Righto, that is all from us today.The lights are dimmed here at Brisbane’s Gabba and the pitch is being watered by the ground staff.Australia are one win away from being home and hosed themselves.We’ll be back to OBO the third game of the series in Adelaide starting on 16th December.All Ben Stokes wants for Christmas… is a Test match win in Australia.

Thanks for your company and comments, goodbye and toodle-oo.Geoff Lemon has dipped his quill on ‘triumph of modesty’ and five wicket hauler - Michael Neser:“Neser is a triumph of modesty.Where Nathan Lyon was spitting chips on live television over being left out for one Test match, Neser has been left out for years.This was his third match in four Australian summers, all of them day-night fixtures, while sitting on the bench through untold numbers of squads and camps and second XIs.He has always been good enough to play, but never enough to push past the four bigger, taller, flashier quicks.

Through this frustration, at least publicly, he has never said a word.So Neser knows about waiting for things to break his way, and set about doing exactly that on his first outing at his home ground.His singular quality is consistency, honed from a first-class debut in 2010 to his most high-profile moment today.His pitch map was more laser pointer than scatterplot.He hit the same length, gave no drives, no leg-side width to glance, and decked the ball subtly enough to draw mistakes.

”Simon Burnton is here at the Gabba and has written about the thorny issue of match preparation,This one will rumble and rumble,“The England & Wales Cricket Board is ready to offer Australia their pick of warm-up facilities before the next Ashes series in 2027, in an attempt to secure similar treatment when England return in 2029-30 and avoid being forced into the kind of buildup that preceded the current series and has become the focus of intense criticism,England’s preparations are under the microscope given their dismal start to this series, with the first Test lost inside two days and the second lost in four, with Australia’s winning margins eight wickets both times,“If I was an England supporter and had paid the money to come here, I’d be asking the ECB for a refund,” Ian Botham said on Sunday.

“Because this team, for me, is not prepared.”Brendon McCullum has been doing the media rounds, fair to say he has an interesting take.Speaking to the BBC’s Test Match Special about whether he and his side plan to do anything differently he responded: Not from a preparation point of view… If anything we trained too much.We had five to 10 training session leading into this game.Something as a coach you have to be aware of.

Sometimes there is a tendency to overdo things to make up for it,“As we all know in this game it is played in the top two inches,We all have to find a way that we ensure that we feel prepared physically, technically and we are ready for the battle, but also to make sure we are fresh and make sure we can make those decisions in the heat of the games,”“Morning James” writes Henry L,“I agree with everything that Simon McMahon has just written but looking forward – if England could just show the togetherness, grit, talent and bloody-mindedness to win one of remaining test matches, that would breathe life into English cricket.

It’s so important that they do everything to compete from here on in.”He’s not wrong.Mitchell Starc is player of the match.Quelle Suprise.This 2025/6 series is very much shaping up to be Starc’s Ashes.

Two wins.I can’t ask for much more.A hard-fought win and glad to be on the right side of it.How’s the body holding up? It takes a bit longer in the mornings at this age, but I’m doing okay.Hanging in there! I still try to bowl as quick as I can and hit the stumps every time so I keep running in.

We’ve seen on this ground before the wicket is hard and that pink ball goes soft pretty early so I think as a bowling unit we bowled well in both innings,Obviously batting in the first innings it was key we got a lead there,Michael Neser, on his home ground in front of his family, was phenomenal today,”A taste of the OBO mailbag:“Even 90 more runs and England could have made a fight out of this,.

.”“Great to see that England’s preparation worked as efficiently here as it did in Perth.So fantastic that they didn’t play any cricket in the 11 days between the first and second Tests.We know it’s working for them, because Stokes said so.”“Wait, how much better will Australia be when Cummins and Hazlewood and Lyon return?”Steve Smith speaks:It just felt right to play a few shots.

He (Jofra) was obviously bowling quick and I thought I’d hit a few up and try to get hold of a couple.I tried to finish it quick.There’s a bit of a storm coming round so wanted to get it done by playing a few shots.High percentage with the short boundary behind me so wanted to take it on.I thought the boys played exceptionally well.

Our first innings batting the tail were unbelievable.The bottom four batted for 53 overs or something like that which allowed us to get into the dark last night and to take six wickets got us front of the game.Will Jacks and Ben Stokes had a good partnership today and you never know what would happen if Stokesy is still at the crease.”On the spicy exchange with Jofra Archer…That stays on the field.It was good banter.

