Wrecking
ball Mitchell Johnson laid further scars on England's battered psyche with a
stunning seven-wicket haul that skittled the tourists for 172 and put Australia
in complete control of the second Ashes test after the third day on Saturday.
The red-hot
Queenslander unleashed a withering spell of pace bowling at Adelaide Oval to
take three wickets in his second over after lunch, then cleaned up the tail
before tea to leave England 199 runs short of avoiding the follow-on.
With the
luxury of a further two days' play, Australia captain Michael Clarke sent his
batsmen in to give his bowlers a rest and fired by an unbeaten 83 from opener
David Warner, they pushed the lead to a mammoth 530 runs.Australia
will make England sweat in the field until close to lunch on day four, which is
forecast to be a sweltering 32 degrees Celsius, before their bowlers push for
the win on a pitch showing ample turn and reverse swing.
"We
want to get them back out there in the field and keep cooking them a bit,"
Johnson said.
"It's
probably going to be a day five wicket out there tomorrow. You could see the
amount of spin the two spinners out there were getting and that variable bounce
has definitely come in and they got the ball to reverse really early, so it's
good signs for us."
No team has
ever made more than 418 in a fourth innings chase, and England, improbably, are
staring at a 2-0 deficit in the five-test series ahead of a trip to Johnson's
favourite hunting ground in Perth where England have not won since 1978.
Only months
after returning home from England in ignominy after a third straight Ashes
defeat, Australia's turnaround has been little short of astonishing, and the
principal architect has been the man selectors snubbed for the northern series.
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