Live: Australia trying to extend Boxing Day Test after 'carnage and chaos' at the MCG – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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By Simon Smale
By Chris De Silva
Topic:Ashes
Australia, featuring night watchman and local hero Scott Boland, is hoping to show some resilience with the bat on day two to drive home its advantage after a chaotic Boxing Day at the MCG.
Follow all the action in our live blog below, keep up with all the stats in our ScoreCentre, and tune in to our live radio call.
By Jon Healy
By Simon Smale
I mean, when you think England couldn't make any more dumb decisions, they give the ball to the only man who can't seem to find his length, or bowl to left handers, with a left hander on strike.
Baffling. More baffling cricket decisions from England.
He starts OK, tight on Travis Head's hip and he defends.
By Simon Smale
Before we get to the cricket can we dispel this idea that the barmy army have taken over ‘bay 13 ‘. As someone who was a ‘member’ of bay 13 in the 1970’s I point out that its importance to cricket folklore bears no relation to ‘section m13’ as it now is. The memories of bay 13 will never be affected by commentators who were never there in its heyday ( the centenary test, the underarm ball , Merv’s athletics , Warnie’s peace request etc.). It should be noted much of the so-called hooliganism was sparked by on field taunts by players ( an English player in the slips giving a 2 finger salute to bay 13 between his legs was one example) . No-one who wasn’t there can ever imagine the reaction to the underarm ball – Aussies everywhere sought out kiwis in the crowd to apologise ! The original bay 13 is like the bush rangers – a part of history and the English are welcome to the new version.
– Phillip
By Simon Smale
If Tongue gets Boland with his first ball today he will have a hattrick which includes Boland twice. Has any test hattrick ever include the same batter twice?
– Mark
Two hat-tricks in a day hey..
By Simon Smale
No-one needs telling that as you age life seems to fly past with increasing speed. I've treasured the summer's Test cricket my whole life, especially the Ashes, but when the Boxing Day Ashes Test whizzes by at this rate life seems so very unfair.
– Old timer
Absolutely Old timer, it's the highlight of many people's summer, the Boxing Day Test.
Seems a real shame that it's likely going to be over so quickly.
The issue I guess is that the 2017 Boxing Day Test had only 24 wickets fall across the five days.
Since then, the seven matches have not produced a draw.
But if you want a load of wickets on Boxing Day, there were two BBL matches on yesterday to get your fill of slap and tickle cricket.
For those of us that prefer the finer things in life, this has been a shame.
Just another quick point, the previous Ashes Test in Melbourne, in 2021, was over inside three days so there's every likelihood that we'd have only had five days of Ashes Test cricket in Melbourne across the last two matches.
By Simon Smale
A reminder that Josh Tongue is currently on a hat-trick after dismissing Michael Neser and Scott Boland in consecutive balls to end the innings and claim a first day five-fa.
Sadly, we were robbed of seeing him complete a hat-trick across two innings in the same day when Gus Atkinson was thrown the ball.
And, that meant that we were robbed of what would have surely been a unique Test hat-trick opportunity too, because Boland was opening the batting as a night watchman.
Had Tongue opened the bowling and had he dismissed Boland first ball, Boland would have been two thirds of the hat-trick and consecutive balls too.
But that will not happen now, because you'd think that Tongue will open with the new ball this morning instead and have Travis Head on strike.
Because surely England won't hand Brydon Carse the new ball. He was the anomaly as the only one of England's bowlers not to perform to anything like the same level as the others yesterday.
By Simon Smale
Anyone get any decent cricket Christmas presents?
My wife got me a book called Victory in Australia (it's about the victorious England tour or 1954/55.) which I'm sure you'd agree is expert trolling from her.
By Jon Healy
Tens of thousands of people have travelled from all over Australia and England to see this Ashes series.
The first Test of the series ended in two days and now there's a very real possibility of this game doing the same, which would mean four Tests have been wrapped up inside 13 days.
"The way England look to play it's like a sugar hit. It's one-trick pony set up. I think it also [depends on your] definition of entertainment," former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie said on Grandstand At Stumps.
"England came out a few years ago and said 'we wanna save Test cricket' — I'm not convinced Test cricket needed saving — But [they said] 'we've gotta play entertaining cricket'. Their definition of entertainment is just going out and whacking it, but I reckon [England has] the most un-entertaining bowling line-up going around because they're very defensive.
"My definition of entertainment is a good contest between bat and ball that goes deep into a game. I've been very entertained a lot in Test cricket with thrilling draws where teams are saving a game.
