With Steve Smith missing, the hosts shifted the Ashes pack and came up trumps amid all the discombobulation Chalk it up to fates or fortune or a quirk of probability, whatever your inclination. If Australia’s first day of the Adelaide Test was a jigsaw puzzle hurled into the air, most of the the pieces landed face up in the right place. It has been a pattern for Australia in this Ashes series: monstered by England’s bowlers on Perth, only to create on an even greater collapse; sliding in Brisbane, rescued by the lower order. England, meanwhile, brought a game plan built on the surety that they couldn’t win in Australia with medium-fast seamers and a keeper up to the stumps, then lost to medium-fast seamers with a keeper up to the stumps. They were given the gift of no Pat Cummins, no Josh Hazlewood, no Nathan Lyon and still managed to lose twice in six days. Their third encounter brought the next gift: Steve Smith missing with an inner-ear problem, their own personal Ghost of Ashes Past replaced in the middle order by a creaking, squinting opener who Australia had already tried to drop. Continue reading...