Tim Paine braved blows to his finger to stitch an 85-run stand with Shaun Marsh. BCCI
England fought hard in the first session of the second day but it was Australia who managed to retain the upper-hand. Shaun Marsh (49*) and Tim Paine (57) negated the early strike that Stuart Broad gave them as Australia pushed ahead to 306/6 by Tea.
Peter Handscomb was trapped LBW by Broad off the third delivery of the morning but that breakthrough was all England managed for a long time as Paine and Marsh added 85 runs for the sixth wicket. The former was keen to land some counterpunches of his own as soon as he came in and England's errant lines and lengths offered him a relatively pressure-free start. He didn't look back from there, while Marsh was happy playing second fiddle and locking one end up.
England did have their moments though, particularly James Anderson after switching ends, when he trapped both Marsh and Paine LBW in successive overs. But both the onfield decisions were overturned by DRS, with the ball-tracker deciding that the ball was bouncing far too high to be hitting the stumps. With that slice of good fortune, both batsmen continued to push Australia ahead as England struggled to separate them. Paine even endured a couple of hits to his fingers, where he already has a history of injuries, but managed to continue unfazed to register his third Test fifty, and an important one for Australia.
He was eventually dismissed pulling a short ball from Overton to deep square leg but Australia were already in touching distance of a respectable score by then.
Marsh and Mitchell Starc took them past the 300-run mark with the former one short of a well-deserved half century while England were left ruing another opportunity to gain control of the match that slipped away.
Brief Scores: Australia 306/6 (Tim Paine 57, Usman Khawaja 53, Shaun Marsh 49*; Criag Overton 2-69)