"I think if you asked the 90-odd thousand people in this stadium [on day one], yes there's entertainment, but also a tinge of disappointment as well."
As explosive and dramatic as day one was, spare a thought for people who forked out a pretty penny for tickets on day three or, god forbid, four and five.
By Dean Bilton
It's chilly again, but not nearly as freezing as yesterday. Barely a cloud in the sky too which will aid in the all-round defrosting.
Cool temps aren't going to help the pitch though, which should remain relatively soft as it hasn't yet had a chance to really bake out. Not to say there will be 20 wickets again today, but batting isn't going to be a whole lot easier.
By Simon Smale
After yesterday's action one (with day three tickets) would hope this is a pitch that settles over time rather than becoming more chaotic.
– Doc
I feel your pain Doc.
And so did one of my good friends, who was so worried that he wouldn't see any cricket with his third day cricket that he scrambled and got a ticket for today's action instead.
Will the pitch flatten out? Scott Boland didn't seem certain when Fox Sports spoke to him a little while ago.
And Dean Bilton at the ground tells us that there is some suggestion that the pitch is going to play even worse today.
Which is fun.
By Simon Smale
 Hands up if you had these four  batters in your top scorers yesterday…
By Simon Smale
Look, nobody is going to accuse this England team of having the first sense of what it is to value their wickets.
But for 20 of them to fall in a single day (obviously only 10 of them English) suggests there was something pretty serious going on with the pitch.
"We're always looking for a fair balance between bat and ball. I thought that was unfair for the batters," Michael Vaughan told the BBC Test Match Special at the close yesterday.
"The pitch has done plenty. There's been plenty of movement out there. It's not been easy for both sides but I don't like seeing a pitch do so much."
So was it doing too much?
Some of the seam movement off the pitch was excessive to most observers eyes, making some deliveries completely unplayable.
Former Australian coach Darren Lehmann declared the MCG pitch — which featured 10mm of grass on it — as worse than the Perth pitch from the series opener.
However, batters from both sides came in for heavy criticism for a lack of application throughout the day's play.
Lehmann's former teammate Jason Gillespie accused England's batters of putting the task of surviving in the middle in the "too hard basket", while fellow former Australian paceman Stuart Clark said the overall spectacle was "certainly not good for Test cricket".
"Looking at the scores, obviously people will say it's the type of surface that's done too much," Gillespie said on ABC Radio.
"Bowlers have bowled well, but the bowlers are allowed to bowl well. Batters are allowed to trust their technique, strategise and figure out a game plan, and we just haven't seen that today."
Read more here.
By Simon Smale
By Jon Healy
Everyone has a take on the first day's play at the MCG after a ridiculous 20 wickets fell and we saw Boxing Day end with the start of the third innings of the Test.
I think most people agree the bowling was pretty good and the batting was lacking decent technique, but that the pitch was probably a bit too helpful to ball movement.
"There's a pretty fine balance between action and excitement, and carnage and chaos. And I think this tipped the balance into carnage and chaos," former Test opener Ed Cowan said on the ABC Cricket Podcast.
"Would it have been possible for it to have been a 13- or 14-wicket day? And how much is attributable to the conducive conditions and how much is attributable to some pretty average batting? I think it's probs 60/40 conditions. There was some pretty average batting.
"I'll tell you what's gone out of the game: The forward defence, the locked-in forward defence under the eyes, bat and pad together where the ball just trickles back to the bowler, you show the maker's name.
"Call me old fashioned, but a few more of those today and — I still think it would've been a 13- or 14-wicket day, because there would've been balls with your name on it — but a little bit more graft, a little bit of technique, a little bit more patience and I think we would've seen a lesser outcome of carnage. But I think there was too much grass on the wicket."
By Simon Smale
Hello everybody and welcome to day two of the Boxing Day Test.
Blip, zog, wug, flike, spoat, skron, spleg, drom, bibble, slambition…
Oh, I'm sorry, given the nonsense we saw yesterday I figured I'd just start with some complete gobbledygook on this morning's blog.
A ridiculous 20 wickets fell on day one, a combination of some terrible shots, excellent bowling and a pitch that in my opinion moved excessively off the seam.
England finally discovered what a good length looked like in Australia — it only took them 12 days to be fair — but as has been the case all series, the batters completely negated any good the men with the ball did by throwing their wickets away with complete abandon.
Will we see similar carnage today? We'll find out soon enough.
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