As the ball looped off the edge of the bat and substitute Peter Handscomb backpedalled rapidly at point to take an excellent diving catch at full stretch, Dawid Malan swished his bat at the ground in annoyance. He had made 140, a maiden Test hundred and as fine an innings as you could wish to see, the best of his life, but he knew, as soon as he had been deceived in the flight by Nathan Lyon, that he had missed a chance to slam the door shut on Australia for good. You can, as an old coach used to say, never have enough. Less than ten overs later, about 40 minutes in all, from the sunlit uplands of 368 for four, England were all…

Source: The Times December 15, 2017 10:52 UTC