Ashes 2019, 2nd Test, Day 2: Clinical bowling display from Australia puts England on the backfoot
After a euphoric World Cup victory, England were in for a rude awakening in the first Ashes Test match at Edgbaston. Steven Smith's twin centuries and Nathan Lyon's magnificent six-wicket haul in the second innings resulted in a convincing win for Australia who took a 1-0 lead in the series.
Coming into the second Test match at Lord's, Australia decided to rotate their fast bowlers by resting James Pattinson and getting in Josh Hazlewood, who has had enormous success at this venue in the past.
Undoubtedly, the biggest talking point ahead of the match was the debut of Jofra Archer, who replaced an injured James Anderson. Left-arm spinner Jack Leach, who was fantastic in the one-off Test at the same venue against Ireland, replaced an out-of-form Moeen Ali.
Tim Paine won the toss and decided to put the English batsmen in to bat in favorable bowling conditions. Hazlewood got down to business right away, dismissing Jason Roy for a duck and Joe Root for 14. England were sinking fast and needed someone to steady the ship.
Opener Rory Burns did exactly that as he backed up his gritty 133 from the first Test match with a crucial 53 in this game. He was aided by two dropped chances - one from Usman Khawaja on 9 and then from Paine on 47.
The pitch at Lord's was rather two-paced. Lots of balls kept low and some jumped up off a length, making life difficult for the batsmen. Determined and consistent bowling from Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon ensured no English batsman could amass a big score.
England were eventually dismissed for 258, 30-40 runs short of a par score on this surface.
Australia had to bat out 13 overs at the fag end of the day in quite challenging conditions. Stuart Broad castled David Warner for just three runs to get the ball rolling for England. However, they could make no further inroads as Khawaja and Cameron Bancroft played out a rather tough last hour.
Australia ended day two on 30/1, trailing England by 228 runs. They will certainly be the happier of the two teams heading into day three of what promises to be a scintillating Test match.
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