Sky Sports Cricket Podcast
The Ashes Daily: England's Ashes hopes hanging by a thread after Australia's bowlers deliver masterclass.
18 Dec 2025
Day two in Adelaide and Nas and Ath reflect on another difficult day for England's top order as they reach 213-8 at stumps, trailing by 158 runs. We look back on a memorable day for Australia's Nathan Lyon and reflect on more Snicko controversy, but is there any hope for England heading into day three? Nas and Ath will be back tomorrow with another daily podcast.Watch every episode of the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast on YouTube here: Sky Sports Cricket Podcast on YouTubeListen to every episode of the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast here: skysports.com/sky-sports-cricket-podcastYou can listen to the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast on your smart speaker by saying "ask Global Player to play Sky Sports Cricket Podcast".Join in the debate on Twitter @SkyCricket.For all the latest Cricket news, head to skysports.com/cricketFor advertising opportunities or to get in touch with the pod email: [email protected]
Chapter 1: What were the highlights of England's performance on day two?
That is from Crawley. Chris Wokes nails it for four. The Ashes alive and Test cricket alive. Ice in his veins. Pat Cummins has led his team to a famous victory. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have...
put the beer away put the champagne on ice 24 years of pain in Australia finally they're beaten at home by England Well, end of day two here in Adelaide. It has been a stifling hot day, 40 degrees plus, and the crowd wearily take themselves back over the bridge and into the city.
Michael, we were there 24 hours ago and we said today and maybe tomorrow was a day for England's top eight to deliver. They've certainly not done that on what is still a very good Adelaide pitch.
absolutely first of all it was an outstanding bowling performance from Australia today I know we'll get into the nitty gritty of that but England's top order, as you say, crumbled again either side of lunch. They lost three quick wickets then root just after lunch. And then it was left to Stokes really to be his defiant best. But it was defiant and defensive as he had to be.
More than four hours of sweat and toil and We've all been there. I was looking at him for that last drinks break tonight and he's on one knee, taking water on board, towel on his head to try and cool him down. He's got cramp because of the heat of the day and he's trying to do it alone with not much support.
So it's a kind of path that a few England captains have trodden down the years here in Australia. He arrived here in the country saying he wanted to join the select band of, you know, Ashes winning captains, that's looking increasingly further away.
Not just the batting, which we will come on to. Mustn't forget how they went with the ball up front today. I mean, they were not very good, short and wide. And it led to that fallout between Stokes and Archer. Archer, as Ath said yesterday, was by far the pick of the bowlers. Five wickets deserved it today. You know, shut up a few of the critics of him in Brisbane.
But there was that moment where he bowled a short wide one and he got cut by Stark. And Stokes refused to change the field. And then he bowled straight. And there was that heated moment where Stokes basically said, I'm not setting a field for bad bowling.
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Chapter 2: How did Australia's bowlers dominate England's top order?
Bowl at the stumps. That's where I want you to do it. I think that was a good moment for Stokes to lay down to his whole bowling attack. We've not bowled well in this whole series.
Do you think, first of all, it was odd that Tong didn't get the nod over Kars at the start of the day? I mean, you know, the mop or whatever his nickname is, rabbit pie, the mop, you know, the guy who cleans up the tail, who had been better than Kars yesterday. So I thought that was curious. And then obviously the moment, which, you know, Captains always have those moments, don't they?
But it was very visible right at the start of the day because England needed to take those two quick wickets. But they came out very lacklustre. There must have been, what, five boundaries in the first two or three overs? And, you know, Australia added those useful runs.
Archer, in the end, picked up five, which was a deserved five because he was excellent yesterday and managed to get the last two today. So that's his first five for Intest, what, for the last six years because of, obviously, the massive absence with injury. So that was good, but it kind of set the day off on the wrong note and the wrong tone.
And then, actually, there were no initial signposts, were there? Because for once they got through Stark's opening spell, but then the pressure told as we got to lunch.
Yeah, but they got to 37 for none. Crawley gets a decent delivery. He may look back and think, I could have left it on length.
I think that was a pretty good ball.
Nipped away from him and he nicked it. And then you get Ollie Pope comes in at number three. It's just so frustrating on such a good pitch. He still looks... a bit chaotic. He was driving on the up to one that nipped back in, nowhere near a drive length. His head is falling over to the offside. Lyon comes on for his first over. Now they're 37 for one, 40 for one.
What I want from my number three is either to put pressure back on, like Ricky Ponting, Viv Richards, David Gower, those number threes, or to be like Jonathan Trott and silence the moment and just ease the dressing room and remind everyone they've got a wicket, but this is still a very good pitch. He strikes me as someone who doesn't do that. Way outside off, chips it to short mid-wicket.
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