James Anderson cleans up Alex Carey for 66

After being hit for consecutive boundaries, James Anderson bowled Alex Carey for 66 to give England an early breakthrough on Day 3 of the Ashes opener. The keeper-bat had a slight bat pad gap, and the ball squeezed through, deflected off the back pad flap and went on to hit the top of the stumps. The hosts have a way back now in the contest after Usman Khawaja’s century helped Australia resurrect in the aftermath of a top-order wobble.

The crowd was treated to full 90 overs of play on the second day, and a fascinating day of attritional Test cricket transpired where neither team conceded an inch. Australia suffered a couple of blows within the first hour, as Stuart Broad dismissed David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne off successive balls. Steve Smith blocked it out for a while as England bowled with discipline and were aided with some swing to boot, but then Ben Stokes nipped one back to nab the arch-nemesis in front.

Travis Head counter-punched his way to a fifty before succumbing to a rash shot against the resurgent Moeen Ali. Cameron Green also got a decent start, but then Moeen went through his gate with a pearler.
However, with wickets tumbling around him, Khawaja was an epitome of concentration, adamant to break the English voodoo. The patience paid off with a superb maiden century in England, and he is still going strong.