Australia cashed in on England’s scrappy showing with the ball, reaching 339/5 on Day 1 of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.
England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and rightly asked Australia to bat in overcast conditions. In other words, there was cloud cover almost during the entire day’s play on Wednesday, but England’s quicks failed to exploit such favourable conditions.
It certainly was a missed opportunity as far as England were concerned. But Australia, led by Steve Smith (85 batting), Travis Head (77) and David Warner (66), who gave the visitors the start they needed, ensured to take full advantage of England’s sloppy bowling to have Australia strongly placed going into Day 2.
Warner and Usman Khawaja earlier shared a gritty opening partnership of 73 on an eventful morning. The openers watched on as Just Stop Oil protesters sprayed orange powder on to the outfield — with wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow carrying off one of them 50m back to the boundary — and after another rain delay, negotiated probing spells from James Anderson and Stuart Broad quite well.
Warner reached his 50 by hooking Ashes debutant Josh Tongue for a six before Khawaja was bowled by the young Worcestershire fast bowler for 17 just before lunch. Both the openers were also dropped at the slip cordon. While Khawaja offered a sharp chance to Joe Root, Warner was dropped by Ollie Pope.
Warner lived dangerously after lunch, particularly against Tongue who continued his impressive spell by bowling the left-hander through the gates for 66 with a fine swinging-in delivery, reducing Australia to 96/2 from 73/0.
But Smith and Marnus Labuschagne guided Australia to 190/2 at tea, riding largely on plenty of freebies on offer from Broad, Ollie Robinson and captain Stokes. Smith, in particular, did play some delightful off-drives, but the English bowlers too erred by over-pitching on several occasions.
Both Smith and Labuschagne, however, overturned their caught-behind and lbw decisions, respectively, off Broad with the help of the DRS in the post-lunch session. After wearing down the England attack, Labuschagne fell early in the final session off Robinson, missing out on a half-century.
England were doing better with the ball during that period of play. But Head’s aggressive batting quickly helped Australia regain the momentum. And Head too was greeted with stuff that were either too full or too short, enabling the left-hander to feast on them.
After his 102-run third-wicket stand with Labuschagne, Smith featured in another century-plus (118) stand with Head as it seemed Australia were running away with the game. Thankfully, Joe Root’s part-time off-spin sent Head and Cameron Green back in the same over that gave England just a bit of relief.
