England repaid Australia with short-ball bowling and snared three wickets to rein in the visitors on the fourth morning of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s on Saturday. (More Cricket News)
Overnight batters Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith, followed by Travis Head, were dismissed in a half-hour period after drinks. By lunch, Australia was 222-5 in its second innings and leading by a solid 313 runs.
But England hopes were revived.
The bowlers resorted to the short ball to try and break up Khawaja and Smith, who were cruising and unconcerned. They took Australia from 130-2 overnight to 187.
England set the trap with six fielders behind square.
The batters resisted the temptation to pull and hook until the first over after drinks, also Stuart Broad’s first over of the day.
Khawaja top-edged Broad to substitute fielder Matthew Potts at fine leg. Khawaja’s 188-ball stay ended with him on 77.
Head came in and was dropped, first ball, by James Anderson at gully. Anderson dropped a catch off a Josh Tongue delivery for the second time in the innings.
But on the next ball, Smith steered Tongue straight to Zak Crawley at deep backward square. Smith doubled over before the catch, knowing he’d made a bad choice on 34.
Head then fended off a Broad bumper and Joe Root, at short leg, made a brilliant one-handed catch low to his left. Head was gone for 7.
The catch gave Root the most in England’s Test history. His 176th catch left behind a tie with Alastair Cook.
Cameron Green took 15 balls to get off the mark and he hit the last two balls before lunch to the boundary by Broad to go to the break on 15. Alex Carey had 10.
Compared to the second hour, the first hour at Lord’s had all the tension of a village cricket match.
Determined and focused, Khawaja and Smith were given nothing to be scared of, and England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow returned to his untidy habits from Edgbaston.
Smith hit Anderson out of the attack with three boundaries in one over; two cover drives and a cut behind point. He even tried to clobber Ollie Robinson with a tennis-type smash that put him on his back.
Khawaja anchored a third straight 60s partnership.
Tired of making nothing happen, the English changed to short-pitched bowling, which Australia used to unravel their first innings.
It worked.
