Adelaide, Dec 18 (IANS): England batter Dawid Malan is aware that the batting collapses by his team have become a small trend in the ongoing Ashes. He has urged his teammates to get partnerships once a wicket falls down as they can't afford to play catch-up all the time.

Malan top-scored in England's first innings total of 236 with 80 off 157 balls. The left-hander had a partnership of 138 with captain Joe Root (62). But after reaching 150/2, England lost the last eight wickets, including Malan and Root for just 86 runs to finish at 236 all out and concede a huge 237-run lead to Australia.

"It is a little bit of a trend. It is something we did on the last tour as well and we did this in the last Test here as well. We get a little bit of momentum and a partnership going and when the Aussies get one wicket they take two or three in clusters and we then go from 150 for two to 180 for six and we are chasing it again. We need to get better when we lose that one wicket to make sure we get another partnership going as quickly as possible," said Malan in a chat with BT Sport after day three came to a close.

Malan expressed anguish over England being unable to build upon the 138-run partnership between him and Root. "After we lost those two wickets last night we needed to get a partnership going which myself and Rooty got, we got ourselves into a half-decent position, and once again when the Aussies got that door open they just jumped straight through it."

He was also gutted over his failure to convert a half-century into a big knock. "It is disappointing, frustrating that we have got ourselves back into the fight but we lost too many wickets in clusters there. I didn't play a great shot, when you get to 80 you want to be making them count, especially out here, so to get out how I got out was disappointing. A few of us played shots we will look back and wish we didn't but that's cricket."

The 34-year-old stated he enjoyed batting alongside Root in what was the third time the Yorkshire pair stitched a century-plus stand in 2021. "I do, he is one of the best batters to have ever played the game. If you look at his numbers and where he has done it, to be able to watch him and learn how he goes about it, every innings he seems to find another way to score runs."

Malan signed off by saying his team is aware of something 'crazy' to happen in order to avoid losing the Adelaide Test. "We got that one wicket tonight so hopefully we can have a crazy hour or two somewhere. We have to take wickets and to try and put them under as much pressure as we can and then bat for a very long period."