Adelaide — Top scorer Dawid Malan boosted his Test claims as England struggled to 278/8 on the opening day of their four-day match against a Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide on Wednesday. The Middlesex left-hander hit 63 in a disciplined 128-ball innings before a rare rush of blood cost him his wicket, attempting to cut through point only to be caught at slip in the final over of the pink ball day-night match. But Malan has probably done enough to cement his place at No5 for the Ashes opener in Brisbane after his second half-century in consecutive innings. Opener Mark Stoneman (61) and skipper Joe Root (58) made good starts, but former captain Alastair Cook failed again with just 15. "Some of the dismissals we had today were a touch on the sloppy side, so it was a little bit frustrating more than anything that we didn’t kick on and probably have a couple of hundreds scored out there today," Stoneman said. "Everyone got a bit of time in the middle, so that was encouraging, but we als...
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