The Ashes 2023: England v Australia, first Test, day two – live

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6th over: Australia 14-0 (Warner 8, Khawaja 4) No Jersualem from the crowd. I can’t keep track of the convention any more. Is it only when England bat? The complicated journey of everybody’s favourite song about the ills of the Industrial Revolution, incorporating the vivid religious hallucinations of a poet with some version of psychosis.

Anderson to Khawaja, starting over the wicket to the left-hander despite those warm-ups around. Angles across, bowls in at the hip. Khawaja leaves and defends with some assurance. Doesn’t score.

5th over: Australia 14-0 (Warner 8, Khawaja 4) Warner survives! A leading edge first ball, into the ground in front of point. Three slips, no gully but a deeper set backward point for a full-blooded slash. Short cover, Stokes at mid off.

Three on the leg side: mid on, midwicket, long leg set quite square.

Khawaja is in the long-sleeved cricket knit, Warner just a shirt. Well, and some trousers. Shoes. Socks and pants, presumably. Gloves, helmet.

He’s mobile at the crease, getting across his stumps each time, well forward at Broad to get right on top of the ball and smother it. Sees off the over!

Stuart Broad with the ball, David Warner with the bat. A redux of yesterday’s skirmish, that Warner had the better of in the end. Shall we?

Jerusalem on the PA before a ball is bowled? Come on, surely that’s stealing the thunder of the crowd waiting for the second ball.

Here come the players onto the ground. They’re all wearing light blue caps, as part of Blue for Bob, the fundraising campaign for prostate cancer research in honour of former England skipper Bob Willis. The crowd offers a minute of applause rather than silence.

While we’re talking about Australia’s No6: “I’m really looking forward to watching Green this summer but surprised he only had a few overs. Are they saving him or does he have a bit of a niggle?”

Morning, David Brown. No injury, I think they were just happy to lock in Lyon at one end and use the others on rotation. So Green wasn’t much needed.

“I’d love to know what the Aussie batsmen have been told or how they’ve been preparing to face down Bazball,” writes Eric. My guess for the Aussie bowlers was, ‘Your numbers will suffer, just bowl, forget about the score.’ With the top 3 ranked Test batsmen yet to step out and if yesterday was anything to go off of it should be a cracker of a day 2.”

As far as batting goes, they don’t have to think about England’s style at all. I expect they’ll just do their regular thing. Warner, Head, Carey will be more attacking, Labuschagne, Smith and Khawaja will take their time. Green is the unknown given he’s the youngest and trying to adjust from a long IPL campaign.

Mitchell Starc is having a chat to Ricky Ponting on the field before they both stride off, Ponting dressed up in his sports coat for TV, Starc spinning a Sherrin football in his hands.

The rope is going around the outfield strung between two tractors. The covers are long gone, the hovercraft is off the pitch but still in the centre. Anderson bowls another practice delivery, around the wicket, imagining left-handers.

“Lots of us trying to get into the heads of the Australians and how they approaching this whole thing,” writes Peter Salmon. “For me the best insight was from Josh Hazlewood, when he said 400 is still 400, whether it takes 80 overs or 160. Seems the bowlers have been told to ignore strike rates and only look at the total. Seems a good plan to me.”

That’s it. Making 400 in a day doesn’t trump making 600 in two. There is cloud cover for England’s bowlers this morning, as Anderson and Broad warm up on the practice pitches, so the lower light and higher moisture content might make things tricky for Australia. Who knows, they could be knocked over for 200 and everyone will be celebrating England’s boldness. Or Steve Smith might check in for a two-night stay at the Edgbaston Hotel.

Ah, my favourite part of England OBOs – people asking for the TMS overseas link. A tradition that soothes my soul and gives me a sense of stability in a changing world, in much the same way that retaining a monarchy seems to do for others.

Here it is, for Damien and company.