He’s a good competitor and comes hard at you so it was good fun.”More from Ben Stokes: “We need to think a bit harder and deeper about those moments and show a little more fight when it is needed.”It’s very disappointing.I think a lot of it to me comes down to not being able to stand up to the pressure of this game, this format, when the game is on the line.In small passages we have been able to bring the game back into some kind of control and then let it slip away.

It is very disappointing, in particular because of the ability of the players we have in that dressing room.We need to think a bit harder and deeper about those moments and show a little more fight when it is needed.If I could have put my finger on it I would be able to tell you.It is not a skill thing.It is not down to skill.

You have got to dig a bit deeper and find out what the thing is that we seem to keep doing in the big moments of the game,We will be having some conversations that I will be keeping in the dressing room,”England captain Ben Stokes speaks: “We are not weak,We need to sort it”It is up to us as players to go out with a plan,It seems to be a constant theme at the moment that when game is a pressure moment Australia keep out doing us.

They say Australia isn’t a place for weak men.We are definitely not weak but we need to find something.We need to sort it.“I absolutely believe in that dressing room.I have full belief in the players in there and the coaching staff.

We have to win these next three games,We have been 2-0 down before and know what we have to do,We ain’t going to shy away from the battle but we do need to look at where things have gone and sort them out pretty quick,”As I type up some reaction from Ben Stokes and Steve Smith, have a read of this why don’t you:They are setting up for the presentation here at the Gabba, I’ll bring some live reaction as it comes,“Like so much in life, Jim, it’s a case of what might have been for England.

I don’t think there’s actually all that much between the teams, but Australia have just been, well, better, especially in the key moments.You can talk about Bazball and England’s approach and preparation all you like but in the end it’s irrelevant.Australia have just been better.Still, better to have loved and lost tried and failed than never to have tried at all, right?”Impressively philosophical from Simon McMahon in the minutes after defeat.Steve Smith swats Gus Atkinson for SIX to seal the win! What a shot and what a win for Australia, they have pummelled England in this match and now hold all the cards in this Ashes series.

England showed some fight with the bat through Stokes and Jacks but they lost this match on days 1-3 where they were out-bowled, out-batted, out-fielded and out-thought by Australia.What a dominant, calm and clinical performance this has been from Australia, do you know what, I reckon they are favourites to win the series from here.9th over: Australia 57-2 (Weatherald 12, Smith 16) Drama at the Gabba! Archer is bowling some serious heat, every ball over 90MPH.Smith doesn’t care, he spanks a four through midwicket and then cuffs a pull shot for four over the keeper.Archer follows up with words and Ben Stokes swoops in to back up his bowler, slapping his hand and tapping his bottom.

SIX! Smith hooks the next ball, a 91 MPH bouncer over the rope at fine leg,What a riposte from Smith,Have some of that,The shot also brings up his 1000th run at the Gabba in Test cricket,What theatre.

England have four men acting as backstops behind the keeper as Archer cranks it up.Smith cuts to the deep third for a single and Weatherald blocks out the final delivery.Searing stuff at the Gabba.Australia need 8 runs to win.8th over: Australia 42-2 (Weatherald 12, Smith 1) Atkinson is worked for a single by Smith to huge home cheers.

The beleaguered bowler then beats Weatherald with a nipper outside off stump.Too little, too…“Hi Jim, is Black Friday over? I may need a new TV if anyone from the England camp says that they trust in their system…”Head towards the danger… of a broken Grundig, Peter SalmonAtkinson gets Marnus with a snorter! Spits off a length and takes the edge.Labuschagne is abject, dragging himself from the field.The Barmy Army come to life momentarily and then a bit more as Steve Smith walks out to the middle.7th over: Australia 41-1 (Weatherald 12, Labuschagne 3) Archer scuds a fast ball onto Weatherald’s lower pad and he thinks he has him man in similar fashion to Perth.

The ump says no and England sends it upstairs, it’s missing leg – NOT OUT.Here endeth the potential wobble.Guy Hornsby likely speaks for plenty of England fans:“Morning James.I know many of us have seen this movie a few dozen times, but this feels one of the more galling episodes.It felt like we had a good team and a decent chance, and as Perth showed, we had chances.

But what’s seemingly emblematic of this team, we have failed to take any opportunities we’ve been given or won.At almost every point - bar Root’s ton and the partnership this morning - our batters have shown little application.It’s deeply worrying both because it should be obvious, and because there seems no introspection from the leadership.If, as could well happen, this whole group unravels, does the recent awarding of extended contracts to the coach and captain feel overly confident? And what on earth does Rob Key think here? (Probably that we can still win 3-2).What a mess