The Ashes 2013: 5th Test, Day 2 - Flops of the day

Chris Woakes looks dejected during day two of the 5th Ashes Test  at the Oval on August 22, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

Australia raced away to a mammoth total of 492 on the second day of the fifth and final Ashes Test against England. Now, without taking anything away from the batsmen, it was the lack of penetration that hurt the hosts the most.

After Shane Watson‘s massive century on the first day, one would have expected the English to come back stronger and knock the Aussies for less than 400. The murky, overcast conditions should have ideally helped the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Here are the flops of the day:

Stuart Broad (1/128 in 31 overs)

The blond-haired pacer managed to get the wicket of Watson with a bouncer towards the end of the first day’s play. It was to be his only success in the first innings as the likes of Steve Smith, Peter Siddle and James Faulkner thumped him for many boundaries. Faulkner, in particular, belted him for 15 runs in a 16-run over, which included three fours.

Australia have been targeting Broad ever since he refused to walk after having edged the ball to slip in the first Test. Coach Darren Lehmann publicly called for the Aussie fans to sledge the young all-rounder during the return series in November and make him cry.

The tall pacer would do well if he put them in their place with the sort of inspired spell that fetched him 11 wickets in the fourth Test.

Chris Woakes (1/96 in 24 overs)

The right-arm medium bowler, who had a less-than-impressive debut on the first day, suffered at the hands of Smith and briefly from Faulkner as well. He did pick up the latter as his maiden Test wicket, but toiled without success for much of the rain-shortened second day.

Perhaps it wasn’t quite the time for him to make his entry into the oldest form of cricket. He may need to return to the county arena and play some more five-day games in order to get used to the rigours of the longest format.

Graeme Swann (2/95 in 33 overs)

It’s not very often that you get to see the world’s best off-spinner toil hard for two days and get only two wickets. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened with Swann.

The wily bowler, who dismissed Chris Rogers on first day, only managed to add Mitchell Starc to his tally, and also suffered the ignominy of being tonked for a couple of huge sixes by Australia’s number ten Ryan Harris.

Now, it was bad enough that Watson and Smith had already hit him for sixes, but when a tail-ender did that, Swann must have realised he was enduring yet another tough day at the office. Knowing his fighting spirit, though, it’s only a matter of time before he returns to his wicket-taking best.