Another lively day at Bellerive Oval offered excellent value for money in a fast-moving contest which appears to be leading towards the home side completing a 4-0 series triumph.

A century for a home batsman, wickets for the big quicks, great catches, unfulfilled visiting batters and even a hugely unnecessary English top-order run-out - this is surely what the fans hoped for when they jumped online to secure their tickets just a couple of weeks ago.

Continuing the theme of the entire series, scoreboard pressure proved too much for the tourists' batters who were again found wanting in alien conditions.

On a dramatic day which saw a venue record 17 wickets fall and not a single over of spin bowled, Australia battled to 303 all out, dismissed England for 188 and then made their way to 3-37 at stumps for an overall lead of 152 runs.

With Australia resuming at 6-241, the day two plot remained as entertaining as its predecessor with wickets and boundaries aplenty.

The ploy of Mark Wood trying to bounce out the tail was responsible for both eventualities as the quick returned enigmatic figures of 3-115.

Mitchell Starc (three) and Pat Cummins (two) pulled out to Rory Burns and Zak Crawley respectively at deep square leg - the latter becoming the first fielder to take four catches in a Hobart Test match.

But the tactic backfired on Nathan Lyon who played the same shot but with superior technique and conviction as he recorded a quarter of his Test match maximums in the space of seven deliveries, all landing in the vicinity of a delighted Bellerive Hill.

And when Alex Carey (24) was bowled by Chris Woakes (2-64), last man Scott Boland (10 not out) gave the crowd even more to cheer by edging his first Test boundary through gully then claiming a far more composed second via mid-wicket two balls later.

Another Lyon slog just eluded rampaging wicket-keeper Sam Billings to bring up the team 300 shortly before Stuart Broad (3-59) located his off bail for a valuable 31.

Less surprisingly, the slapstick theme continued when England went into bat, opener Burns run out for a duck by an alert and athletic Marnus Labuschagne off Australia's 10^th delivery.

Captain Cummins (4-45) then ripped into the top order as Crawley (18), Dawid Malan (25) and Joe Root (34) all failed to capitalise on starts.

When the last of that trio fell - again well short of his elusive maiden Aussie century after another barrage of body blows - England were 4-81.

Australia had been 4-83 a day earlier. However, the prospect of the tourists producing a 121-run fifth-wicket partnership - as the Aussies had - was somewhat less likely. They fell 117 short as an excellent Lyon catch at point saw Ben Stokes complete a mini-collapse of 3-7.

Woakes made the most of being dropped by both David Warner and Usman Khawaja in the slips by rattling up his team's biggest contribution of 36 featuring five fours, plenty of edges through the slips and England's solitary six before falling to a combination of Starc (3-53), Carey and a canny DRS review.

England's ineptitude was best summed up by Broad recording a four-ball duck and being lucky to last that long.

Required to bat for a tricky final hour, Australia stumbled to stumps, losing Khawaja (11), Labuschagne (five) and Warner to a pair courtesy of a superb gully catch by Ollie Pope and, predictably, the bowling of his nemesis Broad.