Australia build sizeable lead after Bazball backfire

In keeping with the ever-shifting narrative of this Ashes series, Australia finished day three of the second Test with the game back in their hands after the arrival of better bowling conditions saw England fall and then stumble.

Bowled out for 325 and 91 runs in arrears due to a horror lower-order collapse, England's hopes of making the best of the ominous 'overheads' met the immovable object of Usman Khawaja who led Australia to 2-130 before rain foreshortened the day almost an hour before the scheduled time for stumps.

With two days remaining and more cloudy, humid weather forecast for at least Saturday, Australia hold a 221-run lead with effectively seven wickets in hand given hobbled spinner Nathan Lyon would seem unlikely to bat given his significant leg injury.

Only three times in the 140-year history of Test matches at Lord’s has a team chased more than 221 in the fourth innings to win but, tellingly, one of those was England in their first outing under their current leadership and ethos when they rattled on 5-279 inside 80 overs to defeat New Zealand last year.

Standing resolute against the pronounced swing and constant seam movement gained by England's quicks throughout the afternoon, Khawaja finished the day 58 not out having been granted a life on 19 and will resume with first innings century maker Steve Smith who is unbeaten on six.

An hour before stumps on day two, as Lyon hobbled towards the dressing room and seemingly out of the series with a badly damaged right calf, Australia appeared bereft of ideas and similarly light on for options with their four seamers unable to find any assistance from the Lord's pitch.

But that picture changed late in the day when England threw away three top-order wickets, and became almost unrecognisable by lunch on day three with the visitors banking a 91-run first-innings lead and back at the batting crease.

While yesterday's series of self-inflicted wounds highlighted the profligate side of 'Bazball', today underscored the disparity between the teams when batting becomes difficult under slate-grey skies and fading light.

Prior to the first session of day three at Lord's, the only occasion England have faced the conspiratorial culmination of 'overheads' was the 20-minute session before a storm broke over Edgbaston last week, during which they lost both openers before rain arrived and the sky then cleared.

But the contrast between this morning's batting effort and the carefree manner England attacked their job in the balmy sun of Thursday evening suggests it will be conditions as much as individual combatants that decides this Ashes battle.

Facing Australia's quicks with a full head of steam and an enlivened pitch, England began the day disastrously and never recovered to cough up 6-47 from 92 deliveries today, at the very un-Bazball rate of barely three runs per over.

That carnage culminated with abject surrender from their lengthy tail, the last three wickets tumbling for a single run in eight balls after Broad copped a brutish blow to the chin and a group decision was seemingly made that batting was an unnecessary lark.

By winding up their innings inside a session, England got their much-loved crack at Australia's openers for 20 minutes before lunch with the ball hooping about in the near-darkness, but failed to find a breakthrough.

Broad came close on several occasions as he threatened the edge of Warner's bat, but from the final ball of the session the opener punched his nemesis through cover for four and had already passed his batting partner en route to the pavilion and lunch before it crashed into the rope.

England were convinced they had their man (for five) immediately upon resumption, but instead lost one of their three reviews when James Anderson's insistent call for lbw was shown to have rebounded off Warner's inside edge upon closer examination.

Anderson's frustration was compounded six overs later when Khawaja (on 19) pulled a ball at head height to him at square leg off Josh Tongue only to have the chance burst through his hands and run to the boundary rope.

The opening pair endured beyond drinks and extended Australia's lead past 150 before Warner fell to Tongue for the second time in the match, trapped lbw to the surprise of the left-hander who had immediately reviewed the call convinced it was sliding past leg stump.

Batting was becoming increasingly fraught as the light dimmed further and the ball swung appreciably, and Marnus Labuschagne lived dangerously against the ever-present threat posed by England's veteran new-ball pair Anderson and Broad.

On three, he was adjudged lbw to Tongue by umpire Ahsan Raza but, having taken all but three seconds of his available time to lodge a review, was spared when ball tracking confirmed the ball was missing leg.

Having progressed his score to eight, Labuschagne was again subjected to a frenzied appeal from Broad who was convinced he had grazed the outside edge but Stokes opted not to review, which proved shrewd with no evidence bat had contacted ball.

 

Image Id: 89396A3C07F84229A57916402C557EB7 Image Caption: It was another fascinating battle between Stuart Broad and Marnus Labuschagne // Getty

 

Next ball, the last before tea, Broad was similarly unequivocal Labuschagne was lbw having walked across his stumps before being hit low on the front pad but Stokes's wisdom again prevailed when the umpire's verdict of 'missing leg' was shown to be correct.

By this stage, both ageless seamers were threatening to claim a wicket almost every ball and Broad should have gained one when Labuschagne (on 20) was again pinned on the pads and the committee decision not to review proved errant as the ball would have hit leg stump.

The look of pained incredulity on Broad's face when his coach Brendon McCullum signalled from the viewing balcony they had missed a trick pretty much summed up England's day, which had begun with the promise of a first-innings lead.

