Australia stretched its lead to 172 runs against England for the loss of David Warner’s wicket by tea on day three Friday of the second Ashes Test. (More Cricket News)
With a first-innings lead of 91, Australia crawled to 81-1 in its second innings.
Usman Khawaja was on 45 and Marnus Labuschagne on 8 after overturning a leg before decision against him on 3.
Until Warner was leg before wicket to Josh Tongue, Lord’s had grown quiet after lunch as he and Khawaja handled difficult batting conditions superbly.
The floodlights could only partly leaven the gloomy skies as the wind picked up with a threat of drizzle.
The stickability of Khawaja and Warner in a stand of 63 from 24 overs was in stark contrast to England’s performance in the morning, when only Jonny Bairstow and Stuart Broad scored more than 10 runs of the seven batters on show. England slumped from 278-4 overnight to 325 all out before lunch.
But the home bowlers couldn’t make the same breakthroughs that Australia’s did in the morning.
England thought it had Warner trapped lbw for 5 by James Anderson but burned a review when video showed ball hitting bat.
Warner was content to bat out of his crease against the medium-pace of Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson but struggled to score.
Meanwhile, Khawaja was scoring, and the only nick he conceded flew through a gap between second and fourth slip.
Tongue’s extra pace made him the biggest threat. He could have had Khawaja on 19 but the crack through midwicket passed between Anderson’s fingers.
Tongue took out both openers among his first three Ashes wickets in the first innings and got Warner again when he made one nip into the front pad. After making 25 from 76 balls, Warner reviewed, but the ball would have hit leg stump.
Labuschagne was also given out to Tongue, who struck his back pad, but the batter’s review showed the ball was missing the off stump.
