Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sun shines at Lord's on England as Australia fall under dark batting clouds of their own making: Ashes 2013 T2 D2

England 361(100.1ov, Bell 109, Bairstow 67, Trott 58, Harris 26-6-72-5, Smith 3/18)
 & 3/31 (20ov, Siddle 3/4) lead Australia 128 (53.30v, Watson 30, Swann 21.3-5-44-5) by 264 runs with seve 2nd inns wickets in hand; T2/5 D2/5 at Lord's, London.

Make no mistake about this: England may have lost 6 wickets on the day, but Australia lost ( or surrendered) 10 for a paltry response which has almost certainly left the Ashes in England's grasp.

The England last wicket wagged a bit - Stuart Broad 33/29b/1x6,5x4 and Graeme Swann 28*/26b/5x4, adding a handy 48 for the last wicket. 

When Australia batted Shane Watson and Chris Rogers initially held a feisty England attack at bay without troubling the scorers much. Then Watson played some exquisite off drives to move to 30 before he fell lbw (confirmed by review) to Tim Bresnan on the stroke of lunch. 

Australia 1/42 at lunch self-destructed to 7/96 at tea. 

It pains me to describe the dismal sequence of events, so I won't, except to draw attention to the bizarre lbw decision ( not reviewed) against Rogers: a loose, dropping full toss from Swann (which if bowled by a subcontinental bowler would surely have raised eyebrows among those concerned about spot betting). It wasn't out, but there was no review as Australia (no names mentioned here) frittered away its DRS opportunities.

Enough said...for now.

<a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/engine/match/566933.html">Scorecard</a>






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