Saturday 25 November 2017 00:27, UK
After a closely fought first day in the Ashes opener, it looked like England would have the upper hand after the second before Steve Smith intervened. Here's all you need to know from the Gabba...
Steve Smith hit his 22nd Test fifty to help Australia recover from 76-4 to end day two of the first Ashes Test on 165-4, deficit of 137 runs.
Jake Ball, England seamer: "It can go either way but I think we're in a decent position. If we can get a good night's rest and come out hard in the morning, nick a couple out and get into the likes of Starc and Cummins then that is a good position for us to be in.
"I think you always want a few more runs but coming off the field we were happy with it [302 all out]. I think the pitch has flattened out and got quite slow as we saw in that last session. With the turn and a little bit of variable bounce we were quite happy with the score."
Mitchell Starc, Australia seamer, speaking to BT Sport: "We had to adapt to the wicket - it's not zipping through - so to get six for 115 was a good finish with the ball. We didn't have the ideal start with the bat but Smith and Marsh have dug in, ground it out, and found a way to build a good partnership.
Michael Atherton, Sky Sports pundit: "The best thing for England today was Joe Root's captaincy - I thought he was superb in the field. The strategy he had in place for every batsman, the tinkering of the field, the way he set traps. You need the bowlers to do it and Anderson and Broad were superb."
Jake Ball took the big wicket of David Warner shortly before tea to leave Australia three down and put England in the ascendancy. The significance was not lost on England captain Joe Root.
Mark Stoneman (53), James Vince (83) and Dawid Malan (56) provided the first ever instance of three Ashes debutants scoring fifties in the same innings.
