Foreboding clung to Australia throughout the second day at Trent Bridge as they successfully delayed what seemed to be inevitable England progress towards regaining the Ashes. The word "successfully" is used loosely. For the second Test in succession, they were faced by the threat not just of defeat, but defeat inside two days, but just as they did at Edgbaston, they summoned enough resistance to delay the suffering.

 

Delaying the suffering is one thing, tempering the condemnation that is already sounding back home quite another. Michael Clarke, poised to lose his second Ashes campaign as captain in England, suffered another disheartening dismissal that, at 34, might yet tip him into international retirement at the end of the series.

 

A two-day Ashes result is such a rarity it last occurred in 1921, and it seemed an evens bet when Australia embarked upon their second innings shortly before lunch with a deficit of 331.

 

Ben Stokes did his best to make it happen. He summoned by far his best bowling display of the Ashes summer, finding markedly more swing than any member of the England attack, but others were beginning to flag. Waiting can be such a tiring business.

 

Stokes took three wickets in consecutive overs late in the afternoon session as Australia's opening stand of 113 crumbled before their eyes, and left the field briefly for cramp in the final session, but he returned with his effectiveness unimpaired to strike twice more. By the close, with Australia seven down and trailing by 90 runs, he had 5 for 35 in 16 overs and the persistent threat of his boomerang swing will have caused many to see his bowling with different eyes.

 

Stokes was not just the combative, raw-boned allrounder who England envisage can become a game-changing figure for years to come, he was also the fourth seamer who Australia, mistakenly, had gambled that they did not need. The message - one of many unwelcome lessons - will not be lost upon them.

 

So Saturday survives, for a while at least, even if tickets for the cricket may not quite have the cachet they once had. But at least spectators will now be spared alternative attractions such as Nottingham's urban beach, where Australians could have more sand kicked in their faces.

 

The fortune that favoured England on the opening day when Stuart Broad's dream sequence blew away Australia for 60 was reluctant to bestow its favours upon them a second time.

 

Edges turned into play and misses and when England did find the bat, the slip catches that had been brilliantly taken first time around were spurned. David Warner was twice reprieved, firstly on 10 when Alastair Cook could not hold a diving catch at first slip, again on 42 when this time Ian Bell failed to hold a testing opportunity.

 

Steven Finn bowled in lacklustre fashion, there was no spin for Moeen Ali, and the pitch began to quieten. There was a suspicion of drooling around Warner's moustache. Rogers, too, broadened his range and there was further frustration for England when Wood had him caught at third slip for 47 only for replays to show he had overstepped.

 

He had bowled several no-balls before then without umpire S Ravi thinking to signal it, or mention it. Finn suffered the same outcome in the final session when Peter Nevill was spared. Ravi clearly favours a non-interventionist philosophy of life.

 

Two fraternal handshakes later, though, with half-centuries banked by both openers, the resistance ended. Rogers was the first to go, a slick, one-handed rescue at third slip by Joe Root which bore comparison with Stokes' own effort the previous day. Warner's flip pull, which had caused his downfall at Edgbaston, almost cost him when he squirmed Mark Wood over long leg for six. A repeat against Stokes' bouncer popped up a catch to mid-on. Shaun Marsh's poor Test was then completed by another catch for Root, a simpler one this time.

 

England's plans then proved strikingly successful, Cook bringing Stokes in at short cover for Steven Smith and being rewarded when his sliced drive at a wide one was well held low down, taking the bowler, Broad, past Fred Trueman's tally of 307 Test wickets. Four wickets had fallen in 27 balls and Stokes almost followed up with a run out.

 

Why Smith did not seek to calm the game ahead of tea was mystifying. There is no end to the appetite for batting aggression in this series even when it defies all logic. For England it has become a relief to escape their attritional cricket of previous years. For Australia, the swagger has been around for a long time. But in Smith's case it looked self-indulgent.

 

The post-tea session was a slog for all but Stokes. Wood's only intervention could have major ramifications - Clarke caught by Ian Bell after Cook twice juggled the catch towards him. Stokes then removed Peter Nevill and Mitchell Johnson, the latter backing away to make room to what he fatally discovered was actually a huge outswinger. Three left-handers removed in this way from around the wicket - and this was the best of them. England's colossus had stirred. Perhaps only bad light spared Australia from an extra half hour.

 

Earlier, Mitchell Starc had salvaged his best Test figures of 6 for 111 from a match that otherwise has provided unremitting gloom for Australia. After the delight of the first day came the levity of the second as England added a further 117 for the loss of five wickets. Three of them went to Starc, who swung the old ball skilfully, and late too, and at one stage had six of the first seven wickets to fall.

 

Root, 124 to his name, had played the one innings of quality on the opening day, but he never locked on to the second morning. Starc persisted with wide deliveries outside off stump, and not for the first time Root this series looked fallible, caught at the wicket as he tried to drive.

 

There was curious cricket at the other end, with Johnson serving up driveable deliveries to the nightwatchman, Wood. Starc plucked out his leg stump to end the fun and, in his next over, another lavish inducker emphatically cleaned up Buttler, so continuing his unproductive series.

 

When Stokes fell softly down the leg side against Josh Hazlewood, England, at 332 for 8, had seemed a touch wasteful, but Moeen was joined by Broad, who had arrived at his home ground to see his 8 for 15 already engraved on the Trent Bridge honours board. The pair gambolled along with a stand of 58 in eight overs, Hazlewood suffering the indignity of 20 from one over, including two elegant drives on the up from Moeen and a top-edged six by Broad into the beer queue - a strategic position, one imagines, he will be joining himself before too long.

(espncricinfo)