Joy Root had to endure the pain of being hit twice in the Unmanables – and then the absolute pain of being sacked.
Captain Root was dismissed on the last ball of the fourth day of the second Test.
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He scored four and England finished with 82-4, yet 386 runs short of victory was impossible.
Strike one for Root came before play when he was throwing a throwdown in the nets from spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel and a ball backed down and hit him where it hurts the most.
He was not wearing a box and the pain was so severe that Root went to the hospital for a check-up and missed the first 80 minutes of play.
England’s official statement said it was a ‘belly’ blow but we all know what it meant.
The strike came ten minutes before close when Mitchell Starc’s 88mph ball crashed into the lower areas of Root.
He collapsed in pain and required lengthy treatment before he was able to continue. Then, would you believe, he took a catch behind Starc for 24 and the players went away.
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Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan and Rory Burns were also dismissed and now it is certainly a case when – if not – England went 0-2 down in the series.
Burns, the left-handed opener, more than doubled his series total with a knock of 34 runs, but of course, it was nowhere near enough.
Hameed got a snorer from Jhye Richardson who picked up and touched his glove on the way to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
Out for a duck, he is now under as much pressure as any other poor England batsman.
It was the 13th duck by an England opener in Tests this year, surpassing the previous record of nine made by New Zealand in 1994 and Pakistan in 2002.
Malan was lbw at the hands of debutant Michael Neser and a review only confirmed what looked certain in real time – England’s No. 3 was plumb.
Burns, who managed to survive at least this time till the 31st over, dismissed Richardson to Steve Smith at second slip.
And Root too was nearly out as Australia tightened their grip on the series.
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Initially in Root’s absence, Stokes took charge and England had a really good first hour, during which Australia scored just 14 runs and lost three wickets.
Jos Buttler took two fine catches to remove Marcus Harris and Steve Smith but dropped another easy catch to get Smith off.
That has been Buttler’s practice in this match – take tough catches but drop simple catches.
In fact, Smith could have got out twice before scoring. Apart from the drop, Butler was seen lbw to the stand-in Australian captain Stuart Broad.
But umpire Rod Tucker said ‘no’ and DRS showed the impact of the ball on the pads as ‘umpire’s call’.
Travis Head infused some energy into Australia’s batting and suddenly he started scoring more quickly and he nearly contributed a half-century off a run-a-ball.
Marnus Labuschagne, who had one of 35 deliveries at one point, scored another half-century with 51 off 96 balls.
If 14 runs came in the first 14 overs of the day, then 75 runs were found in the next 13 overs. Stokes’ two overs went for 24 runs.
Australia’s second innings ended with a spin from Root and Malan and the pair were gifted two wickets each during a late slog.
Seven different bowlers took wickets for England in this match, the first time it had happened in a single Test since playing South Africa in 1965.
And this is only the second time any side has taken seven wickets in an Ashes Test.
