Weatherald strikes a Hendrix chord on another wild day of Test cricket

It was manic. It was chaotic. It was breathtaking. It was edge of your seat entertainment. It felt like what it must have been to be at a Hendrix concert. Probably the best compliment for how Weatherald orchestrated a sensational assault on the English bowlers and set up what should have been a dominance-establishing platform.
It's another Hendrix classic though that might be a bit more apt to the overall theme and tenor to proceedings on another awe-inspiring day of Test cricket in this Ashes series. For, it's safe to say that a majority of those who filled up the colour-coordinated expanses of the Gabba on Friday must have felt like they were sitting All Along A Watchtower.
As they tried to soak in and try to fathom what Test cricket really is, what it really can be or what it really has become. Amidst the utter pandemonium of what turned out to be Australia's fastest-scoring innings that went for 60 overs or more in their Test history. It did feel like an existential dilemma at times as Weatherald and Travis Head first got the home team off to a flyer, scoring at over run-a-ball for large parts of their opening partnership. Yes, this is the version of Test cricket that England have tried to popularise over the last few years. But Australia seemed to be the ones giving the struggling visitors a dose of their own medicine. But they were being helped along extensively by some rather ordinary bowling from the English as the pink ball went soft and the pitch continued to bake under the harsh Brisbane sun. Even while the English fast bowlers continued to get boiled in the humidity, their tops nearly see-through from sweat as they toiled away in the unforgiving conditions.
Starting with when Cameron Green decided to respond to England's non-threatening short-pitched ploy by exposing his stumps repeatedly and trying to access the vacant spaces on the off-side. Though he succeeded on a couple of occasions, it was a sudden shift to frantic energy that seemed fraught with great danger. Especially at a time when Green and his captain Steve Smith were rattling along at a rapid clip by playing percentage cricket.
They had England where they wanted them. Down on energy, their fuel tanks quickly nearing empty, and their bodies being dragged across the Gabba outfield. The road ahead seemed very straightforward. Dig in and bat through the night session, and then wear down the English further under the sun on the third day to bat them out of the game. Before unleashing Mitchell Starc with the new pink cherry under the lights.
It didn't mean that the Australians put their shutters down either, with Alex Carey walking out and making the most of his charmed life, dropped twice already, with a counterattack of sorts to help Australia finish the day ahead but not in as dominant a position as they could have been in.
It was a day when Australia did a lot right, and England did a lot wrong but both teams had moments which they won and lost to somehow keep the Test still alive. That is, if England are able to skittle out the last four Australian wickets quickly enough on Saturday afternoon.
To fully understand England's overall lack of penetration and bizarre tactics with the ball, except a couple of spells from Jofra Archer, and Australia's borderline kamikaze batting strategy that cost them some of their momentum, would be akin to getting your head around that other ultimate Hendrix epic, Purple Haze. A song that seemed to be well ahead of its time even if it never quite made sense as to why that was the case.