The Ashes: Australia motor towards Second Test victory on ominous day for England
t took 12 days for Australia to retain the Ashes on home soil 18 months ago, and while nothing so definitive has occurred here yet, only eight days into this series, it is starting to drift ominously the same way.
After three days of the Lord’s Test, the tourists are in control, 221 runs ahead with effectively seven second innings wickets still in hand and firm favourites to go 2-0 up in the series and leave Ben Stokes needing to lead the kind of comeback that has been conjured only once in the rivalry’s history.
Where England were wasteful, a brainless period on the second evening squandering a well-laid platform and setting a wobbly one for today’s dismal collapse, Usman Khawaja, in particular, was diligent, riding his luck at times, but showing the same blend of class and resolve as at Edgbaston to reach an early close unbeaten, with 58 of his side’s 132 for two.
England will not feel goosed quite yet, particularly in the knowledge that Australia have no Nathan Lyon to turn to in the fourth innings, the spinner on crutches with his series in doubt after injuring his calf on day two. There is the memory of Headingley 2019 to call on, and a few from last summer, too, when England won four games in a row chasing to kickstart the Bazball era. That culminated at Edgbaston against India, when Stokes’s side reeled in a record 378 only three men down looking like they could have chased anything.
To win here and level the series, they may yet have to.
That is largely thanks to this morning’s slump, when, seeking parity, England lost their final six wickets for 46 runs. Harry Brook joined an already infamous list of short-ball gullibles as Australia were left an improbable first innings lead of 91, one soon being extended despite the native weather gods continuing their bias as conditions once again swung the home team’s way.
In battling through, did Australia do what England simply refuse to and leave ego out of it? Or was this theirs on full display? Pat Cummins prides his team on holding more humility than so many of its predecessors and had England shown anything like as much respect to the circumstances this Test could look quite different.
With Josh Tongue’s latest dismissal of David Warner the sole breakthrough, by mid-afternoon, England needed lifting. Lord’s though, was flat, this ground, for all its history and tradition – and probably because of it – about as unpartisan a home venue as there is in world sport.
Ben Stokes was gone in the first over of the day
/ Getty ImagesStuart Broad, earlier pinged behind the jaw by a vicious Cameron Green bouncer, had no sense of theatre on which to thrive, though he did his best to create some of his own with three wild appeals against Marnus Labuschagne either side of tea. All three were ignored, the first two correctly, but Brendon McCullum’s raised finger on the balcony confirmed that on the third occasion the boy crying wolf had been right.
Even so, Labuschagne continues to look well short of his best, the already large gap between his achievements at home and away widening with each passing Test and his eventual dismissal, for an unconvincing 30, was almost as tame as some of England’s with Anderson finally in the game as the batter poked him straight to Brook. The prize wicket of Steve Smith before close might have sharpened England’s belief but, while never comfortable in the gloom, the first innings centurion survived until drizzle and darkness came to his aid.
Earlier, Stokes, the one batter to show some nous in that spell, had gone without just desserts, undone by a brilliant second ball of the day from Mitchell Starc and another catch for Cameron Green’s already overflowing scrapbook. Harry Brook, though, was out for 50 to a shot just as ill-advised as several of those he had already gotten away with, while Jonny Bairstow was like a man caught between two bus stops as he chipped tamely to mid-on.
With Lyon out, conventional wisdom would have put a premium on batting time and dragging Australia’s seamers into deep waters. Instead, England’s innings had been wrapped up inside 90 minutes, six wickets costing just 46 runs, two of those falling to Travis Head in a timely confidence boost to the part-time spinner, who may yet have a significant role to play.