Tim Gilkison is concerned. “Hello Geoff, we’re off to meet my dad for an early pre Father’s Day Father’s Day lunch. Your OBO will be my lifeline (you’re more important than you could ever imagine). I hope someone lends you a nice warm cardie, one that doesn’t cramp your undoubted sartorial style.”

You’re more important than you could ever imagine. Lines that a smiling narcissist might hear in their sleep. Thankfully my colleague Bharat Sundaresan has ferried some layers to the ground. Mine, not his, though borrowing from his wardrobe would make for a vibrant day.

“Amongst all the hoopla, do you think we’ve been underestimating Cummball? The Aussie skipper seems to be quietly confident.”

I’m not having this terminology, Patrick O’Brien. Not having it.

But yes, that’s the general thesis of my article below. The thing that Cummins shares with Stokes is removing the weight placed on results. He seems to genuinely believe it when he says that you want to win, you try as hard as you can, and you also accept that it doesn’t ultimately matter. If you lose, you smile and go on with your life. Enjoyment of a game is the thing.

Robert’s email, I should add, had the subject line “Nobody knows anything.” Which I like as a summary of the didactic efforts of humanity.

Blue ribbon stuff from Robert Ellson to start the day’s mail.

“‘England scored fast enough to win a game yesterday, but they also scored fast enough to lose one, and the delirium surrounding their exhilarating slogathon obscures the fact that, at best, [407] is a par score.’

“Which ‘philosopher’ said that? Some OBO guy at Edgbaston in 2005. Feels a bit like that, doesn’t it? If Josh Hazlewood gloves one down the leg side on Monday morning with one hand off the bat and Australia two runs short, let’s hope they’ve used up all their reviews...”

You might like to know that when we add Australia’s 14 for 0, there were exactly 407 runs scored at Edgbaston yesterday too.

You know the deal. If you have something to share that other people might enjoy reading hit the email via [email protected], or the creaking and spluttering tweet machine @GeoffLemonSport.

Lastly, there’ll be this over-by-over report, with me now and Tanya Aldred for the second half of the day. You can’t say we’re not giving Ashes value.

… and ended with the more powerful intoxicant of another artist’s chanceless day.

Then there’s Barney Ronay, whose day started like this…

… funny that he’s writing in the third person, but you know how creative types can be…

I was tasked with the Australian angle, for some reason. And from that perspective, as entertaining as England’s day was, I reckon the Australians will be very happy with bowling first and ending up conceding less than 400. They have they opportunity to control the match from here if they’re good enough with the bat.

I’m also doing a daily wrap podcast, if you’re audio inclined.

Yesterday, though, Andy knew what he was writing about after the first ball of the day.

And Simon also had the day’s Ashes Diary. Andy Bull will be doing that one today.

Simon Burnton meanwhile was on quotes duty.

Catch-up time! Given we have an entire squadron of Guardian writers at this match, let’s work through it bit by bit. To begin, Birmingham’s own Ali Martin with the match report.

Hello all, from the aficionado to the dilettante. It’s that time, it’s Ashes time, when anyone and everyone can plough through the turnstiles and get involved in The Great Game of Cricket™. We’ve had Test cricket for 146 years now, and it has thrown up plenty of twists and variations along the way. Yesterday’s exhibition, with all of the breeziness of England’s new don’t-worry-be-happy style was a lot of fun.

Joe Root played beautifully, Moeen Ali gave some reason for hometown cheers, Harry Brook gave us an immensely replayable moment, and amid all of the claims that Test cricket had been totally reinvented, a humble off-spinner whirled away at one end for most of the day in a display of one of the oldest crafts of all.

England declared shortly before the close last night on 393 for 8, and Australia got through four overs unscathed.

Today, it dawns cool and cloudy. Unexpectedly cool, for those of us on autopilot who arrived at the ground in our shirtsleeves and then had to send out an SOS for more garments. And here’s an early exclusive, given that the press box is mostly empty this long before the scheduled start: a sprinkling of rain out there. The covers are coming on. Presumably they’ll be gone by 11am.