With injured spinner Lyon propped up on crutches and out of the game, Australia's morning huddle was addressed by coach Andrew McDonald and skipper Pat Cummins as cloud increasingly built from the south-west.

Whatever was said clearly hit the mark, as did Mitchell Starc whose second ball of the day caught England skipper Ben Stokes unawares as it climbed from a length and squared him up.

The resulting leading edge flew at pace to the right of Cameron Green at gully who, in keeping with his reputation as the best cordon catcher in the game at present, clung on to his right in stark contrast to the almost identical offering shelled by England's Ollie Pope on the first morning.

As far as early strikes go, it could scarcely have been more symbolic.

Amid the chaos of Thursday evening, as England's top-order fell over themselves to surrender their wickets, Stokes emerged with an air of steely defiance, calmly ducking beneath the barrage of bouncers and occasionally wearing one on his person without so much as flinching.

He had clearly set himself to be the rock around which the turbulence of his 'Bazballers' swished and swirled, but his failure to add to his overnight score provided as much of a fillip for Australia as it did a setback for the hosts.

With the cloud exerting a greater influence, Starc and Cummins found life in the Lord's pitch that had been seemingly sapped out under the previous afternoon's sunshine when batting was comfortably at its best.

Despite the price paid by England's batters taking on the short-ball in that kamikaze session, Jonny Bairstow showed he wasn't prepared to pack away the pull shot and – on five – survived yet another miscue when his top-edge hung interminably in the air but fell safely between two fielders in the deep.

Soon after, the ever-enterprising Harry Brook – who had appeared a little more circumspect with conditions swinging in favour of the ball – was surprised by a lifting delivery from Cummins that flew above his forward press and clattered into his helmet grille.

The 24-year-old wunderkind was checked for, and cleared of, concussion symptoms and next ball reached his first half-century of the series – having passed 30 in all three times at bat – clipping Cummins behind square leg for a single.

However, the shock of that blow seemed to deliver a delayed outcome and the sight of Starc hurtling in amid the gathering gloom threw the right-hander into a panic.

Having stepped back to try and belt Australia's fastest bowler back over his head, only to bottom-edge the ball hard into the pitch, he tried an even more brazen counter-attack next delivery as he withdrew further towards the square leg umpire.

With a shot that might well rocket to the top of a list of England's ugly dismissals in this Test, Brook found the ball following him as he stepped away and his bid to carve away above the off-side field presented Cummins with a simple catch at extra cover, set slightly deeper for precisely that contingency.

By that point, Brook had become the fourth of England's five wickets to fall to injudicious strokes against short-pitched bowling, albeit the first to do so in front of the wicket.

It was as unfathomable as it was indefensible, given England's decision to overlook spin bowling allrounder Moeen Ali for this Test meant the in-form Bairstow was suddenly left with an elongated batting tail with his team still 123 runs adrift.

Bairstow's assignment had become even tougher as the light faded beneath the thick cloud, with the artificial illumination activated at the day's first drinks break with Australia successfully applying the brakes to the previous day's rampant run rate to concede just 33 in pocketing two big wickets in the opening hour.

With the lights blazing and a second new ball eight overs away, England seemed clearly of the view they would be better served bowling despite still facing a sizeable deficit.

But rather than risk copping another bake for declaring prematurely, they adopted another innovation that might best be described as 'tactical submission' that saw their final four wickets tossed away in as many overs.

Bairstow started the procession when he shanked a shot that more closely resembled a golf swing from the second ball after drinks, and gifted Cummins his second simple catch of the morning.

The hosts' appetite for batting reduced further when Broad was struck a frightening blow on the chin, from a Cameron Green bouncer that came from around the wicket and snuck beneath the tailender's protective grille.

It sent a clear message to Broad's batting partner Ollie Robinson to hit out or get out and, after a couple of lusty swings that delivered the former, he charged at Lyon's stand-in spin replacement Travis Head and comprehensively completed the latter.

Had keeper Alex Carey not hung on to the top edge off Robinson's bat that climbed towards his right shoulder, he would have found plenty of time to claim his fifth stumping of the series.

Four balls later, Broad aimed an ambitious sweep at Head and was immediately judged lbw by umpire Chris Gaffaney but – in keeping with his character as a compulsive reviewer with either bat or ball in hand – he sent it for further examination, which confirmed the initial prognosis.

And to complete England's capitulation, Cummins brought himself back into the attack with two overs remaining before the new ball and required just two deliveries to have Josh Tongue fending off his face to substitute fielder Matt Renshaw at short leg.

In all, England's demise had taken 90 minutes and – unlike the previous evening – was the product of persistently good bowling rather than a litany of rash strokes, specialist batters Brook and Bairstow being the obvious exceptions.

But of greater consequence, it meant from the time Ollie Pope cashed in his hand trying to slog Green out of the ground in prime batting time Thursday evening, they had surrendered 9-137 and a deficit of almost 100 runs having seemingly snuck ahead in the game.

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood