England have finally shifted their focus from the off-field issues. Today they have exceeded their previous scores in any innings of the first two Tests of the Ashes.

Winning the toss, England chose to bat first. In the match of bidding farewell to England’s ground of doom, the Lions kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. However, the 174-run unbroken partnership of Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan saw the team put up a total of 305 runs on the scoreboard losing four wickets.

While, Alstair Cook was dismissed after scoring 7 runs, the other opener—Mark Stoneman—picked up his half-century and made 56 runs off 110 deliveries before getting caught behind like his fellow teammates—James Vince and Joe Root.

Josh Hazlewood earned the wicket of James, as Pat Cummins bagged the wicket of the English skipper. Vince and Root scored 25 and 20 respectively.

Dawid Malan scored a ton and surpassed his previous highest score of 65 runs scored against the West Indies team this year. When his team was under pressure, Malan stood there and played an impressive knock of 110 runs, hitting fifteen 4s and the only over-boundary of this game and facing 174 deliveries.

Dawid Malan also became the only 5th English batsman to score his maiden hundred at WACA, the other four players being Brian Luckhurst, Chris Broad, Jack Richards and Ben Stokes. Chris Board’s innings of 162 in 1986, stands the highest score by a maiden centurion at this stadium.

Australian bowlers have got a mixed behavior from the pitch in Perth. Mitchell Marsh bowled 7 overs giving away 25 runs and remaining wicketless after being recalled into the Aussie squad. After bowling 19 overs, Nathan Lyon also failed to take any wicket like his captain, Steve Smith, who bowled 3 overs.

The English batsman Jonny Bairstow has played an innings of 75 not out. Both Malan and Bairstow will try to gift their team with a big score tomorrow to keep their hopes alive in this series. Previously, their skipper sounded confident about retaining the Urn by turning around this series, where they are already down 2-0.