The writing was on the wall and only a miracle could have saved England from the clutches of defeat. But that didn’t happen. After winning the first Ashes Test in Cardiff, England team came crashing down to a humiliating 405-run defeat in the second Test at the hands of their arch-rivals Australia at Lord’s. It all happened within four days. A dangerous Australian pace attack – spearheaded by Mitchell Johnson — ripped out a weak England for 103 in the second innings.
Incidentally, this was Australia’s third-highest victory margin against England in Tests and also England’s fourth heaviest loss by runs to any team. Earlier, Australia started the proceedings with a lead of 362 runs and 10 wickets and eventually set a winning target of 509 runs after declaring their second innings on a score of 254 for two. Thereafter, the Australian pace battery took over and carved through the England top-order. It was really shocking for those who had gathered at Lord’s on Sunday, hoping for an England fight-back. It turned out to be damned squib after the hosts were in tatters on 64 for five at tea.
At the start of the impossible chase, Adam Lyth (7), Alastair Cook (11) and Gary Ballance (14) were back in the pavilion in no time. Lyth repeated his first innings error of judgment. He chased and nicked a wide delivery from left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc to end his stay at the middle. His dismissal was the starting point of England’s dramatic collapse. Soon Bell followed his other dismissed teammates while Ben Stokes forgot to ground his bat while stealing a run and was adjudged run-out.
A hungry Johnson once again rose to the occasion to fire all cylinders. He continues with his deadly spell to dismiss Jos Buttler for 11 right after the tea break while Moeen Ali was out in the same over. Most surprisingly, the highest scorer for England in the second innings was Stuart Broad, who did a reasonable job to compile 25 runs. England vice-captain Joe Root tried to display some courage, but the Australian bowlers were too good.
The visitors were in a spot of bother when Chris Rogers had to retire from the field when on 49 as he suffered a dizzy spell. He could only add five runs to his overnight score. But the rest of his teammates – David Warner and Steven Smith (Man of the match) – ensured that their team was way ahead of England. Smith, who dazzled with his career best Test score of 215 in the first innings, plundered another 58 runs in the second. He will again be playing a very important role in the third Test match against the home team from July 29 onwards at Birmingham.
