was also selected, having taken five wickets in Perth, and was therefore deemed too valuable to be omitted. Yet his bowling offered nothing of substance on this pitch. Neither did Green, although he was as ever chosen primarily for his batting. Yet this meant that Lyon was squeezed out. The justification was obvious. If youse blokes are only going to bat for thirty-something overs we may as well not pick a spinner at all. And yet. What if England decides to bat properly? Where will you be then? In the event, many of the visiting batsmen did just that. Crawley – coming off a pair as he was – batted with verve and panache, looking for runs at every opportunity. By the time he essayed his suicidal swipe at Neser he had reached a brilliant 76. He may be forgiven this indiscretion, having dug his side out of a substantial crevasse caused by the genius of Mitchell Starc, who today went past the mercurial Akram as the highest wicket-taker among left-arm quicks.

Starc began as he left off in Perth. Surely no bowler – not even the sublime SF Barnes – has ever struck more often in the opening over of a Test match. No blame whatever attaches to Ben Duckett, whose golden duck was nothing more than the result of a perfect delivery to a left-handed opener. He had to play it, and it swung away late and took the edge to Labuschagne. Ollie Pope by contrast was very much to blame for wafting outside off with a diagonal bat and playing on. With England at 2/5 a subdued Root marched to the middle. This time it was a very different Joe Root. He eschewed the diagonal bat and quietly accumulated runs as only he knows how. Those 13,000 Test runs were no accident. By lunch, with England on 2/98, the visitors were on top.

After Crawley’s departure Brook made his usual breathless entrance. This writer opines that Harry Brook is a batsman of erratic genius. But if he wants to go down in history as a flat-track bully then he’s going the right way about it. Not long ago he made a triple hundred in Pakistan. I saw some of it while on holiday. He has every stroke in the book and quite a few that aren’t. After a run-a-ball 31 he wafted at Starc’s away-cutter and was caught in the cordon. This was not what his team wanted or needed, and his fellow Yorkshireman at the other end must have given a rueful sigh. The breathless run-rate slowed to a crawl. Ben Stokes takes his cricket seriously, and played himself in with care until he set off for an incautious run and was thrown out by Inglis’ matchless athleticism. Jamie Smith came and went in the evening dew when Boland moved one in off the seam and scattered his stumps.

Will Jacks came out at number 8, being the replacement for Wood, whose fetlock failed to come up in time. It was a timid selection. Jacks is a useful off-spinner, though not anywhere near Bashir’s class. He will find bowling hereabouts a severe trial. Yet he is a proper batsman; and he settled in to try to give Root the support he needed. He made his way to 19 against Green and Doggett before Smith decreed that the time for more Starc was at hand. As so many have done before him, Jacks wafted well outside off-stump and nicked behind. Root, on 98, would have been unamused. Yet his well-earned hundred came up with a leg-side boundary. The Barmy Army went berserk, as well they might.

Thereafter things began to move with alacrity. Atkinson skied Starc over the keeper’s head. Both Carey and Labuschagne sprinted after it, each oblivious to the other. A fearful collision seemed imminent. Surely the ball was out of reach? And yet two things feared and hoped for both occurred. The two Australians crashed into each other; but Carey pouched the ball anyway for Starc’s fifth wicket. Carey once turned out for the GWS Giants in Australian football. Their loss was Australia’s gain. I doubt he ever took a mark under such torrid circumstances. Then Carse, who really ought to have known better, wafted well outside his off-stump and the now-weary Starc had six wickets.

Yet full oft the tail of the scorpion is deadly to behold. Archer began to throw the bat around; and Smith, sensing a declaration, pushed the field well back. Delighted with this decision Archer and Root swung hard and often. By the end of play they batted with circumspection. Despite this the last-wicket stand had reached 66 from seven and a bit overs. By stumps England was 9/325, and could feel well satisfied with their day’s work. Tomorrow is another day. Going by what we saw from the old ball – Starc’s unearthly genius excepted – they may well struggle with the pink ball. A sobering thought for England is that their best swing bowler is about to turn out for the Sydney Thunder. Reece Topley would have been a handy inclusion here. Inexplicably he appears to have been banished from their thoughts.