With an overnight score of 85 for four, England had tremendous pressure of keeping the Australian bowlers at bay in the first hour of play on Day Three of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s. In the end, only two batsmen from the home team showed courage to hang in there.
One was Alastair Cook (96) and second was middle-order batsman Ben Strokes (87). Still, their efforts weren’t big enough to save the follow-on. The hosts were short by 254 runs in the first innings after getting all out for 312 in reply to Australia’s 566 runs.
In the second innings too, the script remained more or less the same. Before the stumps were drawn, Australia continued their dominance in the Test match and were 108 without loss. This time, David Warner didn’t lose his wicket early. He is still at the crease with dependable Chris Rogers.
In total, the visitors are ahead of England by 362 runs and 10 wickets. They will be looking to add at least more than 100 runs, if not more, before declaring their second innings. And the Australian bowlers will probably get a little more than a four sessions to skittle out England and level the five-Test match series 1-1.
But as they say, the match isn’t over till it’s no over. England are already one-up in the series after beating the Aussies by 169 runs in the opening Test match of the series in Cardiff. From there, Australia have come a long way and showing great stomach to fight and undone their previous match mistakes.
In fact, Michael Clarke and his men are the best in the business and they can’t afford to stay behind their arch-rivals at any cost. There is a tremendous self-belief, which is driving this Australian team.
Their top order batsmen have lived upto their reputation, and most importantly, their fast bowlers are in form. Between these two teams, the ones with the best fast bowling figures have always crossed the line successfully. At least, the history of Ashes suggests so.
With the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh showing great run with the ball, England really have a mountain.
