Perth [Australia], November 22 : After Australia was bundled out for 132 in response to England's first innings total of 172, a half-century stand between Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett put England in front with a 99-run lead at the end of the first session on day two of the first Ashes Test at Perth's Optus Stadium on Saturday.
At the end of the session's play, England was 59/1, with Duckett (28*) and Pope (24*) unbeaten.
Earlier, Australia started the day two at 123/9, with Brendan Doggett and Nathan Lyon on the crease, unbeaten at 3* and 0* respectively.
Lyon and Doggett rotated strike to eat further into the deficit, but a fine catch from Ben Duckett at gully ended Australia's inning at 132 in 45.2 overs, and they trailed by 40 runs.
Skipper Ben Stokes (5/23) was the leading wicket-taker for England, getting crucial wickets of Travis Head (21 in 35 balls, with a four) and Cameron Green (24 in 50 balls, with two fours), who were putting on a partnership after the Aussies were restricted to 31/4. However, it was a pace and bounce exhibition from Brydon Carse (3/45) and Jofra Archer (2/11), which gave early jitters to Australians, as they lost debutant opener Jake Weatherald (0), Marnus Labuschagne (9), Steve Smith (17) and Usman Khawaja (2) quickly.
Leading by 40 runs, England were at an advantage. It was upto openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett to stretch that advantage as far as possible in terms of runs. But a brilliant one-handed grab from Mitchell Starc gave England another first-over jolt and Crawley a pair of ducks. England was 0/1 in 0.5 overs.
The pair of Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett stabilised the innings yet again. The left-handed Duckett showed the first signs of aggression, getting a boundary each against Starc and Boland. The duo kept collecting runs with some intelligent strike rotation, with some fine hits falling short of reaching the fence due to the slow outfield, as suggested by four threes collected by Pope.
The half-century stand came for the duo in 10.1 overs.
Duckett survived a close leg-before-wicket call on the final ball of the session, ending the session without any further loss of wickets.
On day one, England won the toss and opted to bat first. Despite Ben Duckett (21 in 20 balls, with four boundaries) showing some fine intent and touch, England had slipped to 39/3, with their star batter Joe Root being removed for a duck by Starc as well. A half-century stand between Ollie Pope (46 in 58 balls, with four boundaries) and Harry Brook stabilised things for England, but they lost half their team at 115 runs.
Later, Brook (52 in 61 balls, with five fours and a six) and Jamie Smith (33 in 22 balls, with six fours) tried to counter-attack, but Starc (7/58) and Doggett (2/27) put a lid on England's scoring, who were also committing batting harakiri with some questionable shot selection. England was undone for 172 runs in 32.5 overs.
Brief Scores: Australia: 132 (Alex Carey 26, Cameron Green 24, Ben Stokes 5/23) vs England: 172 and 59/1 (Ben Duckett 28*, Ollie Pope 24*, Mitchell Starc 1/13).
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