Australia lead England 1-0 with four to play as the teams move on to Brisbane for the second Ashes test, a day / night match which gets underway on Thursday
Perth was the venue for the first Ashes test match and it took just 2 days to get a result with Australia coming home by 8 wickets.
England won the toss and opted to bat first and they made just 172 in 32.5 overs. Harry Brook (52) and Ollie Pope (46) were the top scorers with Jamie Smith (33) and Ben Duckett (21) the only other batsmen to reach double figures in an innings which saw Crawley and Root dismissed without scoring. Mitchell Starc took 7 wickets in his 12.5 overs.
England hit back to claim a first innings lead, bowling Australia out for just 132 in 45.2 overs. Carey (26), Green (24) and Head (21) were the top scorers and Stokes took 5 wickets in 6 overs with Archer claiming another 3.
That was a smallish but nonetheless handy lead for England but they couldn’t press home their advantage and they were bowled out for 164 in their second knock with Boland taking 4 wickets and Dogget and Starc 3 a piece. Atkins (37) and Carse (2-0) took the lead past 200 but Crawley again failed to score, as did Brook and Root made just 8.
The game still looked pretty well balanced as Australia began the final innings and all of a sudden Travis Head made batting look easy, smashing 123 off 83 balls, Labuschagne (51 not out) provided the back up and Australia needed just 28.2 overs to crash off just over 200 for victory. Starc was named Man of the Match.
This was how the teams lined up in Perth.
Australia: Usman Khawaja,Jake Weatherald ,Marnus Labuschagne,Steven Smith (c),Travis Head,Cameron Green,Alex Carey (wk),Mitchell Starc,Nathan Lyon,Brendan Doggett,Scott Boland
Note, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are still on the sidelines for Australia
England: Ben Duckett,Zak Crawley,Ollie Pope,Joe Root,Harry Brook,Ben Stokes (c),Jamie Smith (wk),Gus Atkinson,Brydon Carse,Jofra Archer,Mark Wood
Recent Form:
Australia
Since losing the final of the World Test Championship to South Africa at Lords in June Australia’s only subsequent test match series saw them complete a 3-0 clean sweep of West Indies in the Caribbean with 3 wide margin wins.
In their most recent home series from November 2024 to Jan 2025 Australia beat India 3-1 (1 draw).
England
England hosted India in a 5 match series in June / July this year and it turned out to be a thriller which was drawn 2-2 with 1 draw.
In New Zealand 12 months ago England won a 3 match series 2-1.
Recent Ashes Series
In England in 2023 the series was drawn 2-2 (1-1)
In Australia in 2021/22 England lost 4-0 (1 draw)
In England in 2019 a 5 match series was drawn 2-2 and Australia retained the urn.
In Australia in 2017/18 England lost 4-0 (1 draw)
The Venue, Gabba, Brisbane
Over the course of the last decade Australia have played 9 test matches at The Gabba, winning 6 and losing 2 and we have seen 1 draw which came against India 12 months ago when rain and bad light later in the test match were a factor.
In the 2021 Ashes test Australia beat England by 9 wickets (England 147 and 297, Australia 425 and 20/1)
Series Betting Update
Prices quoted from Sportingbet are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Australia are now 0.22/1 to win the series with a tie at 10/1 and England are a 9/2 chance
A 3-2 series win for Australia is priced at 33/10 and it's also the same price for Australia to win 4-1.
1st Test Betting
Prices quoted from Sportingbet are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Australia are 0.52/1 to win the second test with a draw at 12/1 and England can be backed at 19/10
The Verdict
This is a day night test so conditions could well be worth checking on match day in terms of the significance of the toss and England have plenty of questions to answer after their batting woes in Perth. For information purposes the 1st innings total runs line for whoever bats first is 281.5 with Pokerbet.
Harry Brook at least scored a 50 in the 1st innings of the series opener and I’ll give him the vote to do likewise here. After that I’m battling to find anything and for now will just take a small nibble at Cam Green in the MoM market as he could contribute with bat and ball.
Bets: To Score a 50 in the 1st Innings, Harry Brook? Yes at 1.75/1 with Sportingbet
Man of the Match, Cam Green at 13/1 with BetXchange
