England haven't let Stokes down, insists Trescothick

Captain struggles on as tourists are left trailing by 158 runs

- RORY DOLLARD IN ADELAIDE

Ben Stokes watched his England side crumble in the face of Ashes pressure yet again in Adelaide, but assistant coach Marcus Trescothick insisted the team had not let their captain down.

The scene was set for a struggling batting lineup to finally make its mark in response to Australia’s middling total of 371, but instead of cutting loose, they were cut down to size.

In sweltering heat of more than 40C, and on a true day-two pitch holding no demons, they scraped together a grossly underwhelming 213 for eight. The entire top three was in the pavilion inside 10 overs, and the rest were not far behind as Pat Cummins, Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon split the spoils in conditions that should have stretched them to the limit.

By the end of play, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith and Will Jacks all averaged under 30 for the series, a grim reflection of their collective struggles.