The Ashes: 2nd Test Review

After a worrying first hour on day 1 of the 2nd Ashes Test at Lords, England dominated Australia in what turned out to be a very one-sided match. England won the toss, elected to bat, and found themselves at 28-3 after some impressive fast-bowling from Ryan Harris, who had been brought into the Australian team to replace Mitchell Starc, removed Cook, Root and Pietersen in the space of 11 balls.

With the new ball moving around in the air, a repeat of the frantic first day at Trent Bridge (which included 14 wickets) looked a definite possibility, but a strong partnership from Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell saw off the Aussie threat. A particularly fluent innings of 58 was ended when he played a Harris

ball on leg stump straight into the hands of Usman Khawaja at deep square leg. An equally strong fifth-wicket partnership of 144 between Bell and Jonny Bairstow furhter helped to recover England’s position, and other than a run-out chance, Ian Bell gave the Australian’s no opportunities as he scored a second century in as many innings. With Bairstow also getting a decent half century, Michael Clarke took a risk by giving Steve Smith (the part-time leg spinner who hadn’t bowled in the 1st test) a chance to bowl. The gamble paid off as he dismissed Bairstow, Bell and Matt Prior in quick succession at the end of the 1st day.

England were dismissed at the beginning of the 2nd day, after a decent last-wicket partnership between Stuart Broad (33) and Graeme Swann (28*), for a score of 361, a fairly good score considering their poor start. Ryan Harris was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 5-72.

Comments

comments