The ball may be pink and the meal breaks off-kilter, but for so much of\u00a0the second day in this pivotal day-night Test match, the atmosphere\u00a0inside the Gabba was an all-too-familiar one for England\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n
Gone was the triumphalism that met Joe Root\u2019s first Test century on these shores<\/a> 24 hours earlier and in its place a creeping sense of dread. The bottom line is: England\u2019s bowlers spent most of the day sending down so many long hops and half-volleys as to make Jackson Pollock look positively precise.<\/p>\n Then there was the catching. Five chances went to grass over the course of three sessions, with Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith guilty for a couple apiece to follow their ducks on day one. It is hard enough to take 20 \u00adAustralian wickets in their backyard at the best of times, doubly so when hands turn into feet under pressure.<\/p>\n Yet by stumps, even with two of the reprieved in Alex Carey and Michael Neser having delivered a late flurry of runs, Ben Stokes and his\u00a0men were, somehow, still in the contest. \u00adAustralia had been \u00adominously \u00adpositioned at 291 for three earlier in the evening session, only to\u00a0close on 378 for six. Their lead of 44 is healthy, no question, just not yet fully decisive.<\/p>\n Stokes will have been telling his\u00a0men as such overnight, even if his radar was as haywire as the rest of them. Not that he can ever be \u00addiscounted, evidenced by \u00adseeing\u00a0Josh\u00a0Inglis handed a life by \u00adDuckett on 23 and then \u00addetonating out the\u00a0right-hander\u2019s middle stump\u00a0two\u00a0balls later.<\/p>\n This was day-night cricket at its wildest, with the pink Kookaburra ball coming out to play after dark and events taking on a life of their own. Summing up the chaos was Brydon Carse. He shipped 113 runs from 17 overs, removed two set men in \u00adCameron Green (45) and Steve Smith<\/a> (61), and yet still bungled a simple chance off Neser before the close.<\/p>\n