Ashes 2009, England v Australia, 2nd Test, Day 2 Report
Australia still behind 70 runs to avoid the follow-on and might be facing a 75-year unbeaten at Lord’s record defeat from England who have absolutely turned things around in this 2nd nPower Test. England have exhaustively dominated the first two days and yet looks even more promising for the next few days to come. Yesterday was all about Andrew Strauss, today it was James Anderson who led from the front, first by frustrating Australia’s bowlers and then with four important wickets. Andrew Flintoff bowled a fast and fiery spell and apart from Katich and Hussey, the Australians haven’t looked effective at the crease. England have put themselves in a position of supremacy which can lead to their victory this weekend.
Morning session: England made a fortunate start to their 2nd day’s play when Andrew Strauss gave his wicket away to the second ball of the morning to Hilfenhaus on 161 and then they lost Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad in short-order. Apart from that England finished off their 1st innings in style when James Anderson and Graham Onions made a devastated last wicket stand of 47 and ended their 1st innings at 425. First Anderson completely frustrated Australia’s bowlers when he scored 29 from 25 balls, his highest score against Australia. Anderson wasn’t quite done yet, bowled a magnificent spell to Australia’s first innings where he took two important wickets in the morning session just before lunch and put Australia in a very uncomfortable position on 22/2.
Lunch: Australia – 22/2 in 12.0 overs (SM Katich 8, MEK Hussey 4) trail England by 403 runs
After lunch, heavens opened and left players with seventeen overs in the session. Simon Katich and Mike Hussey were the batsmen who opened the lunch session and played some good cricket. As from the bowling department, Anderson bowled without any reward while Flintoff didn’t feature at all. Then there was yet another rain interruptions. In the final part of this session, Strauss puts Stuart Broad and Graham Onions. Broad continued his trend from Cardiff where he bowled too many boundary-balls while Onions was more accurate but couldn’t break 2nd pair of Australia’s batting attack. Australia added 65 runs on no wicket, a sign of return for the Australians.
Tea: Australia – 87/2 in 29.0 overs (SM Katich 40, MEK Hussey 37) trail England by 338 runs
What a Catch! A stunner from Broad. A very successful breakthrough for the England when Onions broke the 93 runs partnership of this 3rd wicket pair on 103/3 when Katich top-edged and Broad ran 10 yards to his right before diving, taking it low. After Hussey reached his fifty, he received a 95.1mph delivery from Flintoff which took away his off stump which held its line and smashed the top of off 111/4. This was the second spell of Flintoff in this session where he cross minded Hussey and made him pay for it. The destruction wasn’t completely done yet. Anderson returned alongside with Broad where they took 4 wickets to almost end the Australian innings. Anderson returned to nip out Michael Clarke and Marcus North. Broad finally found some bouncers which helped England to remove the dangerous duo of Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson. Just before England wanted to finish off Australia, bad light stopped play and that was the end of this 2nd day’s play. A very different end to a day when Australia were at 87/2 and they could have actually get in the game but after seeing tremendous blow from the England seamers this match have completely changed his destiny. A big disappointment for Australia who lost 6 wickets in 94 balls.
End Of Day: Australia – 156/8 in 49.0 overs (NM Hauritz 3, PM Siddle 3) trail England by 269 runs
