Australia fall for identical short-ball lure as England battle again at Lord’s
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ustralia’s batters adopted England’s lead in succumbing to a focused short-ball ploy on the fourth morning of the Second Ashes Test at Lord’s.
The vacationers are trying to construct a sizeable lead following England’s collapse on day three and carried it past 300, however solely after dropping Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and the damaging Travis Head earlier than lunch as the house facet fought again.
Resuming on 130 for 2, 221 runs forward, Smith and Khawaja largely cruised by way of a sedate first hour earlier than the sport sprung to life after drinks.
Stuart Broad made the breakthrough, with Khawaja out for 77 within the seamer’s first over as he picked out substitute fielder Matthew Potts within the deep.
Next man in Head was gifted a reprieve on nought when James Anderson dropped a easy probability at gully, the 40-year-old having additionally put Khawaja down on 19 on the earlier night.
Instead, Head escaped with a single to get off the mark, handing the strike to Smith. That, because it turned out, was a blessing for England, the primary innings centurion hooking the very subsequent ball from Josh Tongue straight to Zak Crawley. It was the third time in as many innings this summer season that Tongue had claimed the Australian’s wicket, following the primary dig right here and Smith’s County Championship debut for Sussex towards Worcestershire.
With Ollie Pope once more off the sphere after aggravating a shoulder damage on Friday afternoon, Joe Root was pressured underneath the lid at short-leg and produced a surprising one-handed catch to dismiss Head for simply 7 and provides Broad his second wicket.
The fall of wickets additionally stemmed the movement of runs and by the tip of an prolonged morning session, Australia had added solely 92 to their in a single day rating to steer by 313 with 5 wickets in hand however a kind of – Nathan Lyon – not anticipated to bat as a consequence of a calf damage.