Lunch Australia 128 and 48 for 3 (Clarke 11*, Khawaja 8*, Swann 2-10) need 535 runs to beat England361 and 349 for 7 dec (Root 180, Bell 74, Siddle 3-65)
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
| |||
Australia found no escape from their first-innings horrors when they batted a second time in the second Investec Test at Lord's. Bundled out for 128 first time around, they were in disarray at 48 for 3 at lunch as they faced an entirely notional 583 to win.
No side has ever scored 583 in the fourth innings to win a first-class match and, more relevantly, only one Test side has ever survived for 173 overs or more to draw a match. That was England against South Africa in Durban in 1939, when a Timeless Test was abandoned after nine days so England could catch a boat home.
Australia are on a boat to nowhere in this series, lacking the quality of batsmen to challenge England consistently. Shane Watson, Chris Rogers and Phil Hughes all departed by lunch as England anticipated a four-day finish.
Graeme Swann led England's victory push, to nobody's great surprise, relishing a wearing pitch which offered occasional sharp turn and bounce out of the footholds. Expectation of turn was enough to befuddle Rogers, who left a straight one, and Hughes, who reviewed his lbw decision, only to be reminded that, in these days of DRS, lbws are possible for offspinners operating around the wicket, even if they do not straighten the ball.
Before then, Watson fell in his accustomed manner, with an lbw from James Anderson. It was not the embarrassing exit of the first innings, when he planted his front pad and whipped across one, and then compounded the error by wasting a review when stone dead. This time he was more respectably beaten by a ball that nipped back and, aware that there was no chance of a reprieve, shook his head mournfully at his batting partner, Rogers, and walked off.
Michael Clarke, coming in at No 5, faced a familiar story: 36 for 3. The cricketing argument for him to bat at No 4 is offset by the statistical evidence that when he does so it halves his average. He might have departed before lunch, too, when he came down the pitch to Swann, was beaten on the outside edge by one that did not turn, only for Matt Prior, equally deceived, to miss the stumping.
There was some hope for England's pace bowlers, too, Broad getting one ball to break through the dry surface, as a decent Test pitch began to deteriorate.
England indulged in another 18 minutes batting on the fourth morning at Lord's, presumably with the intention of trying to give Joe Root his 200, before declaring upon his dismissal. He faced only three balls, adding two to his overnight score, in what, in terms of the position of the game, was a pointless prelude to the day.
It is a fair bet that no England opening batsman has ever fallen in an Ashes Test attempting a shovel shot in the first half-hour of the day, with nine fielders on the boundary, but that was the manner of Root's departure as he overbalanced against Ryan Harris and was caught at third man.
Harris took the first wicket of the morning when Jonny Bairstow edged to Brad Haddin. But there was no joy for Ashton Agar, who dropped a simple return catch off Prior as he lost the ball in the background.
0 comments:
Post a Comment