A pumped-up Australian bowling unit ripped through England’s fragile batting on Thursday to leave the tourists staring down the barrel of a third successive Test defeat with their Ashes campaign on the brink, barring a miracle. 

At stumps on a sweltering Day Two, the visitors had ground to 213-8, trailing by 158 after Australia added 45 to their overnight 326-8, with Mitchell Starc scoring his second fifty on the trot (54).