England lose openers as Australia edge forward on rain-hit day

Australia took two wickets for two runs in a compelling 22-ball micro-session between rain breaks to edge ahead in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, as England lost both openers within four balls of one another.

England resumed their second innings on 26 for 0 after a 75-minute delay, with thick, dark clouds hanging over the floodlights. Only 20 minutes of play were possible before another thunder shower brought the day to a premature close, but that was enough time for Pat Cummins and Scott Boland to remove Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley respectively.

Duckett looked longingly at the groundstaff moments before his dismissal, who were getting the hover-cover ready on the midwicket boundary as the rain drew closer. As his focus returned to Cummins at the top of his mark, he pushed away from his body at a ball in the channel outside his off stump, and Cameron Green swooped low to his left to add another brilliant gully catch to his extensive collection.

Crawley had been worked over by Boland in the previous over, twice struck on the pad by good length balls that nipped in off the seam. He was forced to play at the first ball of the next one, drawn forwards to defend another in-ducker, and his thin edge flew through to Alex Carey. For the first time in the Test match, Australia's bowlers were the protagonists.

It was a stark contrast to the final stages of play before lunch, when the same players had subsided meekly to give England a seven-run first-innings lead. Australia's innings finished with a collapse of four wickets for 14 runs, as Ben Stokes set increasingly funky fields as if to see whether the lower order would manage to pick them out.

They duly obliged: Nathan Lyon pulled Ollie Robinson straight to deep backward square leg, Boland fended Stuart Broad's bouncer to silly point and Cummins mowed Robinson down the throat of Stokes himself at deep midwicket. It felt like a waste of the work that Usman Khawaja and Alex Carey had done, adding 118 across two days to trim the deficit.

Carey offered England a chance in the first over of the day, inside-edging James Anderson's inswinger through to Jonny Bairstow as he shaped to drive through cover. But Bairstow's difficult return to Test wicketkeeping duties continued: he dived low to his right, only to put the catch down.

He edged Anderson for four in his next over, then peeled off two in a row with a cut and a flick, but fell straight after. Anderson's wobble-seam ball nipped in from a good length, beating Carey on the inside edge and pinging into the top of the stumps.

Moeen Ali's 36th birthday celebrations started with the news that he had been fined 25% of his match fee for spraying a "drying agent" on his bowling hand and it quickly became apparent that a workload of 29 overs in his first day of red-ball cricket in 21 months had taken its toll on his spinning finger.

He was thumped down the ground for six by Khawaja in his first over of the day and let two full tosses slip to Cummins, who clobbered the second of them over midwicket. Cummins slammed a second six down the ground three balls later, but Australia were dried up by England's short-ball ploy as Moeen left the field and the seamers returned.

Stokes set a subcontinent-style field for Khawaja, first deploying four short midwickets and then the close catchers in front of the wicket on either side of the ground. Khawaja skipped down, trying to squeeze the ball through point, but only managed to york himself; Robinson gave him a send-off, but Khawaja wandered off to a standing ovation.

Crawley and Duckett made a busy start after lunch, ticking over the strike with Duckett deftly paddling Lyon for a single boundary before the showers started. The rain cleared up just enough for a quick burst under dark skies; England quickly wished it hadn't.