Ashes in a nutshell: All you need to know from day two in Melbourne

Cook's ton, Curran's debut wicket, and Jimmy passing Courtney - all you need to know from an England-dominated day at the MCG...

SCORECARD | COOK'S GREATEST KNOCKS

THE REPORT

Alastair Cook returned to form with an unbeaten 104 after Stuart Broad bagged four wickets and Tom Curran made Steve Smith his maiden Test scalp as England battled back on day two against Australia in Melbourne.

MOMENT OF THE DAY

It looked for all money like it would be Curran forcing Smith to chop onto his stumps for 76 - a day after the debutant had David Warner caught off a no-ball on 99 - with the wicket not only proving a joyous moment for the bowler but also triggering an Australia collapse of 7-67.

That was until Cook answered his critics in stunning style, completing a 32nd Test century - the same number as Steve Waugh - from 164 balls in an innings laced with cuts, pulls, clips and confident drives and featuring just the one real scare: Smith dropping him at slip on 66 off Mitch Marsh.

James Anderson also recorded a milestone, moving past Courtney Walsh's 519 Test wickets and up to outright fifth on the all-time list, with his three scalps in Australia's 327 all out taking him on to 521. Glenn McGrath (563) is the only seamer above Anderson. WHO IS JIMMY CHASING?

STAT OF THE DAY

Cook has joined Sunil Gavaskar as the only visiting player to score a ton at all five of Australia's main Test grounds (Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney). Each of his five Ashes hundreds has come in Australia.

WHAT THEY SAID:

England seamer STUART BROAD: "I've gone to the place that you have to go to as a sportsman where you find something within yourself, get support from people around you and build yourself back up again.

"You don't play this amount of international sport without some sort of deep inner self-confidence that you can find when you are very low. You have something there you can clutch on to when things get tough.

"I've had one of those weeks where you get your tin hat on, duck down and don't really see much. I think you can get yourself in a bit of dark place if you read everything [in the media]." READ MORE HERE!

Australia spinner NATHAN LYON: "You always know there is world class in that opposition changing room. They have absolute superstars in there, so there was going to be a time in this series that they all stand up.

"Hats off to Cook, he batted extremely well and we all know how much of a talent he is. You always want to take your catches, we know how important they are. It was unlucky it popped out [for Smith] at the last minute.

"If we can come out tomorrow and challenge their defences a lot more than we did today, then hopefully we can get a couple of breakthroughs and see where we get to."

TWEETS OF THE DAY

Cook, understandably, was the talk of the Twitterverse...

But he wasn't the only thing to be mentioned...

WATCH: ATHERS' ASHES REVIEW

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