The Ashes: England slide towards series defeat as batting fails again to give Australia control of third Test in Adelaide

England's hopes of regaining the Ashes are all but over after another woeful batting display enabled Australia to take complete control of the third Test.

England appeared to be in a strong position after claiming the two wickets required to bowl Australia out for 371 on the second morning on a flat pitch at the Adelaide Oval, but the tourists once again came up short with the bat as they were reduced to 213-8 at the close after yet more Snicko controversy.

Australia, who only need a draw to retain the Ashes after winning the first two Tests of the five-match series, lead by 158 with three days left - in sweltering conditions that reached 41 degrees on Thursday - to close out a likely victory.

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The only significant England resistance came from Harry Brook (45), before skipper Ben Stokes (45 not out) and Jofra Archer (30 not out) shared an unbeaten stand of 45 to leave the tourists with just the slightest glimmer of hope.

For a second successive day, England were left aggrieved by the application of Snicko as Jamie Smith (22) was controversially given out caught behind after a review, but the clear shortcomings of the technology can be nothing more than a footnote.

Australia captain Pat Cummins was impressive on his return to action after missing the first two Tests through injury, claiming the key wicket of Joe Root as he returned figures of 3-54.

Spinner Nathan Lyon struck twice in his first over on his return to the team after being left out in Brisbane to surpass Glenn McGrath in second place on Australia's list of all-time Test wicket-takers, leaving only Shane Warne ahead of him.

Scott Boland (2-31) continued his strong series with more accurate bowling, Cameron Green took the key wicket of Brook, while Mitchell Starc was without a wicket on a quiet day for the left-armer who carried Australia's attack in the first two Tests.

Lyon said: "(I'm) pretty proud of the way the guys have gone about it. Pat's been phenomenal as captain, as always, but the effort from our fast bowlers to get them 213-8 off 68 overs is a pretty big effort. So rest up, recover, and we'll have another crack in the morning."

What appears to be an inevitable slide to defeat in the match and series for England over the coming days, will raise major questions over the futures of captain Stokes, head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key.

England batting coach Marcus Trescothick said: "We're in a position that we don't want to be in, obviously, eight down and still a number of runs behind. But we're still fighting and still in the game in terms of trying to make something happen tomorrow."

England's top order crumble

The day began in frustrating fashion for England as Australia added 45 runs to their overnight total of 326-8, with Starc (54) bringing up his half-century before being bowled by Archer.

The England quick would eventually trap Lyon (9) lbw to end the innings, but a heated on-field discussion with his skipper Stokes following the Starc dismissal threatened to overshadow his excellent return of 5-53.

The morning success for the Australian tail did at least appear to reiterate the high quality of the batting conditions, and that appeared to be reflected as England's openers raced to 37 without loss in the first seven overs.

However, Crawley edged a fine Cummins delivery - albeit one he could have left on length - through to Australia first-innings centurion Alex Carey to give the home side a breakthrough.

Cummins then struck with his captaincy as his decision to bring on Lyon shortly before lunch reaped instant rewards. Ollie Pope (3) hastened what is surely an impending exit from the England setup by shockingly chipping a regulation delivery to Josh Inglis at mid-wicket.

Having started his innings promisingly, Duckett (29) was then out later in the over to a beauty from Lyon that turned past the outside edge and onto off-stump to give the 38-year-old his 564th Test dismissal, taking him past McGrath.

With England reeling at 42-3, Root was fortunate to survive moments later when he inside-edged a Boland delivery onto his thigh pad and through to Carey, but a review upheld the on-field not out decision with replays inconclusive.

The reprieve would be short lived as Root was caught behind off Cummins shortly after lunch to leave England 71-4.

Stokes and a relatively circumspect Brook steadily rebuilt, but the latter fell in tame fashion when he nicked Green through to Carey as the all-rounder bowled his first over of the match shortly before tea.

Smith at the centre of another Snicko controversy

As had been the case a day earlier, the action in the final session was overshadowed by the remarkable failings of the Snicko technology being used to help the third umpire with decision reviews.

Carey was wrongly given not out on Wednesday after a review for caught behind. BBG Sports, the company operating Snicko, admitted after the close that the wrong stump mic had been used, causing a huge gap in sync between audio and pictures that resulted in an incorrect decision.

While the use of the wrong mic at the non-striker's end exacerbated the issue in the Carey incident, even with the correct mic at the striker's end being used, Snicko has been experiencing sync issues throughout the series.

Its shortcomings were first exposed again on Thursday when Smith, on 16 at the time, clearly gloved a ball to Usman Khawaja at slip, with the only doubt to most onlookers being as to whether the ball had carried to the fielder.

While replays quickly showed the ball had bounced, making the contact with Smith somewhat irrelevant, third umpire Chris Gaffaney spent a significant period of time attempting to ascertain whether the ball had struck glove or helmet, with the syncing issues between pictures and Snicko that saw Carey wrongly given not out on Wednesday causing confusion.

Gaffaney wrongly decided the ball had struck Smith's helmet rather than glove, but at least reached the correct decision of not out.

Unfortunately, Snicko was called upon again shortly after when Australia appealed for caught behind as Smith attempted to pull a short delivery from Cummins, with the situation complicated by the fact the umpires wanted to check whether the ball had carried to Carey.

This time it clearly had, but Gaffaney then went to Snicko despite it being unclear whether the on-field umpires had actually given Smith out, and neither side having clearly initiated a review process that would result in the use of Snicko.

There was a spike on Snicko that showed after the ball had passed the bat, while various close-up replays did not show any clear deviation. It therefore came as a surprise to England when an 'out' decision came up on the big screen, with Smith (22) throwing his hands out in disgust.

Boland deservedly claimed the scalps of Jacks (6) and Carse (0) soon after to reduce England to 168-8, before a cramp-ridden Stokes and counter-attacking Archer denied Australia in the evening sunshine.

Ashes series in Australia 2025-26

Australia lead five-match series 2-0

• First Test (Perth): Australia beat England by eight wickets
• Second Test (Brisbane): Australia beat England by eight wickets
• Third Test: Wednesday December 17 - Sunday December 21 (Adelaide)
• Fourth Test: Friday December 26 - Tuesday December 30 (Melbourne)
• Fifth Test: Sunday January 4 - Thursday January 8 (Sydney)

(c) Sky Sports 2025: The Ashes: England slide towards series defeat as batting fails again to give Australia control of third Test in Adelaide